{"id":19830,"date":"2016-05-11T13:08:39","date_gmt":"2016-05-11T03:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=19830"},"modified":"2016-05-28T07:44:11","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T21:44:11","slug":"seven-samurai-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=19830","title":{"rendered":"Seven Samurai [1954]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tagfilm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"sevensamuraiposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Director: \u00a0<\/strong>Akira Kurosawa
\nWriter: \u00a0<\/strong>Akira Kurosawa
\nCast: \u00a0<\/strong>Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Isao Kimura, Minoru Chiaki<\/p>\nI<\/span>t is the 1600s and a time of civil unrest in Japan.\u00a0 Bandits gather at the fringes of a mountain village, preparing to plunder it.\u00a0 Their leader \u2013 realizing the village has already been cleaned out of all their food \u2013 calls off the attack until after the harvest.\u00a0 A farmer overhears this exchange and warns the others.<\/p>\n

Starving and utterly despondent, the villagers despair at the guillotine hanging over their heads.\u00a0 One of the elders named Gisaku suggests that they recruit samurai to help them.\u00a0 \u201cBut we have nothing to offer them!\u201d one of the farmers cries out.\u00a0 \u201cThen find hungry samurai.\u00a0 Even bears come down from the mountains when they are hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so the stage is set for one of Akira Kurosawa\u2019s most influential and beloved films.\u00a0 Seven Samurai<\/em> is a grand old 210 minute epic whose influence is far reaching and undeniable.\u00a0 It is believed to be one of the earliest examples of a film in which a team is assembled to carry out a mission, establishing the formula for countless heist, caper and war films that followed.\u00a0 It has been remade many times over (most famously as The Magnificent Seven<\/em>) and is cited as an influence for directors such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Sergio Leone.<\/p>\n

As the late great film critic Roger Ebert observed \u201cit could be argued that this greatest of filmmakers gave employment to action heroes for the next 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite its formidable running time, Seven Samurai<\/em> is a surprisingly easy watch.\u00a0 The plot has a simple and clearly stated objective \u2013 the samurai must defend the village from the bandits \u2013 and the pacing and narrative structure of the film will be instantly familiar to modern audiences who grew up on Lord of the Rings<\/em> and Star Wars<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The leader of the samurai is Kambei, a calm and self-assured hero with a shaved head who makes his introduction in the film by coolly walking into a hostage situation and rescuing a child from a thief.\u00a0 Does this type of scene not sound instantly familiar as a modern day action movie trope?\u00a0 Kambei\u2019s effortless dismantling of the thief instantly wins him the adulation of the villagers looking for help.\u00a0 Here is the man to save them from the bandits.<\/p>\n

Kambei assembles a team of seven comprised of both old friends and new allies.\u00a0 All six of his recruits are given distinctive personalities but it is Kikuchiyo and Katsuhiro who are given the most interesting and significant subplots.<\/p>\n

\"sevensamurai\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kikuchiyo is played by Toshihiro Mifune in what would be a star-making performance for the actor.\u00a0 He takes on the role of a hot headed and impulsive outsider who is only allowed to join the samurais ranks after dogged persistence.\u00a0 The reasons for his rash behaviour and emotional connection to the villagers is revealed in the third act when we learn that he is the orphaned son of farmers.\u00a0 Seven Samurai<\/em> makes many observations about the caste system in feudal Japan \u2013 the villagers simultaneously rely on the samurai but also fear and loathe them.\u00a0 Kikuchiyo is the poor fool trying to transition from one rank to the other and as such, he is an outsider to all.<\/p>\n

Katsuhiro, the youngest of the seven, joins the samurai as Kambei\u2019s apprentice.\u00a0 As with Kikuchiyo, he bears the brunt of the cultural divide that exists between the villagers and the samurai as he falls in love with Shino \u2013 a farmers daughter.\u00a0 Theirs is a forbidden love that the villagers cannot come to terms with.\u00a0 Interestingly, their relationship isn\u2019t really presented with a definitive resolution.\u00a0 Akira Kurosawa was a world renowned director who was more celebrated overseas than he was in his homeland where critics sniffed that his works were \u2018too Western\u2019.\u00a0 Viewed through the lens of a Western audience, Katsuhiro and Shino\u2019s relationship has a natural outcome.\u00a0 Japanese audiences may well have argued otherwise.\u00a0 Leaving the status of their relationship open ended doesn\u2019t really end up placating either.<\/p>\n

