Universal Themes In Yojimbo

Yojimbo: A Beacon to Mankind In an isolated town in Japan, a civil war is occurring between two gangs – Seibei and his former right hand man, Ushitora. Then comes, a wandering and clever samurai – Sanjuro – who offers up his services to be a bodyguard, exploiting both gangs to earn more money and later being tortured by one of these gangs after helping a family escape. This is the story of Yojimbo – a classic and timeless film that may seem like a complicated story to those who do not pay attention to its simple yet very relatable ideologies. The movie is a combination of various elements that all come together to create something moving and symbolic of human nature and reality. It demonstrates cinema at its finest – with its excellent cinematography, interesting plot and various, relevant

Yojimbo’s primary universal themes are the destructive effects of capitalism to the society, the corruption of power, the clash between tradition and modernization, the question of morality and lastly, the beauty of friendship. These themes help the film successfully cross cultural borders because it illustrates a humanist take on these very realities which will be further discussed in this paper. The first universal theme is the destructive effect of capitalism to the society. In Yojimbo, each gang is in the business of either sake or silk with each wanting to dominate with their business urging them to battle each other. This demonstrates to the audience how human’s greed for money drives the gangs to be evil in order to rise to the top. This is especially seen in the film when both Sebei and Ushitora hire Sanjuro and have the gangsters to fight to stay in power both physically and in the