I wanted to talk a little bit about what Kurosawa is doing with framing in Yojimbo, particularly in the scene where Sanjuro has killed the six men protecting Nui and is destroying the house. This comes, as we all remember, directly before Sanjuro seems to loose control over the game he’s playing and is beat up and nearly killed by Ushitora’s men.
So first,
Sanjuro is shown at the top of the frame in a full shot.
Then,
he moves to the middle of the frame.
Sanjuro stays in the middle of the frame for a bit longer,
until finally,
his back is to us and he is at the very bottom of the frame.
Traditionally in film, characters at the bottom of a frame are powerless or vulnerable. Kurosawa ends this scene with Sanjuro at the bottome of the frame, showing the viewer that Sanjuro’s actions will lead to his subjugation to Ushitora, if only for a little while.