Fistful of Yojimbo?

[Sofa King]

Tonight I was enjoying myself by comparing two great films: Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, a "western" set in 1860's Japan, and Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, a "western" set in Mexico, with most of the actors speaking Italian, and filmed in Spain. Both films share the same script; Leone's adaptation of Kurosawa's screenplay is remarkably true to the original. I'm wondering if they don't share something else, namely Toshiro Mifune.

After The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood) gets his ass thoroughly whipped by the Rojas, he escapes and crawls his way over to the Cooper's place of work. There he sees his friend the Cantina owner also getting worked over by the Rojas boys. One of them comes walking down the stairs, and delivers one line, a "we checked upstairs and didn't find the guy" sort of line. We never see him again. The man is the spitting image of Toshiro Mifune.

Now, admittedly, it was a little difficult to see the television with all of the smoke in the room, but I had just seen Mifune starring in the role of the Samurai With No Name just before this. Does anyone know if Mifune does an uncredited cameo in the Italian version?

And while we're at it, the Samurai With No Name calls himself Sanjuro, and the coffin-builder calls The Man With No Name Joe. What's up with that?

[Lawmill]

It's not credited in his filmography at IMDB, http://us.imdb.com/Name?Mifune,+Toshir%F4. Per un Pugno di Dollari, http://us.imdb.com/Credits?0058461, has a small cast ad I didn't notice any names that were remotely Japanese. It's possible, but unlikely, that he felt like showing up one day and was given a cameo appearance.

However, he only made two films in '64, so one might speculate that he had some free time that year. Leone may also have been paying homage to Kurosawa's film.

While being a big fan of Yojimbo, I've never seen AFoD, so I can't comment on whether the mystery man did indeed resemble Mifune.

[Sofa King]

Same build, same stature, same walk, same beard. But he's only onscreen for about five seconds, and he turns his face away from the camera, so I can't tell. My VCR isn't good enough to get a viewable image when paused.

Mifune is awesome. Can you recommend some of those Blind Samurai films?

[elucidator]

The blind samarai is name "Zatoichi" and he was really big in Nippon. His movies are way cool! The blind samarai is a gambler and massuer (a traditional occupation for the blind in Japan) who combines awesome skills with a doofus like attitude. Look for "Satoichi meets Yojimbo!"

If you video stores is way deep on Japanese movies, look for Dr. Bainan, acupuncture assassin. Out there!

[barton]

The Samurai With No Name is indeed Sanjuro, as there's a very funny sequel to Yojimbo called Sanjuro, and his name is mentioned frequently in that film.

I doubt it was Mifune you saw. I've seen the film a few times, once recently, without recalling him. I think I would have stood up and noticed my fav action hero in even a bit role.

Toshiro's a bit wasted in a movie if he doesn't have his obligatory massacre-17-other-guys-without-breathing-hard scene, anyway.

[Spiritus Mundi]

Saw Sanjuro just the other night. It is a sequel that holds up to the original just fine.

Mifune rocks, but if you really want a guilty-pleasure samurai flick, check out Shogun Assassin. It is ased upon an immensely popular Japanese comic series (which also was made into an opera, IIRC).

[yojimbo]

I'm quite fond of that film myself. ;)

Like the rest I don't think it was Toshiro Mifune . I'll have to rent FFOD now just to make sure .

[Sake Samurai]

Mifune wasn't in Fist Full of Dollars, but that was made up for by the great Klaus Kinski's cameo!