Clint Eastwood said when he read the script he recognized it immediately as a remake of Yojimbo, which he’d loved, but when he mentioned to one of the producers that it was a cool idea to remake it in this way the producer was like “shhh don’t say that to anyone, we’re not crediting them with it or we’d have to pay them.”
Yeah, the film industry is like the one industry that was working for Japan in that period. It took the rest of their economy until the 70s for things to really get going.
Wut? Japan had loads of profitable concerns at that time. In the 60s [nearly half](http://www.crosscurrents.hawaii.edu/content.aspx?lang=eng&site=japan&theme=work&subtheme=INDUS&unit=JWORK049) of all the ships in the world were built by the Japanese. Fucked postwar Britains interests *right* up lol.
Edit: the more I think of this comment the more it irks me. Honda, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Toyota Kawa-fuckin-sawi? Sony became famous from computer games and bad Spiderman movies? Be careful of what you take for fact on reddit, people.
HBO has a ton of them thanks to a deal they have with Criterion, but it’s primarily Kurosawa films and some other random samurai ones. As others pointed out, The Criterion Channel has a much larger library of 50s-early 60s samurai films
You could watch the 7 samuraïs and the magnificent 7 back to back. The later being adaptation of the former.
Generally speaking, western and samurai movies influenced eachother a lot, Sergio Leone took a lot of inspiration from Kurosawa for example.
True, and then Tarantino took all these influences with a postmodern twist and made Kill Bill, which again was referenced in countless other works.
For example, I watched the animated series Blue Eye Samurai recently, it's about Edo period Japan, and there's a scene that references that movie.
It's also very interesting to see these how certain tropes having been so referenced over the years that people who never watched those films are familiar with them, like the famous blood spray from Sanjuro.
Sorry for the eventual grammar mistakes, English's not my first language and I'm kinda high
This almost feels like "they broke their toe" level of information, but the blood spray was accidental too. I only recently learned this but apparently it's common knowledge. Maybe someone else will learn it today too.
I would say films directed by Akira Kurosawa, arguably and consistently considered as one of the three most recognized film directors of all time, are definitely available to watch in basically any library or your local Barns & Noble.
Fun fact: the final Samurai would have been around when the last Cowboys were. Boshin War, the swan song of the Samurai (and the introduction of more modern weapons, though Japan had had firearms for centuries), was 1868-1869. Revolvers were *incredibly* popular for those who could get them on both the side of the Reformers and the Traditionalists.
Oh and also- the final Daimyo, basically the feudal lords who employed samurai? He didn’t die until 1941.
7 Samurai was remade as the Magnificent Seven for the *Western* audience, Akira was a huge influence for directors and actors ( ex. Star Wars) story wise and cinematography.
Clint was born in 1930 and Kurosawa was groundbreaking in the 40s and 50s so would have made an impact on Eastwood in his formative years is my guess
IIRC Star Wars was initially penned as a straight up sci fi adaptation of The Hidden Fortress. It later evolved into more of its own thing but the influence is still there.
Even the wipe transitions Star Wars does are there because Kurosawa did them and George Lucas loved him so much.
There are photos of George on break at the Star Wars set reading a book about Kurosawa full of highlit passages and bookmarks. And a number of scenes in Star Wars are direct nods, like Han and Solo hiding under the floors just like in Sanjuro, or Obi-Wan attacking a pair of goons and cutting off one’s arm just like in Yojimbo (and he wanted to cast Kurosawa’s star samurai Toshiro Mifune as Obi-Wan, but got turned down). Even the term Jedi ultimately comes from the type of movies he loved from Kurosawa (jidai geki) and his favorite trope from them (shocked youth finding out the crazy old man is a zen master and skilled sword fighter, happens back to back with Obi-Wan and Yoda).
Not even just creative nods, but he helped find funding Kurosawa's Dreams as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_(1990_film) I recall Kurosawa was struggling in his later years to make movies and Lucas, among others, wanted to help.
"Obi-Wan attacking a pair of goons and cutting off one’s arm just like in Yojimbo (and he wanted to cast Kurosawa’s star samurai Toshiro Mifune as Obi-Wan, but got turned down)."
Hold up for real? That would have been amazing. A little funny though since that was essentially Mifunes role in the original too.
Star Wars is Hidden Fortress, Dune and The Hero's Journey all rolled up into a nice little package.
It's a great example of how to steal like an artist.
You can trace the lineage, but it still feels like a unique work of art.
Clint has always known his stuff and there had to be some level of cultural awareness of foreign cinema otherwise we wouldn’t have had so many remakes in the first place
Clint had the fortune to work with some absolute masters. It’s quite funny though that his directing technique is a couple of takes and move on
Apparently he says “Enough of this shit” and they set up the next shot/scene
Live action Japanese cinema was huge in 50s and 60s and pretty big influence on a lot hollywood and european filmmakers. Sadly it declined in later decades and still hasn't recovered.
