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Photo by Emiliano Grusovin
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Here is a short exploration of 6 stories narratively related to Akira
Kurosawa's movie Yojimbo.
The title
of this essay has been chosen for easy reference; the narrative itself,
however, was born from a couple of Dashiell Hammett novels, namely Red
Harvest (1929) and The Glass Key (1931).
The Tale
The story line of the Yojimbo is highly watchable - it's a narrative that gives a lot of room for new elements. An extra lot of room, if
you're Takashi Miike. It is one of the preciously few arch-stories that are
universal enough to allow for endless re-imagining, but also specific enough to
be easily recognizable. Something akin to many Biblical or Shakespearean stories
- only more recent.
This
narrative typically has a main character almost impossible to dislike, even
when he's not quite the focus of the story (as it happens in Sukiyaki).
He's almost never paired with a love interest - Miller's Crossing's Tom
Reagan being the exception here, but he's so chill about it and gets The
Third Man treatment so bad that we can almost ignore it.
This character is some type of badass (with a gun, with a sword, with his
wits), typically unnamed, who ends up in the middle of a two-sided conflict. He
attempts (and eventually succeeds) to stifle said conflict by joining the two
sides alternatively and making them implode or explode. His actions are needed
because the conflict wreaks havoc on its social environment (usually a small
town populated by wretched innocents), and the story begins during a stalemate
between the two sides. The hero lands in a bar or inn - empty and almost out of
business; the owner exposes the situation and tries to persuade him to leave
for his own good. He doesn't, and we don't quite know why. The town also
contains some kind of joker or madman, and there is always a not-love-interest
woman, separated by her family, who is forced to be the lover of one of the mob
bosses. Our hero also saves the woman, which exposes his machinations to the
respective mob, which in turn leads to him being beaten badly or tortured. He
eventually escapes, recovers and finishes his self-imposed mission. In the end,
whoever's left alive in the aftermath sees the Nameless as a savior, but he
still walks, or rides, or drives away into the sunset.
The
Variations
Of the 6
more or less Nameless Strangers, Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune, top left) might still
be the most convincing one - him and Joe (Clint Eastwood, top middle) being the
ones still preserving an ounce of anti-heroism and mystery. The other 4 - Omega
Doom (Rutger Hauer, bottom left), Gunman (Hideaki Ito, top right), Tom Reagan
(Gabriel Byrne, bottom right) and John Smith (Bruce Willis, center) - are more
obviously good guys. Still rugged, still punished at one point of the story,
but obviously do-gooders. A very interesting fact is that the Yojimbo usually
just happens to stumble upon his story, but more about this in the end of this
essay.
This storyline lends itself seamlessly to many genres - neo-noir/hardboiled,
gangster thriller, western, jidaigeki, cyberpunk, Japanese Madness with Cowboys
Warring States Miniguns and Katanas. Another version of this story, Stuart
Heisler's The Glass Key (1942) with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, is a
classical film noir.
It can also be framed in many colours and styles: Yojimbo is mostly
humorous, Fistful is amusing with a heavy touch of drama, Omega Doom
is desolate, Last Man is gritty, Sukiyaki is insane and Miller's
Crossing is lyrical.
The warring factions are also quite diverse: run-of-the-mill evil in Yojimbo
and Last Man, human evil in Fistful, silly in Omega Doom,
silly and creepy in Sukiyaki and entirely human in Miller's Crossing.
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The Italian and the Irish bosses from Miller's
Crossing
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The
Paradigm
This
multitude of styles and angles allows us a better understanding of the core
story. What is actually happening here? Let us focus a little on the
motivation of the Yojimbo and several interpretations of his gritty and lovely
narrative.
One
possible reading of the main character is that of Deus Ex Machina, who usurps
the whole storyline: we have two factions crossing and double-crossing each
other into a deadlock, when suddenly someone lands between them and solves the
conflict. Some critics see the Nameless character as a Horseman of the
Apocalypse, setting an end time upon the old world, a harbinger of the Last
Judgment. Others interpret him as the hero who saves the innocents from two
terrible dragons scorching the land.
But most
of these readings seem to miss something, a deeper layer, a primeval
human need, more basic than justice or peace. The true core is
given by a search for purpose, and the value of this story lies in the
way it satisfies this need.
Storytelling
is an essential human tool, because it enables us to preserve information, it
gives us context, it keeps us entertained, it connects us. Most importantly
though, storytelling infuses people and events with sense and purpose.
That is why we need and create stories so much.
In the
beginning of this specific tale, the Nameless protagonist is roaming around
meaninglessly, just like many of us at different points in our lives. When, all
of a sudden, he happens to come across a narrative, and finds a purpose for
himself - that of Yojimbo, bodyguard and protector. Sure, he might be good at
heart, and might genuinely want to save the innocents. However, one does suspect
that he lingers around to solve the two-factions conflict out of sheer need of
a story, a small oasis of sense and purpose in the desert landscape he comes
from.
And, so, in spite of his devil-may-care attitude, the Yojimbo is a
character in need of a story. Unlike the more unfortunate of us, he actually
manages to find one. At least for a while.
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Abayo! (Bye!
in Japanese, the final word of Toshiro Mifune’s Yojimbo)
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