Note: Playing this will greatly improve your reading experience.
Yojimbo was directed by Akira Kurosawa and was inspired by the writings of Dashiell Hammett. Kurosawa cited The Glass Key as a major influence (which shows, particularly when the protagonist is captured and beaten), but really it has more in common with another Hammett novel, Red Harvest. In Red Harvest an unnamed operative of the Continental Detective Agency goes to the city of Personville (lovingly nicknamed "Poisonville) to meet a man named Donald Willsson, but when he gets there, he finds that Willsson has been murdered. During his investigation, the Continental Op learns that Personville is run by crooks and decides to clean up.
"Poisonville is ripe for the harvest. It’s a job I like, and I’m going to do it.” - The Continental OpYojimbo is about a ronin (a samurai without a lord or master) who wanders into a village ravaged by two rival gangs. He identifies himself only as Sanjuro (meaning thirty-year-old man) and plots to bring down both gangs by playing them against each other.
"I get paid for killing, and this town is full of people who deserve to die." - Sanjuro
This is one of my favorite movies of all time and it has a strong legacy. In the English speaking world, it has been remade as Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and as Walter Hill's Last Man Standing. Sanjuro is also the template for the Man With No Name character archetype made famous by Clint Eastwood's character in the Dollars Trilogy.
This lone, stoic, and nameless anti-hero is common in westerns, but can be found in other genres as well; for example, Ryan Gosling's character in Drive. Hell, Sanjuro was even the inspiration for SNL's Samurai Futaba skits with John Belushi. It certainly doesn't hurt that Sanjuro is played by Toshiro Mifune, one of the five best actors for portraying badassery; the other four being Clint Eastwood, Bruce Lee, Samuel L. "Motherfucking" Jackson, and Reb Brown.
Pictured Above: Badass
The story of Red Harvest is a hard-boiled crime fiction turned Japanese period drama turned spaghetti western. If that isn't awesome, then I want to be the lamest guy this side of Crazy Quilt.
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