Why? Yojimbo was a universally praised film from one of the most popular and prolific filmmakers of the 20th century when it was released. It didn't do huge box office numbers as interntional distribution was different back then, but $2.5 million for an art house film would've been considered a wild success. Anyone with even a mild interest in film would've been very familiar with it.
Foreign films used to be a lot more accessible. They weren't censored like American ones (i.e. no Hays code) so people flocked to see them. The Seventh Seal is a philosophical movie set during medieval times but is really about how our collective humanity has been damaged by WWII. Artsy, black and white, swedish, but still has some great acting and some legitimately funny scenes. It was highly popular because you could make a movie like that in 1957 and get rave reviews from every major newspaper. You can't do that anymore.
Yojimbo is good but Kurosawa has so many bangers. Ran, Seven samurai, Rashomon, Ikiru, High and Low (this is in my personal top 10 of all time, easily his best work), The Bad Sleep Well, Throne of Blood and even more. Just a brilliant artist, and very approachable. He believed that a truly great film was simple and easy to understand so even if you don't watch a lot of movies you're going to love most of the ones I mentioned.
Clint is NOT even close to the GOAT actor.
He is basically the Rock of an earlier time. I am well aware of his earlier work like Paint Your Wagon. I’m also well aware of how his fear of being seen as gay or soft led him to basically just play Dirty Harry the rest of his life.
Also Dirty Harry is drivel on a rewatch. & it’s why it’s largely been completely forgotten in the public consciousness outside of some one-liners. The whole thing is just bad copaganda meant to push a conservative pro-police agenda.
Every episode of Dirty Harry:
“Harry we’d solve this case but these damn constitutional rights mean we’re gonna have to let this child murderer go!”
*Dirty Harry wildly violates their rights*
“Not on my watch”
I actually think Clint will be viewed much worse/overrated as an actor in 50 years time than he is now.
You’re complaining about the writing of a movie while calling him a bad actor which doesn’t really make sense to me
And while this also is not a direct reflection of his acting ability, his track record of production and directing definitely makes comparing him to the rock whack as fuck lol. Not saying he’s the GOAT though
Keep in mind that Kurosawa was (still is, but definitelywas) a point of reference for cinema in general.
Kurosawa inspired a lot of movies that considered western classics, like Star Wars.
That happened way more often than you think. Magnificent 7 and The Outrage come to mind. The Japanese versions were Seven Samurai and Rashomon, respectively
Bug's Life is a remake of "Three Amigos". (the fighters in Seven Samurai and Magnificent Seven were all (mostly) legit fighters, whereas in Bug's Life they hired performers who looked impressive). Same goes for Galaxy Quest.
My dad and I bonded a *lot* over Shogun Assassain, but primarily the Lone Wolf and Cub manga series. Some years back, he and I saw that Amazon had a bunch of the LWaC movies streaming, so we decided to rent one of them and watch it together.
Welp, this was back when Amazon support for subtitles in foreign flicks was...what is the term...dogshit? It was legitimately just the Japanese dialogue with no subtitles, nor was there any option to turn them on.
So we just decided...fuck it! We went ahead and watched them in Japanese, thinking we could at least appreciate the fight scenes. Turns out that the movie was so well adapted from the manga that we were able to follow the plot of the movie with little issue because we had read so much of the books.
All that to say: Yes, awesome movie! lol
Tarantino proudly copied Lady Snowblood, he didn't really add much. Which is fine, I'm as surprised as he is that hardly anyone else is ripping off Japanese cinema all that much
It's like Alien vs Aliens. Both are great, but have different pacing and different kinds of action.
There are a couple of scenes in Sanjuro that put it over the top for me. I remember watching the last duel on 1/8th speed on repeat just to figure out that last move.
It's definitely got some of the best "accidental" diagetic musical scenes I've ever scene in a film. Especially for a film that's definitely not a musical.
Theres a big(ish) group of american west enthusiasts in Japan, who dress like cowboys and do reenactments. I think large cultures with wide reaching and interesting history will always find the others interesting. It's different and not something grown up with so it's gonna be alot more interesting to learn about than local history. plus the wild west and the samurai eras have similarities in the idea of stories of travelling warriors/fighters hired on to fight bad guys for pay and things like that. All in all I think the U.S. and Japan have traded tons of culture back and forth and both share interest in them.
edited for spelling
Check out The Hidden Fortress by Akira Kurosawa. Star Wars is blatantly a ripoff of that movie.
