About a week ago I presented an offer to a blogger buddy of mine, Univarn over at A Life in Equinox, if he would agree to watch two films produced by the British film company Hammer I would agree to watch two films from acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa. He jumped at the chance, probably more so just to get me to watch a Kurosawa film than anything else. But if there was a slight chance I could get him interested in the Hammer catalog of classic low budget films I was willing to give it a shot. Maybe at last we would find a common interest in a series of film and break the bonds that seem to spread our tastes far apart!
The first film Univarn selected for me was Yojimbo the story of a wandering samurai who ventures into a town divided by two madmen bent on killing one another. The Samurai's only interest is in making some money so he reveals his skills to town and waits while the two sides come bidding for his services. He soon realizes he can't really trust either side, and decides the more profitable solution would be to play them against each other, in pretending to assist both sides this he would be able to double his money. It's a move which The Samurai soon discovers will back fire on him.
Before going into this the only thing I knew about Yojimbo is that it was the inspiration for the film A Fistful of Dollars one of many Clint Eastwood films I thoroughly enjoy. Too bad Yojimbo is no Clint Eastwood western. While I appreciate the film for being the catalyst of something I do enjoy, I unfortunately I can't say I enjoyed this film. The reoccurring issue with most of these foreign "classics" seems to be my reiteration of the word boring, I don't like having to continually say that but frankly that's my disinterested nature to most of these films.
The main roadblock of my enjoyment towards these films is usually the subtitles. I can handle subtitles in a film that moves at a rather steady pace, but that seems to never be the case with these foreign classics and at nearly two hours Yojimbo moves a little too slow for my tastes when the added responsibility of reading everything is cast upon me. I probably would have enjoyed this film a little bit more with medicore dubbing which I'm not quite sure why it's not included on the DVD. One can say dubbing might have taken away from the ambiance of the film, but doesn't translated subtitles do the same? Wouldn't grasping the film's full potential be learning Japanese and being able to understand exactly what they're saying without anything being lost in translation? Just give me awful dubbing, it might have made the comedy aspects of this film actually funny!
I understand Univarn chose this particular film for me to watch because it appears to have a wide variety of genres mixed in, and he felt it would be something I might enjoy. But for the most part I felt a little underwhelmed by these aspects of the film, especially the action. The fight sequences are extremely brief and beyond corny, with a final showdown that seems to be over in 30 seconds flat! And the addition of a pistol packing samurai I found not only strangely out of place but also extremely corny. In fact the character itself seemed quite useless in my opinon, he never appeared to be much of an adversary and his final scene was akin to a bad comedy spoof as the villain takes five minutes to die! Every time I thought he was finally dead he starts jabbering on again, cut off his head already!
Overall, I'm not surprised Univarn really likes this film, to me it was interesting at times, entertaining once and a while but when it's all said and done I really don't have much of an opinon about it one way or the other, and wouldn't willingly be interested in watching it again. Maybe it's my disinterest in foreign classics, maybe it's my lack of interest in samurai films in general. I'll appreciate these films for inspiring films I actually do like, but that's about all I can do.
5/10
Glad to see you checking something like Yojimbo out. I'm a Kurosawa fan, but I can understand complaints about the pace of his films. You'll probably dislike Seven Samurai for this reason. That movie is exceptionally long.
ReplyDeleteThat probably means you won't like my western choice either ;p I have a thing for epics.
Oh dear; Ryan won't be happy!
ReplyDeleteOn the subtitles issue - I used to hold the same opinion as you: give me dubbing any day, it's easier to follow and means you don't miss anything.
But over the last three or four years I really have found subtitles to be the way forwards. If you stick with them you just get used to your eye moving around the screen more and they really beat the awful voice acting which normally accompanies a dubbing track. I've just watched Mesrine which is four hours in total and I didn't have a problem reading subtitles for that length of time - practice makes perfect!
Darn. Shame you didn't go for this one. I found this insanely hilarious (in its own Dark while) while highly entertaining. Especially considering how innovative the fight scenes were for the time (use of sounds for the sword hitting the body, blood, all new motifs). Unfortunately there's no Kurosawa film I can pick without subtitles (even his films as recent as the 80s and 90s don't get dubbed).
ReplyDelete@Alfindeol - well give the credit to Ryan aka Univarn for choosing it, otherwise I would have never willing watched it! I think I've seen Seven Samurai before back in a college film class, but I don't remember if we watched the whole thing or just parts of it. Really don't remember much about it at all. I like westerns, even some of the more boring ones, just not too keen on films that try to mix westerns with other strange genres.
ReplyDelete@thistime - my problem with subtitles isn't the physical reading of them, but it just tends to make at slow film move a little slower. I've watched quite a few foreign films with subtitles alone, Kriminal for example which I quite enjoyed. It would just be nice to have the option of dubbing I think on a film like this it would have been easier to sit through.
@Univarn - well to each their own I guess, I found it more corny than amusing and definitely not hilarious. And the fight scenes I thought were overly simplistic and brief.