History Film / Yojimbo

A year later it got a sequel titled ''Film/{{Sanjuro}}'', which is [[LighterAndSofter a bit more light-hearted]].

Not to be confused with ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo''.

* AxCrazy: Unosuke. Or rather, [[TriggerHappy Gun Crazy]]. He really likes his pistol.
* BittersweetEnding: The town is free of the gangs, but [[spoiler:thanks to how badly the war had escalated before the end, there isn't much ''left'' of the town, with the restaurateur and the cooper, and the DirtyCop Hansuke being the only depicted adult males still alive and sane]]. As for Sanjuro, [[spoiler:he may have conned some gold out of the gangs before wiping them out, but in the end he's still just a wandering rōnin with little to his name but the clothes on his back and the sword at his waist]].

* GunsAreWorthless: While it's a GameBreaker for most of the film, being a gunslinger doesn't mean much when [[spoiler: you've got a knife through the forearm of your shooting hand.]]

** [[spoiler:Kannuki tossing Sanjūrō around like a ragdoll during one of the torture sessions breaks the lock on a storage box. Sanjūrō hides in it to trick the guards into thinking that he has escaped, and then makes a break for it as they go on the hunt.]]

* AdaptationalHeroism: If taken as an adaptation of ''Red Harvest'' - Hammett's Continental Op has virtually none of Sanjuro's HiddenHeartOfGold moments, and sticks his neck out for pretty much nobody except himself.
* AnimalMotifs: Akira Kurosawa had this very clearly in mind. He told Toshiro Mifune to act like a stray dog, which is why he twitches his shoulders and scratches himself a lot during the film (see CharacterTics below). Kurosawa told Creator/TatsuyaNakadai (who played Unosuke) that his character was a snake, so Nakadai [[EvilSlinks moves very slitheringly]] and doesn't blink a whole lot.
* AntiHero: Sanjuro is a vicious and remorseless killer, and he spends most of the film conning money out of the two criminal gangs fighting over the DyingTown rather than actively trying to help. But he never turns his brutal talents on the innocent, he can't quite manage to snuff out a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold deep-seated sense of compassion beneath his callous exterior]] and abandon the helpless in need, and almost everyone he kills [[AssholeVictim really had it coming]].

* BadassBoast:
** Recently recovering from an injury, Sanjūrō is out to [[spoiler:rescue the innkeeper Gonbei from Unosuke's gang]]. When the sympathetic coffin-maker expressed doubt at the odds against him while he has a mere knife to fight with, Sanjūrō bellows: ''[[ItsPersonal I'll turn them into sashimi!]]''
-->"[[TheDeterminator I'm not dying yet. I have to kill a few more men first]]."
** And earlier, when he goes to [[spoiler:rescue Nui, he goes into the house where she is being kept under guard and then comes back out to tell Inokichi that all six guards are dead. After Inokichi leaves, one of the guards comes out to see what all the noise is.]] Sanjūrō wasn't a liar for long.
** And the coolest one of them all:
--> "I guess there is no cure for stupidity except for ''death.''"
* BatmanGambit: Sanjūrō is able to destroy the two rival gangs by exploiting their leaders' personalities and the fact that both of them desperately want his skills.
* BigBad: While Seibei is as evil as he is, Ushitora is the one who started the gang war.

* CharacterTics: Sanjūrō has a habit of keeping one hand inside of his clothing (often while [[ThinkingTic holding his chin]]). He also twitches his shoulders; the idea behind this is that he's like a wolf/dog and has fleas -- making him ''[[{{Pun}} a character with ticks]]''.
* ChekhovsGun:
** While Sanjuro mostly uses his sword to carve up his enemies, he also carries a knife in his belt. [[spoiler:It then becomes a {{subverted}} example when Ushitora's gang confiscates it after capturing him; however, the DoubleSubversion comes into play after Gonji hands Sanjuro a new knife, which allows him to use his [[ChekhovsSkill knife skills]] against Unosuke in the climatic duel.]]
** The coffin-maker sizes Sanjuro up and builds one for him prematurely; [[spoiler: it's this coffin that saves his life by allowing Gonji and said coffin-maker to smuggle him to safety after escaping from Ushitora's goons.]]

