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View Full Version : Yojimbo was a Shogunate Spy



The Daimyo
12-30-2000, 12:15
For those that have only seen Yojimbo or Sanjuro, this may be some news to you. The character known as "Yojimbo" (which means "The Body Guard") actually appears in a series of movies that Toshiro Mifune played in over the course of his career.

The first movie in the series is of course "Yojimbo", and then later on you can see this character develop in "Sanjuro", "Zatoichi meets Yojimbo", and "Incident at Blood Pass" the final appearance of the character.
It can be argued that Sanjuro's character is not the Yojimbo character - but therein lies another mystery.

In Zatoichi meets Yojimbo, it is revealed that the Yojimbo character has a real name and is indeed working for "the man", in his own round-about way.
"Incident at Blood Pass" reveals even more compelling information but in the end leaves the watcher desiring more of the story behind this character and his travels both before this movie and afterwards.

Personally I am very disappointed that the character wasn't fleshed out more and developed into a full series like that of "Lonewolf and Cub". The kicker here is that Katsu Shintaro, the same guy who stars as Lonewolf and also Zatoichi, and Toshiro Mifune - made a deal to star in one of each other's movies at the time, but they didn't go on to do other films together afterwards.

This leads to the part where I stomp my foot and curse mortality and the 70's as a whole lost era of film making possibilities due to crap developments world wide.

Well, here's a couple of great links that will show you some more related info and filmographies -
http://www.animeigo.com/Samurai/BLOODPASS.t
and http://www.sprout.org/toshiro/index.html
and

Anyone have a clue about the possibility of these characters having come from any books from the time that might still be available? Hmm...



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The Daimyo
Miaowara "Kakizaki" Tomokato
@http://www.planettotalwar.com