"Yojimbo" is the name of 1961 film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune.
This movie was the inspiration for the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns starring Clint Eastwood,
beginning with "Fistful of Dollars," in 1964. "Yojimbo" was in turn, but to a lesser degree,
inspired by the Dashiell Hammett 1929 novel "Red Harvest".
The word Yojimbo means "body guard", with other connotations, in Japanese.
Mifune played the nameless, scruffy, and bemused sword-for-hire. Hammett's character was the
nameless Continental Op, not quite as comical as Mifune's role. It has been said that Edgar Allan Poe
invented almost all of the elements of the modern mystery novel, with the rest provided by Hammett.
One of Hammett's contributions was the nameless protagonist, as adopted by Kurosawa and later Leone.
... last touched 03-JUL-99 ...
... more in the distant future ...