One of my favorite Akira Kurosawa films, in fact one of my favorite films of all, is the 1961 action film, Yojimbo.

The word, Yojimbo, means "bodyquard" in Japanese.  In this film, the protagonist, played by Toshiro

Mifune, comes to a small town in the 1860's and soon finds out that the town is dominated by two rival gangs.  He decides to set things right by pitting the rivals against each other and he wins each side's confidence by alternately shopping himself to each group as their potential strongman.  He does this without truly entrenching himself with either side, staying long enough to create some mischief and make it look like the other side's doing.  Using these tactics, it isn't long before he has both groups worked up to a bloodthirsty lather, but things do not always go easily for our hero.  He pays a heavy price for his interference, but, unlike many a Japanese tragedy, the film culminates in a heroic ending with our laconic swordsman standing amongst a heap of dead men.  "Now, this will be a quiet town," he notes dryly at the movie's conclusion.

The first photo depicts his first meeting with one of the gangs.  They come into the street to intimidate him and he sizes them up.  Here, he gets his first look at a giant of a man who wields a huge wooden mallet as a weapon.  This individual is not to be taken lightly and will figure in the bodyguard's future.

Mifune's character retreats to a nearby inn where the host is willing to feed him for nothing if he will only leave the town without further contributing to the troubles.  However, having gotten the low down, the yojimbo decides to stay, figuring that it would be nice if all the gangsters were dead.  The innkeeper is incredulous, but our hero explains, "I get paid for killing."  For all his appearance, this is the one thing he is truly exceptional at and he hatches a plan to dispense with the bad guys.  Not surprisingly, the innkeeper has his doubts as he expresses in the

third photo, rather plainly.

The yojimbo makes himself known to the leader of the gang that is the rival of the group who earlier tried to bully him.  He offers up his services and sets off to demonstrate his skills, gratis.  In the two photos above, he sets off down the street with the gang leader stepping out behind him to watch, and we see him striding confidently, with a weed in his teeth.