Yojimbo

Comments (0) By Troy Schulze Thursday, Nov 18 2010

After the Cinema Arts Festival Houston finishes its second run, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will continue its current film series Akira Kurosawa @ 100. On November 19, the MFAH will screen the famed Japanese director's 1961 film Yojimbo, which was influenced by American Westerns and became an influence itself on the Western genre right back. Sergio Leone's 1964 A Fistful of Dollars (an unofficial remake of Yojimbo) initiated the spaghetti Western craze and kicked off the Man with No Nametrilogy starring Clint Eastwood in what is arguably his most iconic role.

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In Yojimbo, lone samurai Sanjuro wanders into a Japanese town terrorized by two warring clans and systematically manipulates each side into wiping the other out in a bloody battle. Toshiro Mifune plays Sanjuro, who, when asked, chooses a fake name for himself, thus becoming the prototype for Eastwood's Man with No Name.

Yojimbowas again remade in 1996 as Last Man Standing, directed by Walter Hill and starring Bruce Willis as the lone mystery man caught between two gangs in Prohibition Era Texas. But you can catch the original today at 7 p.m. 1001 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-639-7515 or visit www.mfah.org/films. $6 to $7.
Sat., Nov. 20, 7 p.m., 2010