The deed earns him the friendship of fellow gunslinger and gambler, Vinn Tanner, played by Steve McQueen (The Great Escape). I've since seen others that are excellent as well, (The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo and Ran), but 'Seven Samurai' remains his masterwork as far as I'm concerned. Similar to Calvera, Bogue spouts religious platitudes to justify his abuse and capitalistic aspirations, but dissimilarly, he doesn't actually seem to believe them. Tellingly, though, Kurosawa’s global appeal didn’t reach as far as the Japanese critics who took part; not one of them voted for Seven Samurai, or any other Kurosawa film, preferring the subtler homegrown talents of Yasujirô Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi. Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) is a three-and-a half-hour-long black-and-white epic set in war-torn, 16th-Century Japan. WandaVision Ratings, Snyder Cut Trailer Views - Disney Plus vs HBO Max! Shop our range of T-Shirts, Tanks, Hoodies, Dresses, and more. After all this meticulous scene-setting, the film’s final hour-and-a-half unfurls in an escalating series of skirmishes. Despite his humanization, he sees himself as a force of nature and his job a part of the natural order of things. Seven Samuraiand all its various adaptations revolve around a group of mercenaries who accept a seemingly impossible job. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. It makes the threat all the more terrifying, knowing that no showdown with a big bad will put an end to the conflict. A remake of The Magnificent Seven hit theaters last week, reteaming director Antoine Fuqua with star Denzel Washington following their work together on Training Day and The Equalizer. Seven Samurai (1954) and The Magnificent Seven (1960) The original Star Wars movies drew heavily from the work of Akira Kurosawa, with The Hidden Fortress being a … Many of the Samurai in this period (like the majority of the titular seven) had become masterless ronin, wandering jobless and hunted. It is critically regarded as one of the greatest films of all time and has been called one of the most remade, reworked, and referenced films in history. The first, and still most noteworthy of these remakes is the 1960 American Western, The Magnificent Seven. Akira Kurosawa’s epic topped BBC Culture’s poll to find the 100 greatest foreign-language films. Sam Chisolm, played by Denzel Washington, is the man who would become the leader of The (rebooted) Magnificent Seven.  The raid will continue until every bandit has been defeated or the village is razed. An odd contradiction of a man, he greets the villager Sotero with a hug before stealing goods from his shop and explaining to him how unfortunate the world has become, now that people have turned away from religion. Kurosawa followed Seven Samurai with other chambara pictures, including Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962), but his popularity in the West seemed to work against him in his native land, where there was a certain amount of resentment and suspicion; if Westerners found Kurosawa’s films so appealing, perhaps this meant they weren’t as authentically Japanese as quieter offerings by Mizoguchi or Ozu. As for his payment, Yojimbo will initially ask the player for hundreds of thousands of gil, but it is possible to haggle with him. Eventually, it is revealed that he was a child of farmers, orphaned during a similar attack to the one they face now. The original Seven Samurai takes place in 1586, a time in Japanese history defined by near-constant military conflict between the nobles of separate regions. Gagazet. After Kambei publically saves the child and dispatches of the thief, two fighters cut past the peasants to garner his attention. But with no set historical values to replace them, the country was going through something of an identity crisis. This version takes place entirely in Northern California, nowhere near the Mexican border, in a town called Rose Creek. Watched as #42 (Samurai) in the 2021 Criterion Challenge. Most notably, Kyuzo's epic disappearance into the bandit camp at night, only to return in the morning, having killed two and stolen a musket has unexpected results. " In every film, the master is discovered, ready to participate in a duel. * In fact, an entire textbook could be written on Seven Samurai's legacy and the differences between its various adaptations, but for a simple comparison of differences between that formative classic, the original Magnificent Seven, and this week's reboot, you're in the right place! The Magnificent Seven (1960) changed the details of the premise and the setting but is otherwise faithful to its source material. In 1983, an Italian variant was made, called The Seven Magnificent Gladiators. In Seven Samurai, Kyuzo, played by Seiji Miyaguchi (Ikiru), is fighting with sticks. Like Rikichi, Emma's involvement moving forward is one of revenge, and she continues to be an active agent in the story. He attempts to prove his samurai nobility