MovieChat Forums > Kumonosu-jô (1961) Discussion > Yoda based on Witch?

Yoda based on Witch?

posted 18 years ago by pieman9999
8 replies | jump to latest

Maybe it's me but when I first saw the witch and heard it speak, all I could think of was Yoda. Clothes, hair and general air of weirdness are the same. Anyone else agree or should I not smoke when I watch this movie?

[–] pieman9999 18 years ago

And for any one who speaks japanese, did the witch speak verb first? I'm sure the subtitles would correct it if it did.

[–] Big G-2 18 years ago

For some time, I've always thought that perhaps Lucas based Yoda's appearance on "Granddad", the village patriarch in SEVEN SAMURAI, as both had some striking similar features.

The designer of Yoda, Norman Reynolds, says that he based Yoda's facial characteristics from his own face! And I have looked at the two and there is a certain resemblance.

I am not sure where Lucas based Yoda on. The witch? Granddad? Some diehard LOTR fans (who always claim that Lucas borrowed everything from their favorite story including Merry and Pippen as equivalent to R2-D2 and C3-PO!!! Have they ever seen THE HIDDEN FORTRESS?) say that the character was derived from Gollem. I really have no idea.

[–] cemetery_mink 18 years ago

One thing I did notice watching the film just now is the similar subject matter of the second Witch scene and the Emperor's "Do what must be done" speech in Revenge Of The Sith (ie. Palpatine instructing Anakin that he must become *utterly* evil, etc.)

Also worth mentioning, I seem to recall reading somewhere that Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine) based the Emperor's voice partly on kabuki & noh theatre (speaking from the diaphram, etc.)

[–] JakeDamian 18 years ago

I read somewhere that the whole thing of Yoda rubbing his bald head was based on Kambei from Seven Samurai doing the same action.

[–] kataoka-1 18 years ago

I heard a rumor that the name of Yoda came from Japanese screenplay writor who was credited of the Japanese classic Ugetsu monogatari (1953: Tales of Ugetsu).
His name was Yoshikata Yoda and wrote a lot of good screenplays.
I don't know it is true or not but I thinsk, he had appearance of "Yoda in Star Wars".

[–] QuarrellaDeVil 18 years ago

You guys might check out another Kurosawa gem, "Dersu Uzala," for some pretty obvious Star Wars stuff. Let's just say that the title character is not taken seriously at first -- his first appearance is when he comes out of the woods at night as Arseniev and his men are around a fire, and in his bad Russian, basically says "Away put your weapons" -- and over time, he shows that he's -way- far ahead of the rest of 'em in terms of dealing with the wild. There's also a sequence where Arseniev and Dersu are caught out in the cold at night, and, well...you've seen a very, very similar sequence in "The Empire Strikes Back."

[–] radiotequehead 17 years ago

george lucas himself says star wars was inspired/based from(on) hidden fortress.

[–] 17 years ago

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