The famous Latin phrase "homo homini lupus" meaning "man is a wolf to (his fellow) man," could easily be the motto of Akira Kurosawa's 21st film Yojimbo (1961). It is purely a genre-film at its best: a film in which the basic realizations and contents of a genre have been internalized perfectly. In this case the genre is samurai-film which is strongly related to the genre of western. Whereas from western the American mythology exhales, from samurai-film Japanese does. Although, the history of samurai-film extends to the 1930-40's it found its dynamic form and was truly born in the early 1950's when Japanese films first came to Europe. The genre still lives on but Yojimbo is, without a doubt, among the five best samurai-films ever made. Both, ironic humor and conception of the eternal weakness of the human nature characterize this exquisite film about a mythical character.

Western and samurai-film are often compared to each other, and Kurosawa has said that: "Everybody likes a good western. Because people are weak, they want to see good people and great heroes. Westerns have been made over and over again and in this process a certain grammar has developed and I have leaned something from it.". They both take place to important phases of their country's national history and in the focus there are armed heroes. The heroes are often marginal characters in the society who return order to it but are also conscious of the fact that their virtuous action doesn't take them to the new, better, ordered society. And this is exactly what happens in Yojimbo as it does in A Fistful of Dollars for example. Kurosawa had the habit of placing his stories to history, far away, so the producers and managers of film companies wouldn't get upset of his anti-feudalism. On the big screen, he was safely able to tell about his thoughts without them being directly linked to the present day — and that's why it is samurai-film that he most eagerly studied.

The story of Yojimbo is, from today's perspective, classical and has been lent dozens of times in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and Last Man Standing (1996) for instance. The Japanese word 'yôjinbô' means a bodyguard or a hit man and that is exactly what the protagonist of this film is. The film happens in a simple milieu where two selfish robber gangs work. Soon an unknown samurai — played by Toshirô Mifune — arrives to the town and offers his services to one of the gangs. He cheats the other by claiming that he would be working for them. The other gang finds out and tortures him. However, soon our hero escapes and after a few days recovery he overthrows the hostile gang of 20 bandits and leaves the town in peace.

There are no good and evil; just two evils from which the protagonist has to choose. We all know this situation. An ethical dilemma that is impossible to solve. We want to end the battle between these two evil but can't because we are too weak. In this the hero of Yojimbo differs from us. He can stand in the middle and quit the fighting. For Kurosawa this kind of social action is serious business and that's why he doesn't make a big deal out of it. He hasn't placed any hidden morality behind the hero's acts.

Yojimbo shows that "man is a wolf to a man," how people in reality are animals. The humor comes from the fact that we are quite ridiculous when we think that we are trying to attain morally righteous solutions. The message of Yojimbo and so many films seems to be that the world can't be observed through absolute morality. Both utilitarianism and virtue ethics collapse in the world of Kurosawa. For example, Sanjuro's only virtue is that he doesn't try to be bad, all the time. At times, he might make decisions that ostensibly are good but are actually built on selfish acts. Out of no solidarity or anything that has something to do with morality, he helps one evil to win over another. After he has performed his duty he can walk away and forget all about it. He resembles a god in Greek tragedies: he descends down, does his mission and once again disappears. In one particularly intriguing scene he climbs up and looks down at people, from the roof. He watches the lives of people as a grand comedy — a seedy anti-hero observing.

Yojimbo happens in a stripped, closed and simplified landscape in which ruthless and completely selfish and unethical groups of bandits work. Their cruel attitude towards the world is relayed to us most luminously in the scene where one bandit says to his son that: "To gain respect one has to kill more." Irony and humor mean complete destruction of morality. The desolation of Kurosawa's world view is most brilliantly projected on the life of Unosuke, the gunfighter. First his sight is innocent and curious. But soon the cruel corrupted world teaches its lesson and therefore he becomes a mighty gunman who digs up his own grave: "He died like he lived."