* TheChessmaster: Sanjuro plays both families against each other.

* DamselInDistress: Nui, who is first sold to Seibei as a concubine, then held hostage by Unosuke who has a VillainousCrush on her before needing to be saved by Sanjuro and re-united with her husband Kohei and their son.
* DeadpanSnarker: Sanjūrō, especially when talking to Ushitora's men.
--> '''Thug 1:''' If they catch me, they'll put my head on a pike. Not to brag, but I've committed every crime in the book.
--> '''Sanjūrō:''' So you wouldn't mind if I killed you?
--> '''Thug 2:''' Kill us if you can!
--> '''Sanjūrō:''' ''*shrugs*'' It'll hurt.

* TheDitz: Inokichi doesn't even know how to count with his fingers. [[spoiler:He later helps Sanjūrō escape from Ushitora's gang, involuntarily.]]

* TheDragon: Inokichi [[CoDragons and]] Unosuke to Ushitora. The latter is equipped with a brain, the former isn't.
* TheDrifter: Sanjuro. He comes across the town at random and leaves once his business is completed.
* DumbMuscle / FatIdiot: None of the thugs are up for Nobel Prizes any time soon but Inokichi really takes the cake; he can't add two and four together without using his fingers and his gullible nature saves Sanjuro multiple times.
* EvilMatriarch: Seibei's wife is the really nasty one in the family.

* FluffyTheTerrible: Unosuke is named after the rabbit but everyone sees him as a deadly snake even before he returns to town with a gun.
* GiantMook: Former pro wrestler Kannuki the Giant, one of Ushitora's mooks. None of the other {{Mook}}s even reach his shoulders and he wields a [[BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon big freakin]]' [[HumongousHeadedHammer mallet]].

* GuileHero:
** While Sanjūrō is more than capable of handling open conflicts, he spends most of the movie implementing {{Batman Gambit}}s against his enemies instead.
** Gonji displays this [[spoiler:when he has to hide and transport a seriously injured Sanjuro.]]

* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: {{Downplayed}}. Now a wandering rōnin looking for a job, Sanjuro was once a noble samurai who served the powerful Tokugawa shogunate. That said, Sanjuro doesn't seem to be ''too'' sad about his loss in status and is still strong enough to take on multiple opponents.
* ImprobableAimingSkills:
** Averted. [[spoiler:Unosuke can hit stationary targets just fine, but he misses badly in the climax when aiming at a moving Sanjūrō.]]
** Sanjūrō, on the other hand, is perfectly capable of hitting floating leaves with a thrown knife. [[spoiler: He uses said knife skills to disable Unosuke's gunhand during the film's climax.]]

* ISurrenderSuckers: Subverted. [[RevolversAreJustBetter Unosuke]] [[spoiler:is so far into his death throes]] that he can't even finish Sanjūrō off at point blank range, [[TheDarknessBeforeDeath complaining about not being able to see]]. Perhaps he also considered Sanjūrō a WorthyOpponent.

* ItAmusedMe: Although Sanjuro definitely has a certain ethical desire to aid the good and punish the wicked, he seems to be motivated a fair amount by this. He only got involved in the gang war by throwing a branch in the air and he is clearly amused by the prospect of earning a little cash while exterminating the two gangs by playing them against each other.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Sanjūrō. He's coarse, devious, treats the closest thing he has to friends like crap, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick kills a whole bunch of people]], but inserts himself into a mob war because it's the right thing to do, and saves several people from their own stupidity.
** Gonji is this as well. [[spoiler:He could have left Sanjūrō to die, but took great risk to protect and heal Sanjūrō while the guy was injured and running from the mob. He even gets captured and strung up for his efforts, but scolds his rescuers for coming back and endangering themselves again.]]