by showing them a (stolen) family tree document. Unlike Rikichi, Emma is nearly as skilled a fighter as the Seven, and serves as a replacement seventh gun when one skulks away from the final battle. Both Katsushiro and Kikuchiyo are defined by their failures to cross the aisle of their preordained social class, an aspect vital to Seven Samurai's themes. However, The Magnificent Seven (1960) lost a lot of the cultural exploration of Seven Samurai simply because its setting hearkens to a different culture. Rōnin are often depicted in the jidaigeki of Akira Kurosawa, in particular Yojimbo, Sanjuro and Seven Samurai. Noble families were crumbling, samurai were scattered and leaderless, and social chaos was at an all time high. With no true strife of social boundaries to battle, The Magnificent Seven lost the added layer of sacrifice that the Seven must make to do the right thing. He offers to fight on the side of the highest bidder, but then secretly arranges a ploy to have both sides destroy each other. The other warrior to approach Kambei is "The Loon," played by Toshirô Mifune. Seven Samurai is the better and most influential movie but I love The Good, the Bad and the Ugly much, much more. 3:38. It is a happy ending that Katsushiro is not afforded. When the affair is discovered by Shino's father, he is furious, claiming his daughter has been made "damaged goods. In 1971 he attempted suicide, and his next three projects – Dersu Uzala (1975), Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985) – got off the ground only thanks to support from admirers in the USSR, the US and France. We always know who’s who, where everyone is, what they’re doing and – thanks to an infographic-style banner – exactly how many bandits there are left to kill at any given moment. Seven Samurai, arguably the greatest film ever made in Japan, combined brilliant performances, ... Other classics, including Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962), would follow. After their WWII loss and occupation by U.S. forces, many Japanese citizens were bitter about the "samurai values" that had led them down such an aggressive path. It's not the first time that Seven Samurai has been re-re-booted. Fortunately, he gets over himself by the film's end, settling for a quiet life with the farmer's daughter. With the exception of The Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven, that cross-pollination is nowhere more evident than in Yojimbo. Zatoichi meets Yojimbo, Musahi vs Kojiro (via) You might also like this bad boy, a dramatisation of Miyamoto Musashi VS Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryu island in 1612. The film begins as a villager from a poor mountain town of farmers overhears a group of bandits planning to raid their home for food after the barley harvest. This is probably one of the most famous duels in Japanese history. Unfortunately, none of these new characters are used in a way that adds thematic value to a film, which leaves a gaping hole in the core of a story that was originally envisioned to be so much more. Kurosawa's vision of heroism was of exceptional men stepping in to defend people who can offer them nothing. The village elder agrees, much to the chagrin of the other frightened villagers, and Rikichi is sent with companions to recruit Samurai, with only rice as payment. Though it isn't revealed until deep into the film's second act, Rikichi's wife was stolen by the bandits for a horrific life as an opiated sex slave. The second act shows the samurai surveying the landscape they will have to defend, drilling the farmers into a fighting force, and, in the young samurai’s case, falling in love with a village girl whose father has hidden her from the visitors. The story primarily takes place in a small Mexican village bordering the United States. He asks the purpose of the endeavor, and she tells him "I seek righteousness, but I'll take revenge." Once they arrive at the village, a love affair develops between Katsushiro and a peasant girl, Shino. Seven Samurai wasn't the first historical action movie to come out of Japan, but it did help to recontextualize the country's concepts of nobility and heroism in the wake of World War II. Like a game of Telephone, the more Seven Samurai has been adapted, the further it has naturally drifted from the themes that defined it. With no other choice, the village elder convinces them to hire gunslingers from a nearby border town for defense with what little money they have. They’re overheard by a farmer, who conveys the bad news to his fellow villagers. Stream Yojimbo on HBO Max. A small, poor, and defenseless village's well-being is threatened by a large antagonistic force and needs the assistance of seasoned fighters for defense. Even during his most successful film-making years, Kurosawa was often held in higher esteem abroad than in his own country. In 1998, Pixar and Disney released A Bug's Life which straddled the line between spoof of the concept and adaptation as a family adventure. (In one moment, he will proclaim godliness, and in the next burn a church down.) This eventually escalated into the imperialistic goals that defined Japan's mindset before the war. