Enter: Site Read - Ryan Mok

Yojimbo Analysis (not only watch the film, but link back to my Akira Kurosawa Powerpoint and find out what techniques and themes have been used!  Specifically the transitions too!):

• Opening of Yojimbo - inspired Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark opening.

• (19:00) - First 3 strikes of the movie by the samurai and his sword - two of them mainly show the protagonist's actions on his bandit opponents with just two slices of the sword!  However, the camera focuses on that so much that when he strikes his first two opponents, we don't clearly know if the samurai has actually succeeded in either wounding or killing them.  But even if they are hurt by the slice of the sword, we don't clearly see if this action is effective in achieving the protagonist's goals, as the consequence of the protagonist's actions are not fully shown, not even a bit of blood is really shown from the samurai's actions.  But then at that time, there wasn't that much technology so can't blame them.  In the third one however, the full consequence of the samurai's actions are conveyed, as once, right at the second when the samurai delivers his sword blow to the third bandit, it quickly cuts from the protagonist to the ground where an arm holding a sword falls to the ground, and afterwards where the camera focuses on the third bandit is crying out in pain, this creates more effect on the audience as it allows the audience to sympathize with this death or casualty more than modern day films.

• It's around 24 minutes into the film until we finally learn the samurai's name!

• (27:40) - Long shots and High Angle Shots of the battle between the two sides - not only establishes the scene and expresses chaos and madness, but also shows the full scale of the battle and it shows how the director of the film is looking for lots of scale and long depths-of-field in his shots.  Longer cuts of the shots, to really engage and make the audience feel as though they are a part of the battlefield itself, to allow the audience to emerge themselves into this new violent world, as though they are a part of it.

• (45:16) - Introduction to the main villain of the film - Unosuke: Wind blowing around him, "timid as a rabbit, but he's a wolf inside" and the tilting up, mid shot of him that follows can explain why: he has something that very few Japanese fighters or samurais have during that time: A GUN!  His weapon of choice relates him to the western world, where guns are often used, it contrasts him with the rest of the Japanese villagers as well as Japanese culture itself in the film.  He pulls the trigger of his gun and shoots 3 times, and from the sounds heard, it seems that he has shot some bottles some lamp-posts without missing one!  Him shooting is not shown at all, only the sound effects tell us his status as a freakin' badass!

• (46:00) - Funny Moment - After seeing Unosuke's badassery, Sanjuro (the samurai) and the villagers beside him, slowly pull down their window shield down in surprisement and shock!  Awkward music plays, adding to the comedy!

• (48:45) - Sanjuro slices one of his opponents again! -  Again the camera focuses on Sanjuro's actions as well as the consequence of his actions at the same time, a little bit of chase music stirs before he strikes and once he does, the music stops, adding to the drama to this part.

• (52:43) - Unosuke meets Sanjuro - Unosuke's friend/companion kills Yoichiro, and the full consequence is shown as well as the attacker's actions all mostly in one shot.  The camera doesn't quickly cut away from Yoichiro, the camera focuses on the attacker's consequence on him, his pain and suffering, for a few seconds to fully allow us to sympathize with the attacked more than just plainly forgetting about them, which is what modern-day, contemporary action films do.

• (55:43) - At 3:00am, Unosuke kills a few villagers with his gun without missing! - Having captured all this in one long cut/shot emphasizes and expresses and highlights his power that his aim is perfect and that he is a badass, skilled villain, as in he doesn't need to take second shots when shooting his targets because his shots are perfect on the first go.  Again, long shots are used to establish the scene, and to emphasize the scale of the events that are happening, connoting how this is a big part towards the plot of the film going forward.  The ending of this scene is also able to clearly establish the villain's driving points to becoming fully evil and his motivations and ideals as to why he has to do what he has to do (become evil to achieve great things that you think you would).

• (1:02:35) - Both sides slowly walk towards each other, like in Civil War, except that in Civil War, "they don't stop running" like Spider-Man said, but when Unosuke shoots his gun, the other side backs off.

