Yojimbo: Akira Kurosawa’s Samurai Swan Song
The Auteur
Photo Credit: Reading Tuesday Blogspot
Coinciding with the BFI’s major season on Japanese cinema, we here at Japan Nakama have aspired to create a trilogy of reviews pertaining to some of the films from the late, great Japanese filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa. Celebrating the masterful storytelling of the seminal director and the lingering influence that many of his works weigh on the overall spectrum of film history. Starting with an intrinsic look at his first widely acclaimed piece, Rashomon — focalising on the inherent self-absolution of human nature when one’s fidelity is brought into question — and following up with a brief commemoration of Kurosawa’s most famous film, the pioneering action extravaganza, Seven Samurai.
Over the course of each review, it’s become overtly apparent the monumental impact that Kurosawa’s films have had on the increasingly copycat nature of the movie industry. Just as Kurosawa utilised his deep understanding and affinity for John Ford’s classic westerns of the early-to-mid 20th century — recapturing their narrative essences for his innovative chambara (“samurai cinema”) selection — the director’s films have also been subject to numerous adaptations and thematic homages in the west; establishing a reciprocal chain of cause and effect. A filmic cycle of influence and reinterpretation.
