Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune collaborate again for the eighth chapter in a long and fruitful cinematic partnership. This act finds Mifune in a classic role: the cynical old samurai who rumbles into a small town, makes an impression and immediately lights the fuse to a long-simmering gang war. Casually manipulating both sides, if only to amuse himself and torment the unjust, he eventually presses his luck too far, gets in hot water and transforms the dalliance into an icy tale of violence and vengeance.

As usual, Mifune makes the part his own, stirring a delicious blend of bold irreverence and well-earned arrogance; always the coolest guy in the room, even when he's held captive and taking a beating. There's something about the way he carries himself - the nonchalance with which he strolls through a line of armed men, the raging tempest in his eyes - that tells us this guy is cut from a totally different cloth.

As with most lone samurai films, this one is both influenced by, and influential toward, the gun-slinging American western genre. In this case, Sergio Leone borrowed liberally from the plot for 1964's _A Fistful of Dollars_, sparking a legal struggle that delayed the spaghetti western's American release for years. Kurosawa often referenced the work of John Ford as a heavy personal influence, and the roots of this film are actually seeded in an American novel from the 1930s, so the lawsuit seems contradictory, but hey, that's how it went down. Either way, _Yojimbo_ is a great one. Easy to watch, appreciate, and get wrapped up inside. I'd recommend it to anyone.