Yojimbo

I'm going to go see this Sunday afternoon.

Yojimbo
Sunday, June 22, 2008, 1:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium
In person: Tatsuya Nakadai and Teruyo Nogami, and hosted by Michael Jeck

Two icons of Japanese cinema—actor Tatsuya Nakadai and author Teruyo Nogami—introduce and discuss one of their classic collaborations with the great Akira Kurosawa. Joining acclaimed actor Tatsuya Nakadai is Teruyo Nogami, a legend in her own right whose work as a script supervisor for Kurosawa is commemorated in her memoir Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa. She signs copies of her book following the screening.

Nakadai stars as a pistol-waving killer opposite Toshiro Mifune's scheming yojimbo (bodyguard) in this Kurosawa classic. Their confrontations are "like a face-off between Elvis Presley and John Wayne," writes Stuart Galbraith in his book The Emperor and the Wolf. Film critic Pauline Kael declared it "a glorious comedy-satire of force: the story of the bodyguard who kills the bodies he is hired to guard." 1961 / 110 min. / B&W

Part of the film series, "Tatsuya Nakadai: Icon of Japanese Cinema." This series is cosponsored by Film Forum, New York, and the Japan Foundation. These films are in Japanese with English subtitles. Film descriptions by Japanese film specialist Michael Jeck.