Did you know, the classic Japanese samurai film, Yojimbo (1961) was the inspiration for A Fistful of Dollars (1964), one of Clint Eastwood’s most famous westerns?
In fact, it didn’t just inspire it. Sergio Leone’s iconic “spaghetti western” that marks the first movie in the “Dollars Trilogy” is a rip-off (or rather “unauthorised remake”) of the movie - a move that ended in a lawsuit by the director of Yojimbo, Akira Kurosawa.
In turn, the 1996 Bruce Willis gangster movie, Last Man Standing is a credited remake of the same film, but set in prohibition-era Texas.
The Japanese film has also inspired many other movies over the years, one in particular being Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).
The cantina scene where Luke is approached by two undesirables, one of which ends up getting his arm sliced off by Obi-Wan Kenobi, is reminiscent of a scene in Yojimbo when the lead character, “The Samurai” is set upon by a bunch of gamblers.