Do you want to see ‘Yojimbo’?

Yojimbo (1961)

tomatometer

All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 8.8/10
Reviews Counted: 35
Fresh: 34 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

audience

liked it
Average Rating: 4.4/5
User Ratings: 38,603

My Rating

Added to your Facebook Timeline. — undo

Movie Info

Toshiro Mifune portrays a Samurai who finds himself in the middle of a feud-torn Japanese village. Neither side is particularly honorable, but Mifune is hungry and impoverished, so he agrees to work as bodyguard (or Yojimbo) for a silk merchant (Kamatari Fujiwara) against a sake merchant (Takashi Shimura). He then pretends to go to work for the other, the better to let the enemies tear each other apart. Imprisoned for his "treachery," he escapes just in time to watch the two warring sides wipe

Unrated, 1 hr. 50 min.

Action & Adventure, Art House & International, Comedy

Directed By: Akira Kurosawa

Written By: Akira Kurosawa

In Theaters: Sep 13, 1961 Wide

On DVD: Sep 28, 1999

Cast

Toshiro Mifune
Sanjuro Kuwabatake
Eijir� Tono
Gonji the Sake Seller
Tatsuya Nakadai
Unosuke
Seizabur� Kawazu
Seibei
Isuzu Yamada
Orin
Daisuke Kat�
Inokichi
Hiroshi Tachikawa
Yoichiro
Kamatari Fujiwara
Tazaemon
Kyu Sazanka
Ushitora
Susumu Fujita
Homma
Yosuke Natsuki
Farmer's Son
Akira Nishimura
Kuma
Ikio Sawamura
Hansuke
Takashi Shimura
Tokuemon
Yoshio Tsuchiya
Kohei the Farmer
Atsushi Watanabe
Coffin Maker
Y�ko Tsukasa
Nui

Critic Reviews for Yojimbo

All Critics (35) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (37) | Rotten (1) | DVD (13)

Action-packed, highly comic 1961 translation of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest.

February 9, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Don Druker

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Even Eastwood's Man With No Name is inspired, perhaps, by the samurai in Yojimbo.

January 20, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

Despite the sometime appearance of the whole thing as a forthright travesty, it does have stretches of excitement and cinematic power.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comments (10)

Bosley Crowther

New York Times

Top Critic

It is fair to say that, without Yojimbo, certain key aspects of Western cinema would not be the same today.

October 10, 2002 Full Review Source: ReelViews

| Comment

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Top Critic

Rousing, good story, told with vigor and visual excitement by Akira Kurosawa, and splendidly acted by Toshiro Mifune, this has ideal remake material for a Yank company.

February 13, 2001 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment

Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

Kurosawa's masterully executed acion film influenced many young directors, including Segio Leone.

May 17, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

A textbook example of the perfect crowd-pleaser.

April 20, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Rob Humanick

Slant Magazine

The biggest impression left by Yojimbo is the characterization of Sanjuro, whose iconography of stoic cool (that inspired Clint Eastwood's antiheroic "Man with No Name") is consistently undercut with dashes of comical realism...[Blu-ray]

March 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews

| Comment

Peter Canavese

Groucho Reviews Source: Groucho Reviews

Reasons to love Yojimbo: "Ask the horny old sake brewer what he says to that!"

March 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Rob Humanick

Slant Magazine

This is one of those movies where it sounds like none of it should work and yet all of it somehow does.

July 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

| Comment

Ken Hanke

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune team up for one of their most basic and enjoyable samurai films.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid

| Comment

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

engages viewers with its larger than life protagonist and easy to follow narrative

February 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Old School Reviews

| Comment

John A. Nesbit

Old School Reviews Source: Old School Reviews

Not much on plot or leaving one much to think about, but it sure was entertaining.

July 17, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

If the plot sounds familiar, it's probably because Leone stole it for A Fistful of Dollars.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

The explosive outbursts of violence in Yojimbo are superbly choreographed, with Kurosawa's customary use of a telephoto lens creating a hallucinatory feeling.

July 30, 2003 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

Michael Scheinfeld

TV Guide's Movie Guide

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Yojimbo

View All

A superbly shot black comedy that truly showcases the strengths of Kurosawa and his lead Mifune. It is also a scathing indictment on capitalism that Leone's remake "A Fistful of Dollars" doesn't touch on as well. In this town, lawlessness seems to be the only law of the land as rival factions seek to control the local

July 14, 2011

Reid Volk

Super Reviewer

"Kill one or a hundred. You only hang once." Yojimbo is a really cool movie directed by Akira Kurosawa. It went on to inspire Leones A Fistful of Dollars and Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis. The story from Yojimbo will probably be used again. It's a simple, but very cool story that can be told in many different

June 8, 2011