The Yojimbo Paradigm

 

Photo by Emiliano Grusovin

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.

The Italian and the Irish bosses from Miller's Crossing

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. 

Abayo! (Bye! in Japanese, the final word of Toshiro Mifune’s Yojimbo)