YO! Jimbo! Print

[opening of English-language prints] Title Card: The time is 1860... the emergence of a middle class has brought an end to power of the Tokugawa Dynasty... A samurai, once a dedicated warrior in the employ of Royalty, now finds himself with no master to serve other than his own will to survive... and no devices other than his wit and sword. Sanjuro: I guess there is no cure for stupidity, except for death. [Sanjuro's talking with three men] Sanjuro: You're all tough, then? Gambler: What? Kill me if you can! Sanjuro: It'll hurt. Sanjuro: Cooper. Two coffins... No, maybe three. Sanjuro: I get paid for killing, and this town is full of people who deserve to die. Unosuke: Say, samurai trash, are you there?... The entrance to hell - I'll be waiting there for you! [Unosoke dies] Sanjuro: He died as recklessly as he lived [Sanjuro walks away] Sanjuro: Now it'll be quiet in this town... So long! Sanjuro Kuwabatake: Sake. I think better while I drink. Gonji - Tavern Keeper: What'll you do now? Sanjuro Kuwabatake: Go next door and buy a coffin. Gonji - Tavern Keeper: How can you give up like that? Sanjuro Kuwabatake: You idiot! I'm not dying yet! There's a bunch of guys I have to kill first. Sanjuro Kuwabatake: I'll make sashimi outta them! Sanjuro Kuwabatake: You want something? Inokichi - Ushitora's Rotund Brother: You're tough. I like you. Sanjuro Kuwabatake: Aren't you angry I killed three of your men? Inokichi - Ushitora's Rotund Brother: They were worthless. Sanjuro: No help for fools. Gonji - Tavern Keeper: You'll gain nothing by getting sucked into this evil. Eat quickly and leave. Sanjuro Kuwabatake: I've had enough rice. Give me some sake. I like it here. I'll stay awhile. from ‘Yojimbo’ (1961) Starring Tatsuya Nakadai (Seven Samurai), Isuzu Yamada (Kurosawa’s Macbeth), Daisuke Katô (Vendetta of a Samurai), Takashi Shimura (The Hidden Fortress), Yôko Tsukasa (Scattered Clouds), Eijirô Tôno (Tora! Tora! Tora!), and Toshirô Mifune (Shogun). Written by Akira Kurosawa (Kagemusha) and Ryûzô Kikushima (High and Low). Directed by Akira Kurosava (Dersu Uzala). Yojimbo (用心棒, Yōjinbō, "Bodyguard") is a 1961 Japanese samurai film directed by Akira Kurosawa, who produced the film with Tomoyuki Tanaka and Ryūzō Kikushima. Kurosawa wrote the screenplay with Kikushima and Hideo Oguni based on Kurosawa's story. Kurosawa also edited the film. It tells the story of a rōnin, portrayed by Toshiro Mifune, who arrives in a small town where competing crime lords vie for supremacy. The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard. Based on the success of Yojimbo, Kurosawa's next film, Sanjuro (1962), was altered to incorporate the lead character of this film. In both films, the character wears a rather dilapidated dark kimono bearing the same family mon. The film was released and produced by Toho on April 25, 1961. Yojimbo received highly positive reviews, and, over the years, became widely regarded as one of the best films by Kurosawa and one of the greatest films ever made. The film grossed an estimated $2.5 million worldwide. It was unofficially remade by Sergio Leone as the Spaghetti Western film A Fistful of Dollars (1964), leading to a lawsuit by Toho. Toshiro Mifune (三船敏郎, Mifune Toshirō, April 1, 1920 – December 24, 1997) was a Japanese actor who appeared in over 150 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration (1948–1965) with Akira Kurosawa in such works as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo. He also portrayed Miyamoto Musashi in Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy and one earlier Inagaki film, Lord Toranaga in the NBC television miniseries Shōgun, and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in three different films. Akira Kurosawa (Japanese: 黒澤明, Hepburn: Kurosawa Akira, March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential film-makers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (a.k.a. Judo Saga). After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast the then little-known actor Toshiro Mifunein a starring role, cemented the director's reputation as one of the most important young film-makers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another fifteen films. Rashomon, which premiered in Tokyo, became the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. The commercial and critical success of that film opened up Western film markets for the first time to the products of the Japanese film industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other Japanese film-makers. Kurosawa directed approximately one film per year throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, including a number of highly regarded (and often adapted) films, such as Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961). After the 1960s he became much less prolific; even so, his later work—including his final two epics, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985)—continued to receive great acclaim, though more often abroad than in Japan. In 1990, he accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Posthumously, he was named "Asian of the Century" in the "Arts, Literature, and Culture" category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN, cited there as being among the five people who most prominently contributed to the improvement of Asia in the 20th century. His career has been honored by many retrospectives, critical studies and biographies in both print and video, and by releases in many consumer media. Source: Wikipedia