On Wednesday, Amy and I took in a rare double-feature on a work night. The reason was a combo of Akira Kurosawa's two movies featuring Toshiro Mifune as Sanjuro: YOJIMBO and its sequel, SANJURO. We'd seen YOJIMBO on TV before (and we have it on DVD), but not SANJURO.
Seeing YOJIMBO on a big screen gave me a chance to appreciate Kurosawa's perfect screen compositions -- before I started getting into the story and forgot about such things. I didn't, however, miss the scenes that George Lucas apparently appropriated for STAR WARS. The bit near the beginning where a bunch of thugs brag to Sanjuro about how they're wanted by the law -- and then Sanjuro slices off the arm of one of them -- is a dead giveaway.
SANJURO reminded me of those Saturday Morning TV series from the '70's and '80's where they'd take some real-life celebrity (Muhammed Ali, or Mr. T, for instance) and saddle him with a bunch of teenagers for him to guide/mentor/humiliate. Here, Sanjuro helps a bunch of young and clueless clan warriors retrieve a government official from a corrupt official. Everytime the young bucks try to do something on their own, they screw up; fortunately they have Sanjuro to save their bacon.
In addition to the shoulder-rolling, self-scratching main character, the two movies have other recurring motifs, such as Sanjuro tricking stupider opponents, Tom-Sawyer-like, into doing things for him; and Sanjuro being asked his name, whereupon he will stare out a door or window (obviously enough for others in the room to follow his gaze), see some plant or field, and give the name of the vegetation as his family name.
Although the West may see Sanjuro as the ultimate movie samurai (and the basis for John Belushi's character on Saturday Night Live), he's actually more of a western character. He's an individualist in a culture that looks down on individualism; he's rude, blunt and sarcastic in a world that values subtlety and manners; and he does not fit in, a liability in Japanese society where conformity is a virtue. Further, YOJIMBO is often described as a samurai western, since Sanjuro fills the traditional role of a cowboy hero: He comes to a society torn by chaos; restores order, through violence; and cannot fit into the now-ordered society that results. It's no wonder that Sergio Leone remade YOJIMBO as A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, and modeled Eastwood's Man with No Name after the samurai.
2 comments:
I didn't know that Lucas borrowed from Yojimbo as well? I thought that his Kurosawa influences mainly came from The Hidden Fortress?
HIDDEN FORTRESS was probably the biggest influence, but Lucas pulled scenes from all over the place. Another YOJIMBO scene that may have influenced Lucas is one where several thugs are searching for Sanjuro. We get a "worm's eye view" of their feet as they walk away -- and then Sanjuro pushes up a floorboard and sticks his head out. It's almost identical to the shot in STAR WARS where Han and co. emerge from the Millenium Falcon's smuggling hold.
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