Yojimbo

Yojimbo is an interesting film to me, primarily because it shows how hypocritical the people around me are. I watched the film with my father, who quickly dismissed the movie, saying that the story seemed pointless. Keep in mind that my father is a big fan of westerns. When I told him the movie influenced Fistful of dollars, he outright denied having ever said anything. As far as he was concerned it was just a Japanese attempt at a spaghetti western, to him.
The movie takes place in a town ruled by two warring factions. While each side is gathering their army, a wondering samurai walks in and offers his services to the highest bidder. From there on, the whole movie becomes a delightful guessing game as to who will stab who in the back next. Long story short, our hero retaliates against both factions, by pitting them up against each other, then promptly gets captured, beaten, then returns to slay the remainder of his enemies.
My favorite character had to be the wondering ronin, played by Toshiro Mifune, who I immediately liked due to being a fan of anime. Seeing the forerunner to all of my favorite heroes was quite a treat, and the character did not disappoint. It's worth noting that many of the actors in this movie seemed to have characters in anime today that mimic the characters in this movie. This is really fun for me, since I will be looking at anime in a new way from now on.