Yojimbo

In feudal Japan, a devious samurai (Toshiro Mifune) without a clan or a cause is recruited by the townspeople of a village overrun by two criminal syndicates and decides to play them off of each other. Kurosawa's Yojimbo is humorous, relevant, beautifully composed, not to mention immensely influential, with another wild though composed, prodigious Mifune performance at its center. **** out of ****