(Akira Kurosawa, Japan 1961, 110 min., Japanese/subtitles)

A wandering samurai-for-hire (Toshiro Mifune in his quintessential role) takes advantage of a rivalry between two equally bad warring clans. Kurosawa’s action-packed swordplay epic owes a debt to American Westerns, and Yojimbo in turn inspired Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars.