Sunday, April 3, 2022

The Chambara Films of Akira Kurosawa: Yojimbo and Sanjuro




                The fifth and sixth films in my analysis of the Chambara films of Akira Kurosawa are the delectable duology of Yojimbo and Sanjuro. This review is going to tackle both amazing films simultaneously, as this is the first and only pair of films in Kurosawa’s filmography that are anthological sequels to each other (involving the same primary protagonist). While these films were very commercially successful, they also continued the cycle of cinematic influences and homages between Chambara films and the Western film genre. Additionally, the westernization of the Ronin (Masterless Samurai) became an ideal, and its archetype was inserted into a variety of stories masking the interesting aspects and differences of class, status, and prestige just before the Meji era.

 


PLOT

            Yojimbo

            Sanjuro, a Ronin (Toshiro Mifune) comes upon a town under the thumb of two warring factions. After witnessing the plight and poverty of the townspeople he sets a plan in motion to wipe them both out and free the people from under their yoke. After demonstrating his sword skills, he hires on as a “bodyguard” for both factions attempting to undermine both and pit them against each other. Following a few setbacks, he releases the town from their oppressors through a impressive display of violence, and moves on to the next adventure



            Sanjuro

            Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) overhears a group of young Samurai plotting to weed out the corruption in their clan. Out of a combination of compassion and veiled hopeful idealism, the masterless samurai decides to help them free their clan’s Chamberlain. As in Yojimbo, he employs subtle trickery to gain the confidence of the immoral Superintendent and his honorable Henchman Hanbei. After the mission’s success, the young Samurai witness a fatal duel Sanjuro has with Hanbei on the outskirts of town; after which, Sanjuro, “the Bodyguard” moves on to the next adventure.



HISTORICAL CONTEXT

 

            By looking at the production of these two films, along with the cyclical relationship between Chambara films and the Hollywood Western, Yojimbo and Sanjuro, changed filmmaking and help make Akira Kurosawa into an international cinematic icon, while creating a template for action filmmaking that often gets reused for its cinematic palpability.

Production

Kurosawa wrote both Yojimbo and Sanjuro with his regular collaborators Ryūzō Kikushima and Hideo Ogun; the same team behind a lot of his Chambara films (such as Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood). In addition to western classics like High Noon and Shane, Kurosawa also took inspiration from film noir, another popular genre at the time. This was also the second collaboration with cinematographer Kazuio Miyagawa, reteaming for the first time since Rashomon, where Miyagawa, had to come up with a way to film directly at the sun without burning the (film) stock. On Yojimbo, Kurosawa wanted Miyagawa to maintain Pan-focus. According to Miyagawa, in an interview with Criterion:

 Everything had to be in the perfect focus, whether it was right in front of you or in the very rear of the shot. So, we decided work on a spectrum of tones that would accentuate the contrast as much as possible and give objects a hard metallic edge.”  (Criterion 2006).

Miyagawa also tells the story of this one shot set underneath the floor of the house where Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) was trying to escape his captors. Because there was minimal space underneath the set as it was built, he could not fit himself or a cameraman in the space with Mifune. Thus, he had to marionette different lenses during the shot to keep everything in focus during each take.

            One common understanding in film production is that if you want an environmental effect to show up on camera, the intensity of that effect must be increased in order for it to register on camera. There seems to be a 1 to 5 ratio from real life to camera. If a director wanted to see rain on camera, the quantity and size of the drops must be increased 5-fold. Similarly, if the director wanted to depict strong wind, as Kurosawa did in Yojimbo, every fan that Toho Studios had, which included fans with a Cessna propeller engine, two V8Ford Engines, and 5 horsepower engines.  Additionally, the actors instructed to “keep their eyes as open as possible”, minimizing their ability to blink (Criterion 2006). This led to a very difficult shooting schedule and an obsession to acquire the perfects shots.

            This desire for perfection continued into Sanjuro in its creation of both the production design and special effects. According to Production Designer Yoshiro Muraki:

            Every morning, we’d all gather before the shooting started to [create and] stick artificial flowers and sakaki leaves on the camellia branches…You can’t be lackadaisical sticking on the flowers either, or they just fall off and be crushed underfoot [each flower cost the same as a pack of cigarettes]   

Moreover, because the script highlighted the importance of the red color of the camellia flowers, Kurosawa was considering shooting the flowers in color. Unfortunately, he did not have the technology available to him at the time, so he required Muraki and his staff to painstakingly paint all the fake camellia flowers a deep crimson so they would be picked up by the black and white film.



The biggest special effect in Sanjuro happens at the ending duel when Sanjuro’s slash results in a fount of blood from Hanbei’s chest. In the script, the description of the duel is sparse, saying “The Duel that follows between the two men can not be put into words. After a long, agonizing build up, it is decided in a lightning quick flash of the sword” (Criterion 2006). There was no clear description of the blood flow’s volume or arc of arterial spray. So, when they set up the shot, Shoji Jinbo opened the valve on the air compressor sending fake blood shooting through the hose around Nakadai’s body nearly lifting him off his feet. This mistake was captured on the first take and managed to be kept in the film because the actors thought that it was intentional, and they did not want to ruin the shot. This goof went on to define the Samurai genre of 60’s and 70’s as some of the bloodiest action of the time.   

  


 

            The Ronin and the Cowboy

As stated previously in this series, one of Kurosawa’s primary influences in his career was John Ford, acclaimed Western film director of such classics Stagecoach, Rio Grande and The Searchers, (many including John Wayne). Kurosawa stated that “I pay close attention to [John Ford] Production and are influenced by them.” (Cardullo, 2008).  Kurosawa was so influenced by Ford’s shot composition, the use of wide lenses, and the addition of Pan focus, all of which gave his films a vastness that was not previously seen in Japanese cinema at the time; resulting in Kurosawa being admonished as “The most Western Direrctor.” in Japan. This is despite his previous masterpieces (Ikiru, Seven Samurai, The Bad Sleep Well, Throne of Blood, The Lower Depths and The Hidden Fortress) doing so much to move Japanese Cinema away from the negative stereotypes of World War II (Sesonske 2010). Thus, when prepping for Yojimbo, Kurosawa seemed to lean into these influences rather than hide them, as if he said “I’ll show you how Western I can be!.” (Sesonske, 2010) With that, Kurosawa solidified the cinematic marriage of The Ronin and The Cowboy eventually birthing the Samurai Cowboy trope.

According to Daniel Choi (2021) the commonality between the ronin and the cowboy begins with looking at the similarities in their morality and sense of Honor. The Bushido code  and The Code of the West often overlap in the areas of chivalry, Self-Dependence, the duel code, and vigilantism. Additionally, when we look at the specific image of the “Ronin” (Masterless Samurai) there is this flavor of libertarian distrust of the government and the perception of these warriors were much in the same flavor of the Cowboys in the Western genre, were former soldiers, whether they be enlisted, conscripted, or deserted.   

Outside of the motivations of the principal Protagonists, the setting of each genre are vastly similar. Both the Ronin Chambara films and the classic Western take place during times of rapid social change and expansion due to conflict. Most Westerns and Ronin-style Chambara films usually take place between 1860-1870’s’s While in the US there was westward expansion and the fighting of the Civil War, Japan was going through its own Civil War (The Boshin War and later the Seinan War) that rejected imperial Japan opening itself up to the West. The resulting Imperial victory dissolved the Shogunate and left many Samurai released from the employ of their Daimyo to become “masterless”. Yet, while both the Ronin and the Cowboy cultivate a vagabond image, there is a reinforcement of class status and a romanticism of the Noble poor Trope among them: the Ronin through the class status of the Samurai Class, and the validation of the independent entrepreneurialism of the Cowboy. Because of the similarity of these conflicts, the landscape of war is also parallel. The lack of resources, high unemployment, destruction of crops leading to dry dusty conditions, and an increase in bandits and roving gangs in need of “frontier/ Samurai” justice, leads to a resemblance of set and setting between the Chambara and the Western, culminating in the continuing legacy between these two genre’s synchronicities, especially for Kurosawa.



Legacy

            A lot of Kurosawa’s work has been retooled, remade, reworked into overcooked facsimiles of itself. Yet, it is through the duology of Yojimbo and Sanjuro that he manifests an archetype in his central Character that becomes desirable to western filmmakers especially the work of the 70’s hot shot directors Spielberg, Scorsese, Lucas, and Coppola. Through Yojimbo, Kurosawa made a western better than a lot of previous other directors, at a time when the western was at its peak. Yet, the result was outright imitation, or in the case of “The Dollars Trilogy” outright stealing.

