A cunning samurai-for-hire seeks to free a terror-stricken village from corruption.
The wandering samurai Sanjuro Kuwabatake arrives in a 19th-century town where he uses all his wit and swordsmanship to pit two local crime lords against each other. He cleverly turns the war between the two evil clans to his own advantage. In Yojimbo, nearly everyone’s motives are questionable—fire is fought with fire.
Kurosawa's gripping, entertaining film forever changed the Western genre and remains one of the most influential films of all time. Sergio Leone drew inspiration from Yojimbo for his spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars (starring Clint Eastwood), and Walter Hill remade it as Last Man Standing (starring Bruce Willis). Similar storylines can also be seen in Django (1966) and Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012). 4K restoration by Toho.