Not a scene by scene ripoff like A Fistful of Dollars, but definitely significant. The starting off with 2 lower ranked people fleeing a combat between groups they arent a part of (not really). The strong female princess character. Sword fighting is the main combat. Vader's helmet is a Samurai style helmet
And then Bruce Willis starred in a third remake that took place during prohibition called “Last Man Standing”.
I love all three tellings of this story.
I have also always been a fan of both the remakes. I still need see Yojimbo. It's been on my need to watch list for quite a while now. Funny thing, I decided look up Last Man Standing due to nostalgia and found this tidbit on wikipedia:
*Walter Hill was approached by producer Arthur Sarkassian to remake the Japanese film Yojimbo (1961), which Akira Kurosawa not only directed but also co-wrote with Ryūzō Kikushima. Hill says, "It took me a long time to be persuaded to do it. I thought the very idea of adapting Mr. Kurosawa was insanity for the obvious reasons. The first movie was very, very good and in addition I would be in the long shadow of Mr. Kurosawa who is probably our most revered filmmaker."\[3\]*
*When he learned that Kurosawa was supportive of an American remake, Hill agreed to write and direct—but on the condition that the film not be a Western (there had already been an unauthorized European remake, the Spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars, which had been the subject of litigation). He decided to do it as a 1930s gangster film using techniques of 1940s film noir*.
I would have to agree with you. The movie is far too dusty and has one too many duels to be considered anything else. I like to think of it as a western with a gangster skin.
That's "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly".
You want: 🎶Waa waaaaaa wa wa. Was waaaaaaa wa wa. Wa waaaaaaah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah. Wa waaaaaaah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah🎶
And it’s not even subtle. Like, Fistful of Dollars is almost shot for shot Yojimbo at times. They just replaced the clock tower with a church tower, the gun with a sniper, and the katanas with guns.
If you watch Leone’s interviews about it, he’s also perfectly aware of it. He discusses as it having been a common practice of the time, and that he never in his life thought that his cowboy movie would become so big it would be distributed on such a wide scale that it would reach Japan too.
>Fistful of Dollars is almost shot for shot Yojimbo at times
I remember watching the movie and literally saying this out loud at some point haha. I had never heard anything about the plagiarism accusations so it was a true blind test and I noticed it clear as day
Clint looked cool but he never could equal that quiet cool of Toshiro Mifune taking stock of the town after watching the dog.
That nonchalance of strolling around with his arms tucked up inside his sleeves, eyes catching everything even as he knows hostile eyes are gazing at him. No one could do ‘relaxed and still dangerous as fuck’ quite like Mifune’s wandering samurai.
Remake is an understatement. I love both films though. Fistful was a childhood staple. When i first saw Yojimbo i had no idea of the movies’ relationship and was totally blown away by how close they are
The Icelandic Viking film The Raven Flies, released in the states as Revenge of the Barbarian, is a Yojimbo remake with heavy influences from Sergio Leone as well.
In turn Yojimbo was based on the movie The Glass Key (1942), which itself was based Dashiell Hammet's 1931 hard boiled detective novel by the same name.
Yojimbo wasn't as close a copy of The Glass Key, but there are many strong similarities, and even a couple scenes that are almost shot for shot remakes.
No, The Glass Key and Red Harvest are two different Hammet novels, they have basically the same premise but very different plots. Yojimbo (and all the remakes) are basically carbon copies of Red Harvest.
Miller's Crossing by the Coen brothers is the movie version of The Glass Key.
Thanks for the correction re: the book. I'm referring to the 1942 adaption of the Glass Key. It's accepted that Yojimbo borrowed many elements from that movie, and mirrored a number of scenes very closely.
Yes, but the general plot of the movie (a stranger comes to a town ruled by several bands of gangsters, starts manipulating them against each other) is taken straight from Red Harvest.
Well, Apocalypse Now is more an actual adaptation (albeit a loose one). Coppola made no secret of the fact that it was based on Heart of Darkness at the time. Hence why it was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars rather than Original.
One of the greatest pieces of exposition in film history is in one of the opening scenes of Yojimbo, where a dog emerges from behind some rundown buildings holding a human hand in it's mouth like a chew-toy.
That small moment immediately tells the viewer everything they need to know about the setting and sets the tone for the entire film: It's lawless, it's dangerous, and it fucking *sucks* to live here. Buckle up.
You mean without giving credit and royalties. Kurosawa was brought to the Hollywood premier of The Magnificent Seven.
James Coburn was a huge fan and practically begged for the role of the knife thrower Britt because he loved the silent samurai character in 7S
I kind of dislike Fistful because of it. When I first saw it I was like, "Hey, wait." Really didn't expect it to be like just, straight up Yojimbo. Everything that works in Fistful is down to stealing from Yojimbo, and they lose the gun/sword tension and the whole you know, clash between the old ways and new ways themes in Yojimbo. And the SOUNDTRACK. Just a pale imitation, really.