• (1:05:00) - Long, Panning Left Shot of Sanjuro joining the other side - It is shot in the dark and is very shadowy, therefore connoting his allegiance to the dark, evil, bad side, the only light available are fire-places, signifying his acceptance of his inner demons.

• (1:07:48) - Action sequence - Sanjuro's reveal of being a spy - When Sanjuro kills his first opponent, he kills him a regular fashion that we are all familiar with today, as in once he kills his opponent the camera cuts away from the defeated and never focuses on Sanjuro's consequences of his actions, therefore leaving us not caring about his opponent and lost on whether he actually succeeded in killing him or just wounding him for the time being.  Mid shots are used to film this fight sequence, with the camera focusing on a bit of both the protagonist's actions as well as his consequences, his opponents being defeated and suffering from their pain from Sanjuro's sword, adds to the drama effect.

• (1:08:40) - Incriminating the evidence - The camera not only focuses on the protagonist's actions but also his consequences on not just men, but also on public property!  A variety of shots are used.

• (1:11:43) - Tazaemon's house is burned down down down!!!  A variety of shots are used.  A spark of violence and war spreads out across the village!

• (1:13:27) - Panning left and panning right of the wind blowing across the death-valley like village, with lots of dead bodies around and the place being quiet again, like a wasteland once more.  Music played to emphasize the dramatic effect.

• (1:15:58) - Unosuke's discovery of Sanjuro's treachery and betrayal and spy work against him - the music builds up creating more tension and fear in the audience of what's going to happen, Unosuke even points out his gun too which makes things even more intimidating.  After the talk, Sanjuro is seen on the floor beaten up savagely and severly, notice how the actual beating up part is not shown to the audience at all, and only this consequence is shown, adding to the tension and fear in the audience, and this is more effective than the rest defeated becuase Sanjuro is the main character and we've been sympathizing with him since the beginning.

• (1:22:22) - Now we see Sanjuro getting beat up. -  his bloody face is more shown in this scene, and he is shown to be more weaker than before as he was beaten up a lot.

• (1:24:42) - Sanjuro's escape (a bit of a funny moment for me personally), because when the bad guys come in, they don't realize the lock that had been taken out of the chest that Sanjuro was hiding in.  HOW COULD THEY HAVE NOT NOTICED THAT?  He narrowly escapes crawling out all the way out, it builds the tension as he's weak and he's unable to run and he's in a house of wild, violent bandits who could easily beat him up again if they found him, so this builds up the tension and fear in the audience.

• (1;33:28) - A war going on!  Fire and sand and dust everywhere like a sandstorm!, building up the deathly atmosphere! -  There's not really any slow-motion in the movie to be honest, the fight scene here only includes assassins killing other samurais, but then their deaths are not really sympathetic or engaging as before because the assassins' slices are like hitting them with bats really hard, and once they fall down, the camera quickly cuts away from them.  However, the almost a full consequence of a woman's death is shown to show how cruel, gritty and dark these assassins are (medium close up).

• (1:35:46) - One of the assassins laughing really hard at the villagers dying - C'Mon Man, Really!?

• (1:41:02) - THE FINAL BATTLE! - There is a dust-storm around the battlefield, with each side standing in place epic-ally (Long Shots).  Long shots to Medium Long Shots of them walking towards each other, shot from different depths-of-field and from either from the front or behind them.  Sanjuro almost kills every single one of them, each with one blow of his sword, all shot in one cut!  However, again, the full consequences of his actions are not clearly shown as the camera is mainly focusing on the protagonist's actions.  However, when Sanjuro fights Unosuke, when Unosuke shoots his gun, and with his amazing ninja skills, Sanjuro dodges the bullet and throws a knife at Unosuke's arm at the same time.  This is not clearly shown to be honest, but then the shot after that shows a medium close up shot of Unosuke's bloody arm with a knife stuck on it, therefore showing the full consequence.