That was an excellent one.

I'll tell you why so serious

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town. Yojimbo is one of the many overrated titles that you're going to find on this list with the Top 250 since i found it pretty much terrible on all occassions from the acting stand point, to script, dialogue and most of all pacing which was terrible. Some people will definitely enjoy it and have fun but for casual viewers like me this is an easy pass and nothing that other better movies that were released way later didn't touch upon better. (0/10)

A samurai, Sanjuro Kuwabatake, finds himself in a town run by two warlords, Ushitora and Seibei. The town is a den of inequity, not only due to the warlords and their hired thugs, but due to the hordes of gamblers that inhabit it. The samurai sets out to rid the town of all these pestilences, his plan being to play the two warlords off against each other.Excellent movie by famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Clever, unpredictable plot with some great twists along the way. Good character development and some great action scenes. The only blemish is that it is difficult to figure out which characters fit into the mix in what way. This is often heightened by Kurosawa introducing an important character out of the blue, with no background. They're often linked to the story via another character, a character who we also don't know much about, if anything at all. So some of the character-specific stories were a bit hard to follow.An influential movie in that Sergio Leone used this as inspiration for his spaghetti westerns - a Fistful of Dollars in particular. You can see it in some of the fight scenes: the slow, deliberate build-up, the music the Mexican standoff. A Fistful of Dollars is even regarded as a remake of Yojimbo.

The movie is indeed a gem as it has great strengths. The story is so strong that it develops nicely over the fast paced flow. I really enjoy how the story develops and unravels with its twists and turns. The characters are also well developed as they unravel in time, revealing multiple layers of themselves and possibly changing audiences' view toward them. The directing is a great job since the movie successfully maximizes utilization on just a few sets to tell a great story like this. The bits of action sequences are also well directed, despite the lack of technology for that time. The acting is also quite nice, particularly Toshiro Mifune. His character is nicely portrayed that the layers of the character's true intention gets peeled well.

You've just sat down to watch a film by Akira Kurosawa. Make sure you're not squeamish by the sight of decapitated limbs and swords smashing into samurais. Kurosawa is the original master of the violent Japanese samurai flick. I wouldn't be surprised if Quentin Tarantino gets down on his knees and prays to him by his bedside at night. This genre of film that he created is based upon the period of "Jidaigeki", which has its origins in Kabuki theater. It's the music of the swords. It's the story of brave samurais fighting in honor of their families and towns. It might sound foreign to you, but it's really not. "Jidaigeki" genre movies supplied many concepts and ideas that inspired what we all know as the Spaghetti Western. Well, you should know, it was a little too inspired, but that's a story to get into another day. Kurosawa's films have an amazing shelf life to cinephiles across the globe, and none more important than "Rashoman". But I have just watched, what I feel to be the best example of Kurosawa's influence on the western genre, and what I feel to be an especially compelling and entertaining piece of work, "Yujimbo". "Yojimbo" has a story, not that complicated, and told so many times, you'd think you've sat down to watch some clichéd schlock. As I've stated before, it's about the lone hero, or in this case, the lone samurai, who somewhere along his travels comes upon a village that has been split between two rival gangs. In the town are the struggling families and business owners that are victimized day in and day out by the constant robberies and assaults from the gangs, as well the insufferable and corrupt police officer that gleefully capitulates to the two rival gangs. They ravage throughout the town, and out of sympathy for the townspeople, or perhaps just for the hell of it, the lone samurai decides to pit the two against each other in order for them to fight to death. It is out of his virtue to save the town from the hands of crime, and he's well aware of it very early on in the film, as he notices a dog carrying a severed human hand around the town. This is the Wild West, or shall we say, the wild east. In this little town, the lone samurai helps cause chaos and showdowns abound as the rival gangs fight for territory. It's almost comedic how much manipulation he has over them. I loved how it didn't always work out. For instance, the lone samurai is seen overhearing a conversation of the hotel owners planning to kill him in order to not pay for his stay. It seems like he's been causing a lot of trouble, much to the chagrin of the town's people. I really enjoyed the balance between action, story and humor. Unlike "Rashoman" that captivates with a rigid, dramatic story with a lot of unsightly, gruesome characters trying to eat each other alive, this is a fun little western. It's a classic in the genre as it gets. The lone samurai even bears a strange resemblance his American counterpart, Clint Eastwood, complete with his squinty eyes and scowl. The man in question is Toshiro Mifune, and he has a spectacular track record with Akira Kurosawa. Every time he collaborates with him, you're going to get an unbelievable performance. In "Rashoman" he was the insane, giggling bandit, and here, he's the silent, master of the sword, who could cut your arm off with a single blow. He's the original badass movie star. Even when he goes down, he goes down hard. When the lone samurai gets captured towards the end of the film, he is seen slowly and painfully making his mistake. This probably was my favorite scene, for it demonstrates Mifune's range as an actor, and his willingness to discomfort himself for the benefit of the story. The picture also has a really unique soundtrack. I overheard someone in the audience chuckling about it, for it sounded a little similar to "Big Band". The music fits the attitude of the picture splendidly. It's a big, loud soundtrack to a big story. The cinematography was also very ambitious for it's time, and Kurosawa's main cinematographer, Kazuo Miyagawa, noticeably builds upon his great talent of the image since Rashoman. The battle sequences are sweeping and detailed with all the blood and guts intact. The spectacular scene in which the lone samurai is escaping is staged and shot beautifully. Miyagawa holds an exceptional gift of bringing the Edo Japanese era vibrantly to life. "Yojimbo" is a violent epic, and one of Kurosawa's most startlingly good achievements. It's entertaining, thrilling and a credit to the history of Japanese cinema.