* KnightErrant: Sanjuro. He just stumbles on the town the film takes place in while wandering aimlessly and gets involved in the MobWar for both justice and profit.
* LadyMacbeth: Seibei's scheming wife is a major power player in their faction of the mob war, and it's discreetly implied that she might've been behind the split in the first place by pushing Seibei to declare his obviously-unfit son Yoichiro as his successor within the operation rather than his right-hand man Ushitora. [[Film/ThroneOfBlood It wouldn't be the first time]] Isuzu Yamada's played this character archetype.
* LastBreathBullet: Subverted. Unosuke makes a last request that Sanjuro allow him to die with his prized gun in his hand, claiming that it is unloaded. The hero gives him the gun and he tries to pull one of these, but is so deep in his death throes that he is unable to pull the trigger.
* LineOfSightAlias: When asked what his name is, the rōnin looks out over a field of mulberry trees and gives the name Kuwabatake (mulberry field) Sanjūrō (thirty-ish).
* LostHimInACardGame: The husband of the family in the PetTheDog example lost his wife (and their house) gambling.
* MadeOfIron: Startlingly averted. When Ushitora discovers that Sanjūrō has betrayed him, Sanjūrō is terribly beaten and kept under guard at Ushitora's place. The only way he can escape is [[spoiler:by hiding in a storage chest, tricking the gangsters into thinking he's ''already'' escaped, and ''then'' pulling off the actual escape by the skin of his teeth while Ushitora's men dash around the house searching for him. He's reduced to crawling around underneath floorboards and can't even stand, let alone hold his own in a fight.]]
* MasterSwordsman: Sanjūrō, naturally. It comes back to bite him when [[spoiler:Unosuke notes that he's the only one skilled enough with a sword to kill six men single-handed.]] In the final showdown, [[spoiler:he takes on ten men, including a GiantMook and a guy with a gun, killing nine of them ([[SparingTheFinalMook the tenth he lets go out of mercy]]).]]
* MeaningfulName: Invoked and discussed: Ushitora (lit. Bull-Tiger) gets his name from being born during roughly between these years, though Ushitora is also the Northeast, direction of {{Oni}}. The Ino from Inokichi means "boar", and, as the innkeeper points out, [[DumbMuscle he's brutal and can only charge forward]]. Averted with Unosuke, whose name contains the kanji for "Rabbit", but he's deadly as a serpent.
* MinionWithAnFInEvil:
** Inokichi, who, while boisterous, is so slow-witted he's almost charming.
** The farmer's son ultimately learns he's not cut out for the criminal life thanks to Sanjuro's mercy.

* MrExposition: Gonji, who lays out the present situation and what led up to it for Sanjūrō (and the audience).
* MysteriousPast: Other than being a rōnin, we know next to nothing about Sanjūrō including who his master was before he became a wandering drifter.
* NervesOfSteel:
** Sanjūrō, as best displayed during [[spoiler:the escape scene. Even after being beaten within an inch of his life, he's still able to think clearly enough to make an effective getaway.]]
** Gonji, with none of the training or skills that Sanjūrō has, [[spoiler:manages to bluff his way past gangsters and through a mob war to get an injured Sanjūrō to safety.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:The family Sanjūrō saved sends him a letter of thanks. Unosuke spots it, leading to Sanjūrō's capture and torture.]]

* NormalFishInATinyPond: Unosuke is dangerous mainly because he is a gunslinger in a village where everyone else fights with swords and other melee weapons.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Sanjūrō behaves like this at the start, and Gonji chews him out several times for it.
* OrnamentalWeapon: Unosuke wears a sword, but shows the constable the pistol he got in his travels and proceeds to never be seen without it in any given scene.

* {{Ronin}}: Sanjūrō, a wanderer armed with little more than his sword and his wits throughout the film. Creator/ToshiroMifune in this role is probably what a lot of people will think of when they hear the word {{Ronin}}.
* SaloonOwner: Gonji, who becomes Sanjuro's ally, albeit reluctantly.
* SamuraiCowboy: Unosuke is a wandering fighter with a katana, neckerchief, pinstriped kimono, and revolver.
* SamuraiPonytail: Sanjūrō is a poor rōnin with a short, scruffy ponytail that sticks straight out of the back of his head.