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday. Ghost of … Thanks to perhaps the most indelible character in Akira Kurosawa's oeuvre, YOJIMBO surpassed even Seven Samurai in popularity when it was released. Calvera sees his responsibilities towards his bandit horde as a father's to his children and he sees the bounty on his head as an unjust inconvenience. Zack Snyder's Justice League. Calvera's twisted worldview makes him a fascinating villain, though his chummy generosity may occasionally take some of the bite from the threat he poses. And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “If You Only Read 6 Things This Week”. In both iterations of The Magnificent Seven, James Coburn (The Great Escape) as Britt or Byung-hun Lee (I Saw the Devil) as Billy Rocks are dueling with pistols, but firing past the other player at a tin cup. The struggles of crossing the boundaries of class lines is a key theme in the tale, and it's best illustrated by two characters who can best be described as a Lover and a Loon. He also seems to feel that there's no need to be unpleasant about his theft (unless the weak get out of line). When the villagers point out that all they would have to pay them with is rice, he responds "Find hungry samurai.". In Seven Samurai, the face of the village resistance is Rikichi, played by Yoshio Tsuchiya (Yojimbo). No money from the licence fee was used to create this website. In my mind 'Seven Samurai' is as close to a perfect movie as can be: it has great writing, superb acting, marvelous cinematography and … 1 Intro 2 pre-fight 3 Fight 4 Winner NO RULES JUST BLOODSHED DBX! The climactic battle, drenched by torrential rain, is a miracle of brilliantly choreographed chaos: combatants running hither and thither through the mud, galloping horses, spears, arrows and the occasional bullet, all filmed with multiple cameras, which insert the audience into the thick of the action. In every instance, the challenger is effortlessly dispatched as the Master calmly obliges him. In 1986, ¡Three Amigos! But the most helpless were the peasants, simply trying to make a living in a chaotic world. Doing so was seen as a shame to their class, and would likely doom them to a life as a meager farmer. Unique Akira Kurosawa Movie clothing designed and sold by artists for women, men, and everyone. In the first scene of the film, Emma's husband, Matthew, stands up to Bogue, who shoots him dead in the street for his troubles. Unfortunately, this is only one way that Fuqua's vision has stripped the nuance from a story that once explored the moral ambiguity of survival. FF7: The English Lyrics For Sephiroth’s Theme & What They Mean, The Magnificent Seven(s) & Seven Samurai: Similarities & Differences, Zack Snyder's Justice League 2 Would Have Been the DCEU's Endgame, How House of Cards Prepared Robin Wright to Direct Ozark Season 4, Superman Just Used Lex Luthor's Own 'Kryptonite' To Beat Him, Logan Paul Pokémon TCG First-Edition Pull Hauls In $2 Million Of Cards, Daisy Ridley Was Reportedly Told Rey Was No One Until Rise of Skywalker, Battlefield 6 Alpha Coming Sooner Than Ever Before, Every Stephen King Movie & TV Show Coming In 2021, Why David’s Covenant Plan Causes A Huge Alien Movie Plot-Hole, One Marvel Team Is Really To Blame For King in Black's Victory, 90 Day Fiancé: Angela Deem's School Pics Reveal Her Natural Hair Color, PS Now Adds World War Z, Superhot, Ace Combat 7, & Infamous: Second Son In March 2021, Arrow’s Green Lantern Tease Connects to John Diggle’s Role in Flash Season 7, How WandaVision Ends: Every Prediction For The Finale, Big Brother: Why The Season 23 Casting Isn't Exciting Certain Fans, League of Legends MSI Tournament Will Be In-Person, Dates Announced, Lauren Cohan's Walking Dead Return Was A Terrible Homecoming For Maggie, The Dark Knight: How The Joker Killed Gambol, Green Lantern Hal Jordan Could Be About To Destroy The Corps. He had appropriated the samurai guise in an effort to overcome his social weakness but regularly overcompensates for his insecurities. This expansive tribute to the iconic Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai was first published on the Criterion Collection’s website in fall 2005, around the time of the Criterion releases of two films starring Nakadai: Kurosawa’s Ran and the less well-known samurai film Kill! As someone with seemingly no material needs, it's both an idealistically generous gesture and an oddly manipulative push at a chance to study under Kambei. " In a period when women were treated as property and forced to rely on men for care, a daughter's virginity was necessary for marriage into a good household. In the years following the end of Japanese isolationism, leaders in the country were fearful of western colonization. How does Seven Samurai connect to both The Magnificent Seven? Yes, the villagers are wretched and deceitful