Well, I'm a great Toshiro Mifune fan and for that, this is one of the movies you have to watch. This Kurosawa story was remade by Sergio Leone as a Fistful of Dollars and Walter Hill's Last Man Standing. It was one of the first action flicks ever made; and for the first time presented the nameless action hero, who comes to town to set it free. He is always cool, always confident and a master of his skills, loves drinks and takes outs his enemies in a second. The acting of Mifune is superb and his figure inspired Clint Eastwood to stick a cigarette in his jaw just for the coolness factor in the old western movies (Mifune chewed on straw). I don't think Western action cinema and the representation of the main "hero" would have developed in the fashion they did, if Mifune never would have worked together with Kurosawa. Their influence is definitely large.
Review of Yojimbo