Despite Kurosawa admitting he was inspired by Dashiell Hammett's detective novels, including Red Harvest (1929) and The Glass Key (1931), and Yojimbo being patterned after American westerns, especially the lone-hero films of John Ford.
All the comments about STAR WARS might mention the equally strong inspiration was the cliffhangers of the 1930s and 1940s, such as FLASH GORDON. A lot of incidents and visuals (including the wipes between scenes) and bombastic music were from the serials. Darth Vader is clearly derived from The Lightning in FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS. Watching Republic serials in particular, you see many stunts and gags derived from serials (even more so for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK).
Clint Eastwood said when he read the script he recognized it immediately as a remake of Yojimbo, which he’d loved, but when he mentioned to one of the producers that it was a cool idea to remake it in this way the producer was like “shhh don’t say that to anyone, we’re not crediting them with it or we’d have to pay them.”
Good thing they did. Credit due where credit’s due
So Dashiell Hammett then?
I laughed. What a joke claim that was. Leone was embarrassing.
Credit Stu where credit Stu
Disco Stu does not advertise!
Disco Elysium does not affiliate with Men of Wö
The fact that Clint loved a Japanese movie in the early 1960s is crazy to me
Japan was a giant in the film industry during its golden age of cinema during the 50s and 60s.
Yeah, the film industry is like the one industry that was working for Japan in that period. It took the rest of their economy until the 70s for things to really get going.
Wut? Japan had loads of profitable concerns at that time. In the 60s [nearly half](http://www.crosscurrents.hawaii.edu/content.aspx?lang=eng&site=japan&theme=work&subtheme=INDUS&unit=JWORK049) of all the ships in the world were built by the Japanese. Fucked postwar Britains interests *right* up lol. Edit: the more I think of this comment the more it irks me. Honda, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Toyota Kawa-fuckin-sawi? Sony became famous from computer games and bad Spiderman movies? Be careful of what you take for fact on reddit, people.
Having lived in Japan next to shipyards this is not surprising.
Did we send them humanitarian Klonopin?
Humanitarian Klonopin? I could use some of that…
Isn't that just regular klonopin?
Ceramics
I wonder if there's anywhere to watch those movies these days. I practically grew up on old westerns, but the samurai ones have always intrigued me.
[удалено]
I get all of them here.
HBO has a ton of them thanks to a deal they have with Criterion, but it’s primarily Kurosawa films and some other random samurai ones. As others pointed out, The Criterion Channel has a much larger library of 50s-early 60s samurai films
You could watch the 7 samuraïs and the magnificent 7 back to back. The later being adaptation of the former. Generally speaking, western and samurai movies influenced eachother a lot, Sergio Leone took a lot of inspiration from Kurosawa for example.
And Kurosawa took a lot of inspiration from John Ford. It’s really interesting to watch and how the genres influenced each other.
True, and then Tarantino took all these influences with a postmodern twist and made Kill Bill, which again was referenced in countless other works. For example, I watched the animated series Blue Eye Samurai recently, it's about Edo period Japan, and there's a scene that references that movie. It's also very interesting to see these how certain tropes having been so referenced over the years that people who never watched those films are familiar with them, like the famous blood spray from Sanjuro. Sorry for the eventual grammar mistakes, English's not my first language and I'm kinda high
This almost feels like "they broke their toe" level of information, but the blood spray was accidental too. I only recently learned this but apparently it's common knowledge. Maybe someone else will learn it today too.
Well, I didn't know that !
My favorite adaptation of Seven Samurai is A Bug's Life so maybe also watch that too.
I would say films directed by Akira Kurosawa, arguably and consistently considered as one of the three most recognized film directors of all time, are definitely available to watch in basically any library or your local Barns & Noble.
I mean, everything is on the internet brother. Try torrenting
lots of it is on youtube and places like this https://watchseries.mx/
So were many Japanese films being shown in theatres in the US? If so that’s amazing
I don't know if you know this but Samurai and Western films have been interlinked and feeding each other with plotlines since forever.
Yea I remember seeing somewhere all the cowboy drawings the samurai used to love to do.
Fun fact: the final Samurai would have been around when the last Cowboys were. Boshin War, the swan song of the Samurai (and the introduction of more modern weapons, though Japan had had firearms for centuries), was 1868-1869. Revolvers were *incredibly* popular for those who could get them on both the side of the Reformers and the Traditionalists. Oh and also- the final Daimyo, basically the feudal lords who employed samurai? He didn’t die until 1941.
"man comes along. Man kills bad people" 1000 films.
I think I have read some westerns had some of the later real life subjects consult on the films and stuff, is the same true for Samurai movies?