and, in the past, may have killed stray samurai, but they themselves have been victims of the warrior class, which has burned their homes, stolen their food and kidnapped their women. borrowed the plot, but gave it a comedic twist. Also they both have amazing cinematography and great characters. Kept you waiting?The Remaker once again compares old to new, and the translation from samurai to lone gunman is almost too good to be true. Invading samurai were known to rape farmer women, but seldom marry them. Unlike his predecessors, he's well off, so he takes simply because he's evil, not out of a sense of forced necessity. What the critics had to say about the top 25. This makes it a bit less believable that the homesteaders would accept their leadership, and also raises the question of how two poor homesteaders could afford their help. While the specifics of payment in this film aren't detailed (Emma merely claims it's "everything I have"), the money amount does seem to be significant enough to factor in the Seven's motivation for getting involved. Comparative Study of Yojimbo, Seven Samurai and The Yakuza, Black Rain. he asks. But, after more than six decades, his greatest film remains the gold standard for action movies that are both exciting and coherent. Though best known for samurai epics like SEVEN SAMURAI and YOJIMBO, his intimate, contemporary-set dramas, such as IKIRU and HIGH AND LOW, are just as searing. New day news. In every iteration of the story, four of the seven fall in battle, but their reasons for doing so differ. While the endeavor is successful, a breach in the defenses of his post results in a number of casualties, including one of the samurai, sending him into a wave of guilt and despair. But the influential Japanese director’s international success wasn’t mirrored at home, writes Anne Bilson. The 2016 remake actually follows the original Seven Samurai a bit more closely in this regard with Emma Cullen, played by Haley Bennett (Hardcore Henry). Yojimbo will first ask Yuna a question regarding her purpose in trying to acquire his help. For better or for worse, in the 2016 reboot, there is no Lover, there is no Loon, and there is no Chico amalgam of the two. Kurosawa’s popularity in the West seemed to work against him in his home country and he struggled to secure funding (Credit: Getty). (In The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, he plays "The Ugly".) While the leader organizes the group, the master is the most exceptional warrior, "A man only interested in perfecting his own skill. Seven Samurai plants its narrative hook right at the start, as a group of bandits decides to wait until after the harvest before raiding a village in the mountains. Read more about BBC Culture’s 100 greatest foreign-language films: - The 100 greatest foreign-language films- What the critics had to say about the top 25- The full list of critics who participated – and how they voted - Why are women film-makers 'excluded' from history?- 12 great foreign-language masterpieces you may not know, To begin with, he was the first Japanese director to win international acclaim when his film Rashomon was awarded the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. Yojimbo can be recruited at the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth near the entrance to Mt. When Rikichi and his compatriots first come across Kambei, he is cutting the ceremonial top-knot from his head. Everyone treats Kikuchiyo as a buffoon, but it’s he who dispels the mutual distrust between the villagers and their guests, revealing his own humble roots as a farmer’s son, and relaying a few home truths. In 2004, an alt-history anime series aired in Japan called Samurai 7. 14:05. In the meantime, he enjoys living vicariously through the movies, then musing on his blog at powerwolf.ink, All the latest gaming news, game reviews and trailers. Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa is the definition of a seminal auteur. The name he indicates, Kikuchiyo, belongs to a 13-year-old. Not only does the deed attract the attention of two other warriors who will join him in battle, it signals to Rikichi that he has found his savior. One of these is "The Lover," Isao Kimura (Ikiru) as Katsushiro Okamoto, a young boy from a noble samurai family who begs Kambei to be his sensei. At the end of Seven Samurai, Kambei stands before the graves of his comrades, with a friend that he has survived many losing battles with. There I think clearly Yojimbo is better, but Fist is fun. samurai_geisha. seven samurai akira kurosawa color, mifune, toshiro mifune, seven samurai, yojimbo, sanjuro, ran, kagemusha, kurosawa, samurai, japan, the throne of blood Seven Samurai Akira Kurosawa Toshiro Mifune color Classic T-Shirt A pity that it fails to be remembered alongside "Seven Samurai", "Ikiru", "Rashomon" and "Yojimbo… Why are women film-makers 'excluded' from history? Emma Cullen ends the film reminding the audience that the heroics of her seven guns-for-hire would not be forgotten, but