Yojimbo: Difference between revisions

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''Yojimbo'' -- more correctly Yōjinbō, meaning "bodyguard" -- is a 1961 [[Jidai Geki]] directed by [[Akira Kurosawa]], loosely based on [[Dashiell Hammett]]'s novel ''Red Harvest''. It stars [[Toshiro Mifune]] as wandering rōnin Sanjūrō, who arrives in a town beset by criminals and decides to clean the place up (apparently for fun). His method is simple, yet clever: he reduces the number of gangsters in the town by getting the two rival factions to go to war, then mops up the remainder. An enormously influential film, it has had at least two direct remakes -- [[Sergio Leone]]'s ''[[A Fistfulof Dollars]]'', and Walter Hill's ''[[Last Man Standing (Film)|Last Man Standing]]'' -- as well as homages in numerous other films and television shows. It was even used as the basis of [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/EP042 an episode] of the ''Pokémon'' anime.