Product Description The collision of Japan's two most famous cinematic swordsmen--Shintarô Katsu's blind masseur, gambler, and rascally hero Ichi and Toshiro Mifune's unnamed wandering mercenary and scruffy antihero who goes by the appellation Yojimbo (which means, simply, bodyguard)--makes this one of the most riveting chapters in Zatoichi's long-running saga. Not quite friends and not really enemies, the rival swordsmen meet in a once-peaceful village caught between rival gangs, a swarm of government spies, and a fortune in stolen gold. Director Kihachi Okamoto gives Yojimbo a marvelous ambiguity that Mifune invests with a grubby sense of honor, whether growling and drinking and stirring things up or fearlessly strolling through the climactic gang war, dispatching attackers with a swipe and a grimace. But if the story belongs to Yojimbo, the film is Zatoichi's: his minor scams and clowning demeanor hide a reluctant warrior and a tragic hero. --Sean Axmaker - Actors: Shintarô Katsu, Ayako Wakao, Osamu Takizawa, Masakane Yonekura, Shin Kishida
- Director: Kihachi Okamoto
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Audience Rating: Unrated
- Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language (Original Language): Japanese
- Language (Subtitled): English
- Region Code: 1
- Release Date: 2003-08-26
- Running Time: 116 minutes
- Theatrical Release Date: 1970
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