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Yojimbo (1961)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa · Cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa

110 min57 frames

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Kill one or a hundred... you only hang once

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Stills, screencaps & shots from Yojimbo

16 of 57 frames — the full set is searchable by lighting, lens, shot size, color and mood with a free account.

Yojimbo (1961) movie still: fullbody — A dusty outdoor clearing is surrounded by traditional thatched-roof buildings in a rural area. A lone samurai…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: medium — A man stands before a dark, latticed wooden wall structure. He clutches a handgun in his right hand and a…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: medium — Three men are confined behind a heavy, vertical wooden grate in a dim space. They peer through the slats with…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: closeup — An open space with a small wooden bell structure hanging against a featureless sky. A man stands in the…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: fullbody — A group of Japanese men gather in front of a rustic wooden building with thatch. A man bound in rope stands…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: medium — An interior wooden room features walls constructed with horizontal wooden slats for ventilation. A man in…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: medium — A wooden veranda with vertical slats overlooks a rainy courtyard during the day. Two men in traditional…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: medium — A wooden shelter features slatted walls looking out onto a rainy street scene. Three men sit at a low wooden…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: wide — A dark, wood-paneled traditional Japanese room features a central recessed fire pit. A samurai sits at a table…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: closeup — A man hides inside a large cylindrical wooden barrel bound with twisted bamboo strips. His hand grips the top…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: wide — A rural landscape with a dirt path running through harvested fields and tall grasses. Two men in traditional…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: fullbody — A dark, foggy outdoor village area at night with wooden architecture along the side. Three men standing with…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: wide — A desolate rural landscape features a narrow dirt path bordered by tall leafless shrubs. A lone man wearing…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: medium — Four men peer through vertical wooden slats inside a dimly lit wooden enclosure. They stand close together with…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: wide — A rural settlement featuring weathered wood buildings and paper-paneled sliding doors at night. A lone man moves…Yojimbo (1961) movie still: medium — A dark, dimly lit wooden interior with rough plank walls. A man with a topknot listens while another person…
Yojimbo (1961) — © TOHO

Yojimbo — official trailer

What is Yojimbo about?

A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.

Yojimbo is a 1961 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa, who also co-wrote the screenplay and was one of the producers. The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katō, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara, and Atsushi Watanabe. In the film, a rōnin arrives in a small town where competing crime lords fight for supremacy. The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard.

Second paragraph from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Where can you watch Yojimbo?

US availability for Yojimbo (1961). Data by JustWatch, listings on TMDB. Availability changes — check the provider for current listings.

Who stars in Yojimbo?

Who made Yojimbo?

What does the cinematography of Yojimbo look like?

Sampled across 57 frames, the coverage of Yojimbo leans on medium shots (40% of the sample) and wide compositions (30%). Cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa keeps 53% of it in hard-edged, naturalistic light. This is largely a daylight film — 68% of the frames play in daylight. Vintage glass shapes the frame. Deep focus keeps foreground and background readable at once in 75% of the frames. The production design places the film in the 1900s and 1910s.

What is the color palette of Yojimbo?

The dominant colors across the sampled frames of Yojimbo (1961) are #040404, #8c8c8c, #2f2e2e, #cacaca, #4a4a4a, #6e6e6e — measured from the per-frame color data FrameThrower extracts for every film.

  • #040404
  • #8c8c8c
  • #2f2e2e
  • #cacaca
  • #4a4a4a
  • #6e6e6e

See the full Yojimbo colour palette — every hex with its share, plus warmth, saturation and luminance.

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Techniques in this film

More films by Akira Kurosawa

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