* SeeYouInHell: [[spoiler:Unosuke's final words to Sanjūrō.]]

* ShowdownAtHighNoon: Sanjuro prepares for a JidaiGeki version of the showdown -- problem is, his opponent has the only revolver in town.
* SlasherSmile:
** Unosuke's default facial expression.
** After [[spoiler:Sanjūrō escapes, having taken a severe beating,]] Gonji tells him he doesn't look alive... and it's even worse when he smiles.

* TerrorHero: It's part of Sanjūrō's GuileHero shtick. By establishing himself as Alpha Badass early on, he gets to play both gang leaders and intimidate every {{Mook}} to allow him free rein in the town.

** Unosuke is an early example of a SamuraiCowboy as he is a Japanese thug who wields a katana and an American revolver. While this makes him sound like a badass on paper, the movie also deconstructs this by establishing that Unosuke is a NormalFishInATinyPond as he is the only gunslinger in a town where everyone else fights with swords or other melee weapons. As a result, Unosuke never actually draws his katana in combat since his revolver's ranged lethality renders it obsolete. In addition, he admits that Sanjuro is the [[MasterSwordsman best swordsman in town]], so challenging Sanjuro to a sword fight would have been suicide. It's also shown that he doesn't really have the training needed to be a true gunslinger; stationary targets are trivial for him to hit but Sanjuro manages to survive long enough to get the upper hand because Unosuke can't easily track a moving target.

* {{Undertaker}}: The cooper/coffin-maker. He is verbally disappointed the end of the gang war causes his business to dry up.

* WouldntHitAGirl: Ushitora's men allow Seibei's women to flee when his gang attacks Seibei's house [[spoiler:but not Seibei's wife.]]
* WouldntHurtAChild: Or a young adult. At the end of the film, [[spoiler:Sanjuro [[GoAndSinNoMore spares]] the life of a young farmer's son screaming for his mother, knowing the kid is not a ruthless killer like the gangsters he has been slaying]].

* YouAreNumberSix: Sanjuro gives himself a number-name due to the fact that "I'm about 36 (san-3, ju-10 ro[ku]-6) years old." His other name is due to the grove of mulberry trees he happens to be looking at. Yay, sericulture.

* CharacterTics: Sanjūrō has a habit of keeping one hand inside of his clothing (often while [[ThinkingTic holding his chin]]). He also twitches his shoulders; the idea behind this is that he's like a wolf/dog and has fleas -- making him ''[[IncrediblyLamePun a character with ticks]]''.

** The coffin-maker sizes Sanjuro up and builds one for him prematurely; it's this coffin that saves his life by allowing Gonji and said coffin-maker to smuggle him to safety after escaping from Ushitora's goons.

* ChekhovsGun: While Sanjuro mostly uses his sword to carve up his enemies, he also carries a knife in his belt. [[spoiler:It then becomes a {{subverted}} example when Ushitora's gang confiscates it after capturing him; however, the DoubleSubversion comes into play after Gonji hands Sanjuro a new knife, which allows him to use his [[ChekhovsSkill knife skills]] against Unosuke in the climatic duel.]]

* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Inokichi, who, while boisterous, is so slow-witted he's almost charming.

** Unosuke is an early example of a SamuraiCowboy as he is a Japanese thug who wields a katana and an American revolver. While this makes him sound like a badass on paper, the movie also deconstructs this by establishing that Unosuke is a NormalFishInATinyPond as he is the only gunslinger in a town where everyone else fights with swords or other melee weapons. As a result, Unosuke never actually draws his katana in combat since his revolver's ranged lethality renders it obsolete. In addition, he admits that Sanjuro is the [[MasterSwordsman best swordsman in town]], so challenging Sanjuro to a sword fight would have been suicide.

