[Blarg]

Yeah, that was a fun scene. That guy is the expert who goes out of the village to spy on the bandits and kills a couple, which prompts Mifune to go show his stuff by trying to duplicate it. That was the role James Coburn played in The Magnificent Seven, where he reprised the same fight scene that turns from a friendly contest to a real death, and similarly is sent out to check on the bandits and kills a couple. Different kinds of cool; subdued and modest in the Japanese version, and subdued but arrogant and happier to prove his worth in the American version.

I have both those flicks, and the commentary is great on both of them.