Original title: 用心棒 / 椿三十郎
Year: 1961 / 1962
Country: Japan
Region Code: A/B/C
Content: 4K UHD
EAN: 5035673000113
Image: 2.35:1 (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision / HDR10
Audio:
Japanese - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Japanese - LPCM 1.0 Mono Audio
Subtitles: English
Age Rating: 12
Genre: Classic / Action / Drama
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Eijiro Tono, Takashi Shimura
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Synopsis:
Yojimbo
Like Seven Samurai (1954), Yojimbo was Kurosawa’s tribute to the widescreen action Westerns of John Ford and was itself remade as a Western by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars (1964). Played by the great Toshiro Mifune, the film’s enigmatic samurai is a scruffy and itinerant warrior who wanders into a strange town and right into the middle of a war between two clans. Showing his skills with the sword within minutes of his arrival, he soon has the town’s rival factions competing for his services.
Kurosawa’s genius for storytelling combines with thrilling swordplay, a healthy dose of black humour, a soundtrack every bit as atmospheric and amusing as Ennio Morricone’s, and a towering performance from Mifune, to make Yojimbo an irresistible widescreen action adventure.
Sanjuro
In response to the huge critical and commercial success of Yojimbo, Kurosawa and Mifune re-teamed a year later to make Sanjuro, a hilarious comedy of manners altogether more light-hearted than its predecessor.
The story has Sanjuro (Mifune) running lazy rings around nine naïve and clean-cut samurai and two genteel ladies, whilst also cleaning up a spot of corruption in local government. Whilst Kurosawa plays most of it for laughs, expertly parodying the conventions of Japanese period action films, he stages a startling switch of mood with an intense finale which may well be the briefest, and most breathtaking duel in all cinema.
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