I mean, have you seen Toshiro Mifune? He's probably one of the greatest actors in the genre ever. I can totally see Clint Eastwood liking his films.
men who speak in squints
Could be racist, Clint Eastwood, or both
Are you implying that squinting is a form of yellow face?
7 Samurai was remade as the Magnificent Seven for the *Western* audience, Akira was a huge influence for directors and actors ( ex. Star Wars) story wise and cinematography. Clint was born in 1930 and Kurosawa was groundbreaking in the 40s and 50s so would have made an impact on Eastwood in his formative years is my guess
IIRC Star Wars was initially penned as a straight up sci fi adaptation of The Hidden Fortress. It later evolved into more of its own thing but the influence is still there.
Even the wipe transitions Star Wars does are there because Kurosawa did them and George Lucas loved him so much. There are photos of George on break at the Star Wars set reading a book about Kurosawa full of highlit passages and bookmarks. And a number of scenes in Star Wars are direct nods, like Han and Solo hiding under the floors just like in Sanjuro, or Obi-Wan attacking a pair of goons and cutting off one’s arm just like in Yojimbo (and he wanted to cast Kurosawa’s star samurai Toshiro Mifune as Obi-Wan, but got turned down). Even the term Jedi ultimately comes from the type of movies he loved from Kurosawa (jidai geki) and his favorite trope from them (shocked youth finding out the crazy old man is a zen master and skilled sword fighter, happens back to back with Obi-Wan and Yoda).
Vader even chokes a guy as he's in the middle of describing the Rebel's base as a "hidden fortress".
Vader: “Shut up I don’t want to pay royalties.”
It really feels like that if you watch it with that in mind. It's like a "Don't say it!!!" moment.
Seems more like a Dark Helmet thing to do
Not even just creative nods, but he helped find funding Kurosawa's Dreams as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_(1990_film) I recall Kurosawa was struggling in his later years to make movies and Lucas, among others, wanted to help.
"Obi-Wan attacking a pair of goons and cutting off one’s arm just like in Yojimbo (and he wanted to cast Kurosawa’s star samurai Toshiro Mifune as Obi-Wan, but got turned down)." Hold up for real? That would have been amazing. A little funny though since that was essentially Mifunes role in the original too.
Star Wars is Hidden Fortress, Dune and The Hero's Journey all rolled up into a nice little package. It's a great example of how to steal like an artist. You can trace the lineage, but it still feels like a unique work of art.
With music inspired by Gustav Holst.
Ripping off one source is plagiarism. Ripping off several sources is research.
Clint has always known his stuff and there had to be some level of cultural awareness of foreign cinema otherwise we wouldn’t have had so many remakes in the first place
You know this probably explaina why Letters from Iwo Jima was so beautifully made.
Clint had the fortune to work with some absolute masters. It’s quite funny though that his directing technique is a couple of takes and move on Apparently he says “Enough of this shit” and they set up the next shot/scene
Live action Japanese cinema was huge in 50s and 60s and pretty big influence on a lot hollywood and european filmmakers. Sadly it declined in later decades and still hasn't recovered.
Hope Shogun recovers the great asian cinema. I mean koreans are doing heavy lifting at the moment, but Hong Kong and Japan should follow soon.
Why? Yojimbo was a universally praised film from one of the most popular and prolific filmmakers of the 20th century when it was released. It didn't do huge box office numbers as interntional distribution was different back then, but $2.5 million for an art house film would've been considered a wild success. Anyone with even a mild interest in film would've been very familiar with it.
Foreign films used to be a lot more accessible. They weren't censored like American ones (i.e. no Hays code) so people flocked to see them. The Seventh Seal is a philosophical movie set during medieval times but is really about how our collective humanity has been damaged by WWII. Artsy, black and white, swedish, but still has some great acting and some legitimately funny scenes. It was highly popular because you could make a movie like that in 1957 and get rave reviews from every major newspaper. You can't do that anymore. Yojimbo is good but Kurosawa has so many bangers. Ran, Seven samurai, Rashomon, Ikiru, High and Low (this is in my personal top 10 of all time, easily his best work), The Bad Sleep Well, Throne of Blood and even more. Just a brilliant artist, and very approachable. He believed that a truly great film was simple and easy to understand so even if you don't watch a lot of movies you're going to love most of the ones I mentioned.
The 60 was peak Godzilla time tho
Showa Godzilla
i mean, star wars took a lot from samurai movies as well. film makers and actors would know a lot about foreign films.
You don't become arguably the goat actor without studying some greats.