            “The Dollars Trilogy” aka “The Man with No Name” movies, are a series of films by Italian director Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood in the titular role, kicking off the “Spaghetti Western” sub-genre (Westerns made by Italian directors).  The first of these films, “Fist Full of Dollars” is a direct, and in some cases a shot for shot remake of Yojimbo without giving credit to Kurosawa, or his team. In 1961, Kurosawa famously sent a letter of intent to sue to Leone stating “I’ve seen your movie. It is a very good movie. Unfortunately, it is my movie.”. In the end, the film was delayed 3 years and Leone paid Kurosawa 15% of the profits[1].  There is a bit of Irony here given that the plot of Yojimbo is also an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s two novels Red Harvest and The Glass Key.

            Because of influential cycle of Western to Chambara and back to the Western continues to impact filmmaking and overall storytelling, this has given rises to the “Samurai Cowboy” an amagmatic trope that transcends the original genres. Many long form (films) and Short form (TV) content use this trope, coming in a variety of flavors in the 60 years since Kurosawa’s original films.Shows and films like: Cowboy Bebop, Kill Bill, The Warrior’s Way, Trigun, and a variety of other individual episodes invoke the same “Cowboy/Samurai” spirit.

 Most of the examples given romanticize the Bushido/Code of the West, overrepresenting the perceived positive characteristics of Honor, Duty, Loyalty, and Respect, while downplaying the lawlessness that they operate under, and the destabilization that their actions create. And once that destabilization occurs (usually through the creation of a “power vacuum”) the protagonist often gets to literally “ride off into the sunset”; leaving the difficult work of reconstruction to the civilians who have survived. Also, the positive qualities that have been gleaned from these cultural codices is one that is used to validate, define, and recreate masculinity. The perpetuation of the romantic notions of these morality/spirituality doctrines through its ubiquity in a majority of media content marketed to men, results in the creation of various “toxic” forms of masculinity that promote violence to solve problems and rationalized as a legitimate form of protection. Both Mifune and Eastwood have been revered for their actions in their subsequent films as the epitome of masculinity to the point that, in the 60 years hence, they become not only a masculine archetype, but its paragon for generations of boys and men that watch it. The endless recreation of this trope results a reproduction of myths, symbols, and metaphors [of masculinity] that are dangerous (Serttas and Gurkan 2017). Ironically, Kurosawa wanted “to revise the cinema's attitude towards onscreen violence. He wanted to show the damaging effect of violence, rather than the slightly anodyne way that it usually had been depicted before. (He would later come to regret this move, as it spawned a mass movement in international cinema that hasn't abated even today.)” (IMDB trivia). Once again this is another example of the public taking the exact opposite message from the creator’s intension. 

 


SOCIAL ANALYSIS   

 

The Complexities of Social Class     

Person’s social class status is defined as the social position that a person possesses within the economy that then impacts other social positions, they have within the rest of society It is important to remember the intersectional nature of class dynamics. In that, your social class is determined by and can be influenced by several different social factors. For Example: poverty impacts more women than men, and disproportionally more people of color and people with disabilities.  Additionally, a higher social class can mitigate the inequality and barriers that one might feel in other areas but will not eliminate them completely. This is the same for privileges that people experience in other aspect of their lives. This is because all lives are a complex web of individual and structural privileges and barriers. There are aspects where we have a great number of privileges and other aspects where we experience barriers. The privileges mitigate the effects of the barriers, and the barriers minimize the privileges that the person experiences. Thus, it is not just money or wealth that determines and individuals social class position. Instead, many sociologists, especially those of us who teach, combine ideas of social class to include a variety of components:

 

Components that impact Social Class Status

                        1. Wealth (a combination of your Income (wages) and Assets (property, stocks etc)

                        2. Education (The kind (Major), type (AA, BA, MA, Ph.D)

3. Occupational/Educational Prestige (The perceptive value of an occupation/Education within society)

4. Cultural Capital- The value of a person’s knowledge skills and experiences

within a society ( AKA “What you know”)

5. Social Capital- The value of a person’s social relationships within society (AKA

“Who you know.”)