perhaps the seven worth remembering are the ones who had the least to gain. He abandons his post and sets out to capture his own musket. Chris Larabee Adams, played by Yul Brynner (The King and I), is the man who would become the leader of The Magnificent Seven. A samurai drifter arrives at a small town where two factions are battling each other. The film’s ‘assembling the team’ sequence has been imitated by countless action and heist movies (Credit: Alamy). Consequently, the film combined the Lover and the Loon into the character of Chico, played by Horst Buchholz, in an attempt to play the character against his own desires. The most celebrated Japanese filmmaker of all time, Akira Kurosawa produced a staggering body of work that stands as a monument of artistic achievement. The Magnificent Seven (1960) personifies the threat with Calvera, played by Eli Wallach. I would have chosen Seven Samurai, but my last viewing of GBU confirmed it's earned spot in my top 20. It proves to Emma that he's tough, so she offers him money to fight for her. This is a trickier task than it may seem since many of the townsfolk take umbrage with the thought of a Native heathen being buried on "their" sacred land. Seven Samurai does it in a single film but the point is, we grow to care about the characters and their fates, and given those odds, we know not everyone will make it through. As elevator pitches go, it’s hardly ideal, yet not only did Seven Samurai take first place in BBC Culture’s 100 greatest foreign-language film poll, with 41 critics (20 per cent of the total) voting for it, Kurosawa was one of the most popular directors overall, with three of his other films (Rashomon, Ikiru and Ran) all making the top 100. One by one, six other rōnin (masterless samurai) are persuaded to participate in a probable suicide mission that will bring them neither money nor fame: an old war buddy of Kambei, a skilled archer, a cheerful fellow reduced to chopping wood, a master swordsman who just wants to perfect his art, an untested young samurai who is eager to prove his manhood. From 1998 to 2000 a television remake of The Magnificent Seven aired on CBS, starring Michael Biehn (The Terminator) and Ron Perlman (Hellboy). When the rice that the villagers were using to pay the samurai is stolen, Katsushiro secretly funds the purchase of more to keep the endeavor going. Yojimbo Movies Preview ... Sanjuro, a wandering samurai, enters a village that is overrun with corruption. The impending raid on the helpless villagers isn't personal - it simply is. Despite the similarities in the premise, there are only two archetypes from the Seven that have carried through all the way to the 2016 remake - The Leader and The Master. But perhaps that’s what we should have expected. The emotional purpose is to illustrate Kambei's selfless humility. The Magnificent Seven is in theaters now. Chico is a crazed kid, aching to prove himself as a heroic fighter, but is eventually revealed as the soft-hearted son of farmers. Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven (1960), and The Magnificent Seven (2016). Kurosawa directed approximately one film per year throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, including a number of highly regarded (and often adapted) films, such as Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961). The way each film uses the Master after his introduction is slightly different, but Seven Samurai's Kyuzo is the only one whose skill truly sets him apart from the others to drive the plot forward emotionally and practically. The masterless samurai Sanjuro, who slyly manipulates two warring clans to his own advantage in a small, dusty village, was so entertainingly embodied by the brilliant Toshiro Mifune that it was only a matter of time before he … It also proves to Hilario that he is a man who will defend the weak, regardless of their race or creed. Kurosawa also edited the film. Established by humble homesteaders, the town is quickly being overrun by an aggressive gold-mining organization. A small, poor, and defenseless village's well-being is threatened by a large antagonistic force and needs the assistance of seasoned fighters for defense. Kambei Shimada, as played by Takashi Shimura (Throne of Blood), is the man who would become the leader of the Seven Samurai. With the exception of the payment method, (a meager $20 for each gunslinger), The Magnificent Seven (1960) follows this beat almost exactly. The duel is initially harmless and played for sport. "In the end, we lost this battle too," he says. His 1961 film Yojimbo was directly (and illegally) remade by Sergio Leone into 1964's For a Fistful of Dollars, which catapulted Clint Eastwood's career into the stratosphere. Bandits casually enter the town, taking food and goods, and shooting a farmer who tries to protest. The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans. When Emma Cullen first comes across him, he has just collected a bounty through a marvelous display of gunmanship. In feudal Japan, status was