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Yōjimbō is a 1961 film by Akira Kurosawa, in which a ronin arrives at a small town with competing crime lords making their money from gambling, and convinces each crime lord to hire him as protection from the other. By careful political manouevring and the use of his sword, he brings peace by encouraging both sides to wipe each other out.
The film's look and themes were inspired by John Ford's western film conventions including the canonical taciturn loner and the helpless townsfolk needing a protector. Its cinematography mimics conventional shots in western films including that of the lone hero in a wideshot, facing an enemy or enemies from a distance when the wind kicks up dust between the two.
Yōjimbō was later remade as A Fistful of Dollars, a spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, and remade, yet again, in a 20th century "gangster" genre, as Last Man Standing, starring Bruce Willis.
Trivia
The Japanese word yōjimbō can be translated into English as bodyguard, and in the movie The Bodyguard Kevin Costner takes Whitney Houston to see Yōjimbō.
It is frequently asserted in Internet newsgroups and on websites that the plot is inspired in the book Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. Kurosawa never acknowledged such an influence.
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