How The Mandalorian was Influenced by various Samurai films
Ch.1: East Meets West
Many have referred to the recent Star Wars Tv show The Mandalorian as a great space western (with many classic old wild west film influences), but I would posit to anyone making that point that actually... a large majority of the aesthetic and general plot for the show are directly drawn from (or inspired by) the 1972 Samurai film Lone Wolf and Cub. In fact, a lot could be said in regard to the similarities between the two sources. Allow me to elaborate...
For literal decades, samurai films and western films have been intrinsically linked. When a samurai film is popular in the East, it is transposed and adapted into a western for Hollywood. Yojimbo (Directed by Kurosawa) went on to become A fist full of Dollars. The film that gave breakout success to Clint Eastwood and cemented the spaghetti western as the pinnacle of the western genre. A Fist Full of Dollars would even go on to have a sequel that would be touted as one of the greatest westerns of all time: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
The other single greatest example of an East to West conversion that people would recognize would be Seven Samurai being remade as the Magnificent Seven.
so leads one to ask why then is this the pattern Hollywood has adopted for its westerns?
The concept of the Samurai on film many times follows narratives of a lone wanderer fixing wrongs when he comes across them, only to return to the road after it's all said and done. The closest this concept gets to western views would be that of the wandering gunslinger. Thus it's the perfect formula for adaptation.
When it came time around for Star Wars to do a TV show about a wandering bounty hunter...they opted for a plot that had vague western influences, yet I would also argue it’s actually more inline with a samurai film...
Specifically the point I'm trying to make is it's a pseudo adaptation of Lone Wolf and Cub.
Ch.2: A Man and a Cart against the World
The first film in the Lone Wolf series specifically sub-titled Sword of Vengeance came out in 1972 and follows a former executioner. When his wife is slain by 3 ninjas, he is forced to wander the countryside with his 3 year old son Daigoro. While the plot of the first film and The Mandalorian diverge after the general concept of a warrior wandering with a toddler, the base aesthetic and core concept is strikingly similar: The Lone Wolf and his Cub.
In the climax of the first Lone Wolf film, while the samurai is in a duel, his son helps him by distracting his opponent with a mirror. This is not much unlike when grogu (The small alien toddler from The Mandalorian) helps the show’s titular protagonist when he is faced against an opponent he seemingly cannot beat. It happens in the show quite a lot actually. When Din Djarin (The Mandalorian) is facing a mud horn, When he faces a Storm Trooper with a flame thrower, and also when his ship might stolen by a droid... needless to say it happens more than once. It's the basic premise of: "somebody is so focused on killing the protagonist, they loose focus on the toddler who helps save the day."
Lone Wolf and Cub is not the only samurai film that gets an homage in the show either. There is an entire Seven Samurai episode within the first season. When a fishing village is plagued by bandits in the woods, they hire Din Djarin and his allies to defend the village while also teaching them to fight. This is the exact same core plot concept of Kurosawa's Seven samurai. A farm village plagued by bandits hires 7 warriors to defend the town and also teach them how to fight. The show’s creator himself even referred to it as the "Seven Samurai episode" when talking about it in an interview. So with this piece of evidence in mind we now see not one, but two separate samurai influences on the show's narrative.
While a broader argument could be made as a whole on how Jedi are directly influenced by samurai, this remains yet another token of proof on how when it comes to the tale of the Mandalorian and the path of the samurai...there's more in common than you would think.
