Kurosawa/Mizoguchi
Presented in 35mm
Saturday, March 25 | 8 pm
Akira Kurosawa’s greatest commercial success in his native Japan, Yojimbo was later remade by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars (1964)—the film that launched the Italian Spaghetti-Western subgenre. A blackly comic, irresistibly cool synthesis of Eastern and Western influences, Yojimbo follows a dissolute wandering samurai who finds himself in the midst of an escalating feud between two rival gangs. Playing one group against the other, the cynical Sanjuro (Toshirō Mifune) quickly turns their greed to his own advantage. Making masterful use of the wide-screen format, Kurosawa creates bold, kinetic black-and-white compositions that lend this 19th century jidaigeki (historical drama) a modern pop-art feel. Yojimbo features an iconic performance from the great Mifune: radiating glowering good-humor and off-kilter charm, his Sanjuro is one of cinema’s most charismatic antiheroes. Museum Films is pleased to present a special, one-night only screening of Yojimbo on 35mm.
Director Akira Kurosawa 1961 Japan 100 minutes NR 35mm
