Yojimbo is the 1961 Japanese samurai film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune as the wandering ronin Sanjuro. Its story of one swordsman playing two rival gangs against each other became hugely influential, inspiring westerns including A Fistful of Dollars and countless lone hero stories since. Clips and music cues from the film circulate online as shorthand for the classic wandering warrior, and editors keep returning to its dry, tense atmosphere because it instantly signals skill, calm and danger in a way modern sound effects rarely match.