everything, but Kambei's nobility is defined by his compassion and selfless heroism, not his hairstyle. The Hidden Fortress (1958) was an influence on Star Wars, and Yojimbo (itself a reworking of Dashiell Hammett’s novel Red Harvest) was rehashed by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars, which kick-started the spaghetti western craze. He's "A duly sworn warrant officer from Wichita, Kansas... also a licensed peace officer in Indian territories, Arkansas, Nebraska, and seven other states. The money we make from it is re-invested to help fund the BBC’s international journalism. Now he seeks to reclaim his former glory. Dissimilar to the original tales, Emma and her friend Teddy Q hire the Seven without the knowledge or consensus of their town. Kikuchiyo, played by Kurosawa favourite Toshiro Mifune, is a half-crazed swaggerer who turns out to be less of a buffoon than he first appears (Credit: Alamy). And Seven Samurai surely owes part of its popularity in the West to the fact that, in the pre-video era, it was one of the first Japanese films many viewers had ever seen. 2. Amid the artistic turbulence of the new waves and countercultures of the mid-1960s, Kurosawa’s last two films for the Toho Company flopped, and his unwillingness to downgrade from epic productions to smaller projects shut him out in the cold. seven_samurai_1954_part_2. The original Seven Samurai tak… Being poor, the village cannot pay these fighters what they are worth, and so those who sign up do so for reasons more than money. How many of these films have you seen? Both are great films. "High and Low" is a phenomenal police procedural and one of the most gripping viewings I've ever had. The 1954 film Seven Samurai follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven rōnin to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops. The town elder decides their only hope of survival is to hire samurai. Katsushiro is a hopeless romantic, and he ignores the class boundaries between the two at his own peril. (More on that soon.) Yojimbo (用心棒, Yōjinbō, "Bodyguard") is a 1961 Japanese samurai film directed by Akira Kurosawa, who produced the film with Tomoyuki Tanaka and Ryūzō Kikushima.Kurosawa wrote the screenplay with Kikushima and Hideo Oguni based on Kurosawa's story. Bogue says things to manipulate people and get what he wants. This deed earns him the amusement of fellow gunslinger and gambler, Josh Faraday, played by Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy). The literal purpose of the gesture is to disguise himself as a monk so that he can rescue a child hostage from a thief who is held up in a barn. The antagonistic force in Seven Samurai has a leader played by Shinpei Takagi, but he isn't a fully fleshed-out character. Seven Samurai (unauthorized) Jimmy T. Murakami Roger Corman (uncredited) USA No 1984 The Warrior and the Sorceress — Yojimbo: John C. Broderick: USA No 1989 Zhong yi qun ying: Seven Warriors: Seven Samurai: Terry Tong: Hong Kong Yes, at least on the DVD cover. It essentially trades off the samurai/cowboy for the jazzy American gangster. Billy Rocks from the remake does have a meaningful relationship with Ethan Hawke's (Training Day) Goodnight Robicheaux, but other than his scary-good skill with knives, there's little to set him apart from the other fighters once the action begins. Kurosawa may, to some extent, be a prophet without honour in his own country. On the same note, what about Yojimbo vs A Fistful of Dollars. Yojimbo established such a good standard for storytelling that Hollywood just had to keep recreating it.In 1996, several decades after A Fistful of Dollars, out came Last Man Standing, featuring Bruce Willis in a Prohibition-era America. It's no secret that Hollywood Westerns and Japanese Samurai films were a huge influence on each other. He directed Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo and many others. I'd never seen a … Despite Kambei's protests, Katsushiro shadows him and helps arrange for the seven to help the villagers. Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo is a video game released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platforms in 1988, by the now-defunct label Firebird.It is based on the comic book Usagi Yojimbo, which featured the adventures of an anthropomorphic samurai rabbit.The game closely follows some of the themes of the comic. Which gang will Sanjuro side with? Her choice here will affect Yojimbo's behavior in battle and his probability in using his attacks. Different takes on the same story. A one-stop shop for all things video games. Link/Page Citation Byline ... Our seven samurai dedicate their lives to this war, not to mention the lives of the farmers as well, compared to the bandits who underestimate the might of their opponents. That unparalleled influence is a sign that Seven Samurai’s appeal lies in emotions and mythologies not only specific to feudal Japan, but which strike a universal chord. Let us know with the hashtag #WorldFilm100 on Facebook and Twitter.