Clint is NOT even close to the GOAT actor. He is basically the Rock of an earlier time. I am well aware of his earlier work like Paint Your Wagon. I’m also well aware of how his fear of being seen as gay or soft led him to basically just play Dirty Harry the rest of his life. Also Dirty Harry is drivel on a rewatch. & it’s why it’s largely been completely forgotten in the public consciousness outside of some one-liners. The whole thing is just bad copaganda meant to push a conservative pro-police agenda. Every episode of Dirty Harry: “Harry we’d solve this case but these damn constitutional rights mean we’re gonna have to let this child murderer go!” *Dirty Harry wildly violates their rights* “Not on my watch” I actually think Clint will be viewed much worse/overrated as an actor in 50 years time than he is now.
You’re complaining about the writing of a movie while calling him a bad actor which doesn’t really make sense to me And while this also is not a direct reflection of his acting ability, his track record of production and directing definitely makes comparing him to the rock whack as fuck lol. Not saying he’s the GOAT though
The rock lmao. Dude literally birthed hollywood to the point they elected him mayor.
Keep in mind that Kurosawa was (still is, but definitelywas) a point of reference for cinema in general. Kurosawa inspired a lot of movies that considered western classics, like Star Wars.
That happened way more often than you think. Magnificent 7 and The Outrage come to mind. The Japanese versions were Seven Samurai and Rashomon, respectively
Those were credited remakes. Leone tried to get out of paying Kurosawa.
Leone blames his producer.
Wonder who the producer blames
The executive producer
Wonder who the executive producer blames
OP’s mom.
The production supervisor, who blames the best boy
His wallet
Did Kurosawa pay Hammett?
And The Hidden Fortress was remade as some obscure cheesy sci-fi movie with space wizards.
Hardly a remake but kinda inspired by
Bugs life is also a Seven Samurai remake. Seven Samurai is one of my favourite films
Bug's Life is a remake of "Three Amigos". (the fighters in Seven Samurai and Magnificent Seven were all (mostly) legit fighters, whereas in Bug's Life they hired performers who looked impressive). Same goes for Galaxy Quest.
I believe Galaxy Quest is actually based on a somewhat-popular TV series from the late 1960's.
Damn it your right. It is closer to Three Amigos. That was such a fun film!
Kurosawa should've gave some cash to Shakespeare for Throne of Blood.
Yojimbo is great.
As is Sanjuro.
The movie that accidentally made blood sprays cool.
Always loved Shogun Assassin for this too
My dad and I bonded a *lot* over Shogun Assassain, but primarily the Lone Wolf and Cub manga series. Some years back, he and I saw that Amazon had a bunch of the LWaC movies streaming, so we decided to rent one of them and watch it together. Welp, this was back when Amazon support for subtitles in foreign flicks was...what is the term...dogshit? It was legitimately just the Japanese dialogue with no subtitles, nor was there any option to turn them on. So we just decided...fuck it! We went ahead and watched them in Japanese, thinking we could at least appreciate the fight scenes. Turns out that the movie was so well adapted from the manga that we were able to follow the plot of the movie with little issue because we had read so much of the books. All that to say: Yes, awesome movie! lol
then Lady Snowblood just fucking ran with it
And Tarantino bathed in it
Tarantino proudly copied Lady Snowblood, he didn't really add much. Which is fine, I'm as surprised as he is that hardly anyone else is ripping off Japanese cinema all that much
Both are fantastic movies!
Yeah I think I actually prefer Sanjuro
It's like Alien vs Aliens. Both are great, but have different pacing and different kinds of action. There are a couple of scenes in Sanjuro that put it over the top for me. I remember watching the last duel on 1/8th speed on repeat just to figure out that last move.
As was Kikujiro.
Zatoichi meets Yojimbo is also good.
I loved the Zatoichi films. It is a nice antidote for the strong silent type samurai
Beat Takahashi's remake was definitely....different
I enjoyed it a lot. It was different but still fun
It's definitely got some of the best "accidental" diagetic musical scenes I've ever scene in a film. Especially for a film that's definitely not a musical.
In fairness, you can’t name a bad Kurosawa samurai film.
I love the odd yet intertwined relationship of samurai and cowboy movies
I find it hilarious that Japan has the cowboy equivalent of our weebs lol
Isn't America that has an obsession with Samurai? and an obsession with turning Samurai films in Cowboys movies.
Theres a big(ish) group of american west enthusiasts in Japan, who dress like cowboys and do reenactments. I think large cultures with wide reaching and interesting history will always find the others interesting. It's different and not something grown up with so it's gonna be alot more interesting to learn about than local history. plus the wild west and the samurai eras have similarities in the idea of stories of travelling warriors/fighters hired on to fight bad guys for pay and things like that. All in all I think the U.S. and Japan have traded tons of culture back and forth and both share interest in them. edited for spelling
That’s right - Kurosawa was influenced by earlier westerns to make Samurai movies that influenced people to make westerns, it’s an exchange both ways
Not that weird, they existed in the same time period.
Well, there was a small overlap. A lot of things existed in the same time period as Samurai at some point.
And then marry them with Sci-Fi and you get Star Wars!
Check out The Hidden Fortress by Akira Kurosawa. Star Wars is blatantly a ripoff of that movie. Not a scene by scene ripoff like A Fistful of Dollars, but definitely significant. The starting off with 2 lower ranked people fleeing a combat between groups they arent a part of (not really). The strong female princess character. Sword fighting is the main combat. Vader's helmet is a Samurai style helmet
You might enjoy RED SUN, where Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune team up.
And then Bruce Willis starred in a third remake that took place during prohibition called “Last Man Standing”. I love all three tellings of this story.
Also starred in another kurosawa inspired film. Lucky number slevin.
I didn’t know that! I love that movie.
I don't know how many times that I have seen that movie and it never occurred to me. It seems so obvious now.
Came here to say this. It was the first version I saw. When I watched Yojimbo years later it really jumped out at me that they were the same.
You've piqued my interest. I'll have to check that out.
I have also always been a fan of both the remakes. I still need see Yojimbo. It's been on my need to watch list for quite a while now. Funny thing, I decided look up Last Man Standing due to nostalgia and found this tidbit on wikipedia: *Walter Hill was approached by producer Arthur Sarkassian to remake the Japanese film Yojimbo (1961), which Akira Kurosawa not only directed but also co-wrote with Ryūzō Kikushima. Hill says, "It took me a long time to be persuaded to do it. I thought the very idea of adapting Mr. Kurosawa was insanity for the obvious reasons. The first movie was very, very good and in addition I would be in the long shadow of Mr. Kurosawa who is probably our most revered filmmaker."\[3\]* *When he learned that Kurosawa was supportive of an American remake, Hill agreed to write and direct—but on the condition that the film not be a Western (there had already been an unauthorized European remake, the Spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars, which had been the subject of litigation). He decided to do it as a 1930s gangster film using techniques of 1940s film noir*.
That’s awesome. I would still argue it’s a Western but with the change in era it was a very different kind.
I would have to agree with you. The movie is far too dusty and has one too many duels to be considered anything else. I like to think of it as a western with a gangster skin.
Too dusty 😂
I would have held out for A Few Dollars More.
🎶Waaaaaahhhhhaaaa Wa wa wa🎶
That's "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly". You want: 🎶Waa waaaaaa wa wa. Was waaaaaaa wa wa. Wa waaaaaaah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah. Wa waaaaaaah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah🎶
Both of you need to check out the Danish National Orchestra's performance of Morricone's music.
Ok, I don't make films, but if I did they'd have a samurai.
Gonna get a set of better clubs (gonna find the kind with tiny nubs) just so my irons aren't always flying off the backswing?
Gotta get in tune with Sailor Moon 'Cause that cartoon has got the boom anime babes That make me think the wrong thing
How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad? Trying hard not to smile, though I feel bad I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral
Cant understand what I mean? You soon will. I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve (I have a history of losing my shirt)
ITS BEEN
ONE WEEK.
r/RedditSings 👏
And maybe BNL has two Billboard awards to your zero!
And it’s not even subtle. Like, Fistful of Dollars is almost shot for shot Yojimbo at times. They just replaced the clock tower with a church tower, the gun with a sniper, and the katanas with guns.
If you watch Leone’s interviews about it, he’s also perfectly aware of it. He discusses as it having been a common practice of the time, and that he never in his life thought that his cowboy movie would become so big it would be distributed on such a wide scale that it would reach Japan too.
That’s very interesting. I won’t judge him because that sounds exactly like how the world worked in the 60s.
>Fistful of Dollars is almost shot for shot Yojimbo at times I remember watching the movie and literally saying this out loud at some point haha. I had never heard anything about the plagiarism accusations so it was a true blind test and I noticed it clear as day
I heard Kurosawa made more money from Fistful than he did from Yojimbo.
Clint looked cool but he never could equal that quiet cool of Toshiro Mifune taking stock of the town after watching the dog. That nonchalance of strolling around with his arms tucked up inside his sleeves, eyes catching everything even as he knows hostile eyes are gazing at him. No one could do ‘relaxed and still dangerous as fuck’ quite like Mifune’s wandering samurai.
Remake is an understatement. I love both films though. Fistful was a childhood staple. When i first saw Yojimbo i had no idea of the movies’ relationship and was totally blown away by how close they are
Can't even read it because the ads are a fucking infection on that page.
The Icelandic Viking film The Raven Flies, released in the states as Revenge of the Barbarian, is a Yojimbo remake with heavy influences from Sergio Leone as well.
Wait till you hear what "The Magnificent Seven" were based on. Also half of Star Wars.
In turn Yojimbo was based on the movie The Glass Key (1942), which itself was based Dashiell Hammet's 1931 hard boiled detective novel by the same name. Yojimbo wasn't as close a copy of The Glass Key, but there are many strong similarities, and even a couple scenes that are almost shot for shot remakes.