Seven Samurai<\/em> is a film that has the air of a Shakespearean tragedy about it.\u00a0 From the outset, it is plainly stated that the samurai are committing to a thankless task.\u00a0 They face challenging odds defending a village of farmers who don\u2019t like them all for the reward of a few meagre handfuls of rice.\u00a0 The character arcs established early on set the expectation that not everyone will survive the bandit raid.<\/p>\n

The samurai\u2019s masochistic adherence to a societal expectation may seem quintessentially Japanese on paper but Kurosawa is able to translate their behaviour into an act of magnanimous nobility that is crucial to the films international appeal and influence.\u00a0 I think it is Kambei\u2019s easy going nature and the sense of comradery that he instils in his team that is key to making this work.<\/p>\n

\"sevensam2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A few words on the signature battle itself.<\/p>\n

One thing I liked about it is that it is presented with a great sense of precision so the audience knows exactly whats going on.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t \u2018a lot\u2019 of bandits attacking the village, there is exactly forty.\u00a0 The seven samurai aren\u2019t arbitrarily covering a perimeter, they are posted in the north, east and west with the flanks covered by a river which they deliberately flood so it can be used as a defensive moat.\u00a0 As the conflict unfolds with wave after wave of attacks from the bandits, we see Kambei in the centre of the village receiving reports from his scouts, marking x\u2019s for each enemy slain.\u00a0 This exacting approach is perfectly in keeping with both Kambei\u2019s persona as well as the meticulous and finely observed craftsmanship of Kurosawa\u2019s film making.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve mentioned that Seven Samurai<\/em> is a film with many modern cinematic sensibilities.\u00a0 Perhaps one of my favourite moments of the film involves a scene where the samurai are pinned back by the bandits who we learn have three matchlock firearms.\u00a0 The mighty swordsman Kyuzo volunteers himself to defuse the situation and disappears into the fog of night, heading towards the bandits.\u00a0 The next morning he returns, enemy rifle in hand.\u00a0 \u201cI killed two\u201d he explains casually and then closes his eyes for a powernap.\u00a0 Who knows \u2013 maybe the decision to have that moment occur off-screen could have been a cost-cutting measure \u2013 but having Kyuzo vanquish his armed opponents sight unseen and be so blas\u00e9 about it upon his return was hilarious to me and felt very much like a gag from a contemporary film.<\/p>\n

Visually, its astonishing how well the battle scenes hold up.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really have the words or the expertise to adequately articulate just how well Kurosawa constructs these scenes.\u00a0 All I know is that moment to moment – the stampede of riders on horseback, the clash of swords between samurai and bandit, and lingering shots such as that of Kambai stoically drawing his bow in a torrential downpour – all feel as tightly edited and immersive as any modern day blockbuster.\u00a0 The conflict is an emphatic exclamation point to a classic film.\u00a0 Heroes stand up, sacrifices are made and the day is won.<\/p>\n

\"sevensam3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Seven Samurai<\/em> closes with a sombre, self-reflective gaze.\u00a0 The bandits are slain and the village is saved.\u00a0 After the battle, the villagers sing and tend to their crops and very quickly the samurai lose their purpose and have no place amongst the farmers.\u00a0 Four burial plots mark the fallen samurai.\u00a0 Katsuhiro\u2019s romance with Shino remains unfulfilled.\u00a0 Kambei quietly observes that the samurai have gained nothing from their victory and that only the farmers are the true victors.\u00a0 Referring back to Roger Ebert\u2019s wonderful critique of the film, he explains that the ending of Seven Samurai<\/em> marks a turning point in Kurosawa\u2019s works.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeven Samurai represents a great divide in his work.\u00a0 Most of his earlier films subscribe to Japanese virtues of teamwork, fitting in and going along.\u00a0 All his later films are about misfits, nonconformists and rebels.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

As someone still very new to Kurosawa\u2019s body of work (his only other film I\u2019ve seen is Rashomon<\/em>), I look forward to watching his other signature films \u2013 Ikiru, Hidden Fortress, Ran<\/em> \u2013 and watching the transformation for myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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