Watch: Yojimbo vs A Fistful of Dollars | Little White Lies

Video

Watch: Yojim­bo vs A Fist­ful of Dollars

24 Aug 2020

Words by Leigh Singer

A man wearing a dark cloak stands in a hazy, outdoor setting. A man wearing a dark green coat stands in a snowy, urban environment.
A man wearing a dark cloak stands in a hazy, outdoor setting. A man wearing a dark green coat stands in a snowy, urban environment.
Our lat­est Remake/​Remodel video essay analy­ses the impact of Aki­ra Kurosawa’s samu­rai epic on Ser­gio Leone’s Spaghet­ti western.

What are the chances that both a film and its remake shift the para­me­ters of their respec­tive gen­res – and help rede­fine action heroes’ star per­sonas for decade to come? That’s the case with Japan­ese mas­ter Aki­ra Kurosawa’s 1961 samu­rai epic Yojim­bo and Ser­gio Leone’s west­ern reimag­in­ing from 1964, A Fist­ful of Dollars.

Despite being made three years apart by film­mak­ers oper­at­ing with­in spe­cif­ic cul­tur­al frame­works, there are some strik­ing sim­i­lar­i­ties between these now icon­ic works, as Leigh Singer shows in the lat­est instal­ment in our Remake/​Remodel video essay series.

Get more Lit­tle White Lies

So, who is the last man stand­ing: Clint East­wood or Toshirô Mifu­ne? Watch the full video below and be sure to sub­scribe to our YouTube chan­nel for more.

You might like

Person in glasses and black clothing, pensive expression.
Video

Watch: Bong Joon Ho on Mickey 17, Robert Pattinson’s ‘joke’ accent and his favourite creatures

by Hannah Strong

We catch up with one of our all-time favourite film­mak­ers about his sci-fi caper and cre­at­ing crois­sant-like creatures.
A man in a suit and glasses, with a sorrowful expression on his face.
Video

Watch: Stephen Park breaks down his Fargo character

by Adam Woodward

The real-life Mike Yanagi­ta tells the sto­ry of one of the most mem­o­rable scenes in the Coen broth­ers’ filmography.
A large, grotesque frog-like creature towering over a person in a black and white photograph.
Sponsored

Ardbeg & LWLies Present: The B-Movie Monsters That Time Forgot!

by Little White Lies

Watch our spine-tin­gling new video essay and win a Mon­ster Night In this Hal­loween with Ard­beg Wee Beastie.
A large male lion with a majestic orange mane set against a dramatic, rocky background.
Video

Watch: The Lion King – original vs remake

by Leigh Singer

Our Remake/​Remodel series con­tin­ues with a break­down of Disney’s most suc­cess­ful ​“live-action” update yet.
Sponsored

A brief guide to designing your own tattoo

by Michael Fordham

Our sis­ter mag­a­zine Huck have teamed up with Square­space for a spe­cial edi­tion of Skill-Up. In this episode, Sophie Mo presents a body art how-to.
A woman in a red lace top holds a knife, her face serious and intense, against a backdrop of a floral-patterned curtain.
Video

Watch: In the Kitchen with Pedro Almodóvar

by Luís Azevedo

In part­ner­ship with MUBI, we exam­ine the func­tion of this domes­tic set­ting across the Span­ish filmmaker’s catalogue.