At times, Yojimbo is close to self-parody but Kurosawa brilliantly reflects the violence culture in the zone of irony and consciousness. Yojimbo is a pure genre-film. But it is also full of subjectivity and personal sights. Death instinct, life at the gates of hell, the harsh reality of heroism, life control and violence culture viewed under the samurai myth but, in addition, Yojimbo talks about war-like glory and sense of morality: the protagonist isn't a moralist. No higher moral purpose hides behind his action than cleaning up the town. He is cynical, melancholy and has a total lack of morality. Yojimbo is, at its heart, about an ethical dilemma, it's about the inevitable dialog between loyalty and glory. It is a grand story of humanity and morality.

Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo is a not too long, not too short action film that uses its action with just the right touches of voracity and excitement, and in the backdrop is also a sense of humor to the process. If I had to recommend a Kurosawa film to someone who's never seen one before (and might be impatient to sit through the three and a half hour Seven Samurai, or might not get the non-linear structure of Rashomon), I'd put this one in their hands to try out.

Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune is terrific as Sanjuro Kuwabatake, a drifter of a samurai who stumbles upon a town with an assorted cast of characters, with a split between two gangs. One of the gangsters, Unosuke (Nakadai), is the only one in town; it seems, with a gun. At first Sanjuro plays each side, but when he gets beaten roughly by whom he was "protecting", he realizes the fun's over, and it's time to fight back.

Much has been made about how Sergio Leone took Kurosawa's story and characters (most in particular being a rogue from out of town) and made them into his breakthrough Fistful of Dollars- Kurosawa even sued Leone over the story rights. But to those who wonder whether Yojimbo is 'better' than Fistful or vice versa need to remember one of two things- Kurosawa took the story from Dashiell Hammett's gangster novel Red Harvest, so neither filmmaker is making something really original; and that since each film is made in a different continent, and with the slightest different sensibilities about its characters. For one thing in Yojimbo guns are scarcer than in Fistful, and there's a treatment Kurosawa has with his actors that sets it apart from the small town western scope of Leone's weapons and actors. So each film (noticeably) carries its own kind of visual style while working in a similar plot structure. In other words, it's kind of like comparing apples and oranges picked in the same farm (if that makes at all sense).

Overall, Yojimbo on its own is a lean, cool Japanese crime/action film, helmed by a master, and featuring a number of highlights to look forward to on multiple viewings. Some of those include: the scene inside Seibei's brothel (with the women dancing and singing), Masaru Sato's wonderful musical orchestrations, Mifune's curiously low-key and rough performance (which did and didn't serve as inspiration to Clint), and a climax that is up there with one of Kurosawa's finest battles. A+

The last of Kurosawa's samurai films I had on my list to watch, as I actually saw the sequel to this (SANJURO) beforehand. Not that it matters, as the two films feature the same character but have totally unconnected stories. I actually liked SANJURO the better of the two, mainly because it was funnier and more tightly scripted. However, there's no denying that YOJIMBO is a great movie in itself, a film both highly influenced by westerns and which would highly influence westerns to come (Sergio Leone famously 'borrowed' the story for his iconic classic A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS).

The story is taken from the pages of pulp fiction and involves a rogue samurai (Toshiro Mifune, on top form) who comes into a rural town and finds a war going on between opposing gangs. Determined to clean up the mess, he plays both sides against one another, with the stakes gradually raising as the action ensues. Along the way there are some great set-pieces as you'd expect from Kurosawa; I particularly liked Sanjuro's attack on the building where the wife is being held hostage.

Kurosawa is, as ever, a master of form and the widescreen cinematography looks fantastic. He also elicits great performances from a strong cast, with actors bringing to life the nuances of the scripting. Tatsuya Nakadai really stands out as the slick bad guy but the actors playing the other bizarre and memorable, almost comic-book characters are fine too. All in all, YOJIMBO is an acknowledged classic and for good reason - it's great fun!