* GiantMook: Former pro wrestler Kannuki the Giant, one of Ushitora's mooks. None of the other {{Mook}}s are even as tall as his shoulders and he wields a [[{{BFS}} big freakin]]' [[BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon mallet]].

* GorowaseNumber: Sanjūrō is derived from an On'yomi reading of his age of 36 years (san-3, ju-10 ro[ku]-6).

* MomentKiller: Just when Sanjūrō has manipulated the two gangs to go all out against each other, a messenger arrives saying that an official from the capital is coming, so the fight is called off and everyone conceals the evidence that there is a gang war going on until he leaves.

* GiantMook: Former pro wrestler Kannuki the Giant, one of Ushitora' mooks. None of the other {{Mook}}s are even as tall as his shoulders and he wields a [[{{BFS}} big freakin]]' [[DropTheHammer mallet]].

* HeadsOrTails: The film's opening shot shows Sanjūrō [[TheDrifter arriving at a fork in the road.]] After a few seconds of pondering, he throws a stick into the air and bases his decision on where it lands. [[ForWantOfANail The rest, as they say, is history.]]

* LadyMacbeth: Seibei's scheming wife is a major power player in their faction of the mob war, and it's discreetly implied that she might've been behind the split in the first place by pushing Seibei to declare his obviously-unfit son Yoichiro as his successor within the operation rather than his right-hand man Ushitora.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo''.

An enormously influential film, it has had at least three direct remakes -- Creator/SergioLeone's ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' (as a Western), Creator/WalterHill's ''Film/{{Last Man Standing|1996}}'' (as a mob movie) and Albert Pyun's ''Omega Doom'' (as a sci-fi movie) -- as well as [[WholePlotReference whole-plot references]] and {{homage}}s in numerous other films and television shows, including being the inspiration for John Belushi's Samurai character on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''.

Not to be confused with ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo''.

!!''Yojimbo'' provides examples of the following tropes:

''Yojimbo'' (用心棒 - ''Yōjinbō'', meaning "bodyguard") is a 1961 Japanese {{Jidaigeki}} film directed by Creator/AkiraKurosawa. It is loosely based off the American novel ''Literature/RedHarvest'' by Creator/DashiellHammett.

''Yojimbo'' (用心棒 - ''Yōjinbō'', meaning "bodyguard") is a 1961 {{Jidaigeki}} film directed by Creator/AkiraKurosawa. It is loosely based off the American novel ''Literature/RedHarvest'' by Creator/DashiellHammett.

''Yojimbo'' (用心棒 - Yōjinbō, meaning "bodyguard") is a 1961 {{Jidaigeki}} film directed by Creator/AkiraKurosawa. It is loosely based off the American novel ''Literature/RedHarvest'' by Creator/DashiellHammett.

''Yojimbo'' (Yōjinbō, 用心棒, meaning "bodyguard") is a 1961 {{Jidaigeki}} film directed by Creator/AkiraKurosawa. It is loosely based off the American novel ''Literature/RedHarvest'' by Creator/DashiellHammett.

An enormously influential film, it has had at least three direct remakes -- Creator/SergioLeone's ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' (as a Western), Creator/WalterHill's ''Film/LastManStanding1996'' (as a mob movie) and Albert Pyun's ''Omega Doom'' (as a sci-fi movie) -- as well as homages in numerous other films and television shows, including being the inspiration for John Belushi's Samurai character on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''.

''Yojimbo'' (Yōjinbō, 用心棒, meaning "bodyguard") is a 1961 {{Jidaigeki}} film directed by Creator/AkiraKurosawa. It is loosely based off the Creator/DashiellHammett novel ''Literature/RedHarvest''.

''Yojimbo'' (Yōjinbō, 用心棒, meaning "bodyguard") is a 1961 {{Jidaigeki}} film directed by Creator/AkiraKurosawa, loosely based on Creator/DashiellHammett's novel ''Literature/RedHarvest''.