6. Symbolic Capital- Value of demographics of identity (race, gender, sexuality disability) The level of acceptability of demographics, keeps doors open, or shuts them accordingly. The ability for white people to have an easier time accumulating generational wealth than other People of Color due to systemic barriers

6. The Class Culture- norms and ritualized behaviors localized to represent a particular class status.

 

According to Bourdieu (1987), The Class Culture is something that is not often considered as important as the other components on this list.  The idea that each social class level has its own rules, regulations, rituals, language, norms, and physical objects that represent them, makes upward social mobility very difficult. Because, even if you have acquired the basic criteria to be considered a member of the upper class, you may have difficulty assimilating into the class culture, whether by required behaviors or by acceptance by peers.   The rich are often a specific and segregated subculture. Their access to resources (or lack thereof) determines their own reality. This reality results in class segregation by geography, relationships, and daily experiences.

However, there have been a couple of recent examples of individuals (Anna Delvey/Sorkin and Elizabeth Holmes) whom, without many of the components of social class, were able to acquire status through mimicking the trappings of wealth in their clothing, mannerisms, and language which allowed them to acquire social and cultural capital and giving them access to upward social mobility they desired, thereby validating their social class performance. Even though these individuals were eventually caught and charged with various counts of fraud; they were able to exist in these exclusive spaces due to (at least initially) their adherence to a particular class cultural script.  The same could be said for Samurai turned Ronin after the dissolving of the Feudal system. As long as they “act the part of a Samurai” in their clothing, mannerisms, temperament and the carrying of swords they could hold on to the level of respectability and status afforded to them; even though they may be as penniless as the peasants that they look down upon. 

The complex vagaries of social class status are always at the forefront of the Samurai in Kurosawa’s films. In addition to Sanjuro in Yojimbo and Sanjuro, the poverty of Samurai is a plot point in Seven Samurai  and The Hidden Fortress,  Kurosawa using the desire to help peasants and townspeople alike as a window into the Samurai’s morality that puts them above other individuals in their station. For Kurosawa, these are not just members of a broken caste system who are just trying to, like Holmes and Sorkin, “Fake it till they make it.”. Instead through these acts of benevolence, they embody the romanticized “spirit” of the Samurai one that we can both hold and aspire to.     

  

 


CONCLUSION

Like all of Kurosawa’s work the Yojimbo/Sanjuro duology are masterpieces. They both have changed cinema and left their legacy stamp on the industry. While these twin theatrical titans (both making record amounts of money) involve the same character, it is an anthology rather than a direct sequel and they can be watched in any order. If you can find it , I recommend watching The Ambush: Incident at Blood Pass while not directed by Kurosawa, does star Toshiro Mifune in a role analogous to the role in these Kurosawa classics, and with it, can round out a Samurai version of “The man with No Name” trilogy that could not exist without Kurosawa’s or Mifune’s brilliance.

 

REFERENCES

Bourdieu Pierre 1987. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste Massachusetts: Harvard University Press

Cardullo, Bert 2008. Akira Kurosawa: interviews. Conversations with Filmmakers. University Press of Mississippi

Choi, Daniel 2021. “Cowboys and Samurai – A Study Of Genre | An In-Depth Analysis” in The Hollywood Insider retrieved on 4/1/2022 Retrieved at https://www.hollywoodinsider.com/cowboys-and-samura-genre-analysis/

The Criterion Collection 2006. “ Director of Photography: Kazuo Miyagawa: Yojimbo’s Pan-Focus” in Yojimbo Interview Booklet Janus Films

The Criterion Collection 2006. “Production Designer Yoshiro Muraki: No Regrets for our Sets” Sanjuro Interview Booklet Janus Films      

Serttas, Aybike and Hasan Gurkan 2017. “The Representation of Masculinity in Cinema and on Television: An analysis of Fictional Male Characters” Presented at 12th International Conference on Social Sciences: Amsterdam. Retrieved on 4/1/2022 Retrieved at:  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328314572_The_Representation_of_Masculinity_in_Cinema_and_on_Television_An_Analysis_of_Fictional_Male_Characters

Sesonske, Alexander 2010. “West Meets Eastin Current.  The Criterion Collection Retrieved on 4/1/20222 Retrieved at  https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/60-west-meets-east  

  



[1] The Film was remade again, years later, as a Prohibition era gangster film titled Last Man Standing starring Bruce Willis. However, the director, Walter Hill , gave Kurosawa a story credit in the film.