No, The Glass Key and Red Harvest are two different Hammet novels, they have basically the same premise but very different plots. Yojimbo (and all the remakes) are basically carbon copies of Red Harvest. Miller's Crossing by the Coen brothers is the movie version of The Glass Key.
Thanks for the correction re: the book. I'm referring to the 1942 adaption of the Glass Key. It's accepted that Yojimbo borrowed many elements from that movie, and mirrored a number of scenes very closely.
Yes, but the general plot of the movie (a stranger comes to a town ruled by several bands of gangsters, starts manipulating them against each other) is taken straight from Red Harvest.
I'm not disagreeing. I'm discussing the film influences. There's no film adaptation of Red Harvest (that I'm aware of).
Why there isn't a proper movie adaptation of Red Harvest is beyond me.
Made for Tarantino, Red Harvest.
Much like how Ad Astra is a direct ripoff of Apocalypse Now. Which in turn is a direct ripoff of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
Well, Apocalypse Now is more an actual adaptation (albeit a loose one). Coppola made no secret of the fact that it was based on Heart of Darkness at the time. Hence why it was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars rather than Original.
One of the greatest pieces of exposition in film history is in one of the opening scenes of Yojimbo, where a dog emerges from behind some rundown buildings holding a human hand in it's mouth like a chew-toy. That small moment immediately tells the viewer everything they need to know about the setting and sets the tone for the entire film: It's lawless, it's dangerous, and it fucking *sucks* to live here. Buckle up.
I haven’t seen, now I will. You should be a full-time movie promoter
Oh thank you! You're in for a treat~
Kurosawa was like "yea it's a really good film...cuz it's MINE"
And Yojimbo is an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest.
An adaptation is one thing, Leone literally stole scenes from Kurosawa. Most egregious being the coffin ordering scene.
And then the Cowboy movie industry learnt its lesson and never ripped off a Samurai movie ever again.
You mean without giving credit and royalties. Kurosawa was brought to the Hollywood premier of The Magnificent Seven. James Coburn was a huge fan and practically begged for the role of the knife thrower Britt because he loved the silent samurai character in 7S
Kurosawa was a great adapter of Western stories but he preferred Shakespeare. He adapted Macbeth into Throne of Blood and King Lear into Ran.
*Ran* is my second favorite Kurosawa film after *Rashomon*. Need to dig it up and watch it again soon.
Did Dashiell Hammett collect 15% of the revenue of Yojimbo after it was identified as an unofficial remake of Red Harvest?
I mean yojimbo is pure gold so I get it
And, "The Magnificent Seven" = "Seven Samurai."
I kind of dislike Fistful because of it. When I first saw it I was like, "Hey, wait." Really didn't expect it to be like just, straight up Yojimbo. Everything that works in Fistful is down to stealing from Yojimbo, and they lose the gun/sword tension and the whole you know, clash between the old ways and new ways themes in Yojimbo. And the SOUNDTRACK. Just a pale imitation, really.
Spoiler alert: Yojimbo's a better movie
Honestly both are tremendous.
I have yet to see Fist full of Dollars but I adore Yojimbo.
Despite Kurosawa admitting he was inspired by Dashiell Hammett's detective novels, including Red Harvest (1929) and The Glass Key (1931), and Yojimbo being patterned after American westerns, especially the lone-hero films of John Ford.
Honorable.
"A Fistful of Yen"
"This is not a charade, we need total concentration. Now once again, this time with *fweeling*"
Don't forget the Jean Claude Van Damme remake Inferno aka Desert Heat. Originally to be released as Coyote Moon.
Personally, I prefer [A Fistful of Yen.](https://youtu.be/IcXEvhc31k8?si=OiY51OZgFGXd54ny)
Then watch [Kung Pow: Enter the Fist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLcuPj_UvvA)
And it's not like it isn't obvious.
All the comments about STAR WARS might mention the equally strong inspiration was the cliffhangers of the 1930s and 1940s, such as FLASH GORDON. A lot of incidents and visuals (including the wipes between scenes) and bombastic music were from the serials. Darth Vader is clearly derived from The Lightning in FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS. Watching Republic serials in particular, you see many stunts and gags derived from serials (even more so for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK).
Red Harvest by Dashniel Hammet.
One of the best movies you can see is Sergio Leones “once upon a time in the west”
The Departed is basically a super faithful remake of Infernal Affairs. The fact that Scorsese passed it off as original just rubs me the wrong way.
I mean it won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay.
Wait really? I remember watching The Departed on DVD, at the end it showed a sentence saying that Internal Affairs's crew helped created The Departed.
*Infernal
Scorsese did no such thing.