Seven SamuraiWhat is it that makes a "good man"? Is it a selfless desire to defend those who are in need? Is it the ability to actually defend those who suffer? Is it the willingness to teach and show others how to defend themselves? Certainly, the eponymous seven samurai in Akira Kurosawa's samurai classic--Seven Samurai--are good men because of these virtues and more, even if they are not without shortcomings. Their courage and skill--as well as their camaraderie--marks them as a band of virtuous defenders of a village of farmers, who sought them out to aid them in the impending raid by a band of repeat raiders.
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Set amid the Sengoku (Warring States) Period of Japan--that is late 16th century--the nation is embroiled in a civil war. History has shown that when the armies of a nation fight one another, it is open season for raiders and feudal lords (sometimes both) to take root and exploit the populous, just as is the case in Seven Samurai. The unnamed village is at the apex of desperation, rending their shirts in agony at the thought of being savaged by bandits once again. It is when they consult the village elder that they decide that fighting is their only option to survive, even though it is agreed it isn't a strong plan; the only way to do it is to recruit samurai. Now, samurai were the equivalent of European knights, meaning that they were also effectively in a different caste, like nobility; so the farmers attempt to recruit ronin--masterless samurai--not because of their social status, but because with that status, they were learned and disciplined men. The representatives of the village are a sad lot, hungry, desperate, and pitiable; their efforts to ply the samurai for assistance are often met with a kick in the face or other mockery. When they do witness the selfless heroics of an older ronin, Kambei Shimada (Takashi Shimura) rescue a hostage by assuming a guise of a priest, they follow him--as do another couple of samurai--looking to prosper from his prowess. Eventually, the party of farmers throws themselves at Kambei to ask for his assistance, but even he is apprehensive at the invitation. It is only in the midst of the farmers being mocked--and it is revealed that they gave their rice to Kambei and company, whereas they are stuck eating millet (basically, it's bird seed)--that Kambei agrees to support them. While Kambei manages to assemble an impressive crew of swordsmen, one of the team is not so much recruited as a tagalong--a peasant posing (rather poorly) as a samurai, a rough and ready joker who calls himself Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune). But even Kikuchiyo--like the others--brings something to the table, a necessary talent to improve their desperate odds to thwart the invasion yet to come.
While the village is wracked with anxiety at the battle to come, they are also afraid of the samurai--the very samurai they had solicited to save them. Some tell stories about how the women will be ravished by the samurai as a reward, prompting the paranoid father Manzo (Kamatari Fujiwara) to chop off the hair of his young daughter, Shino (Keiko Tsushima). When Shino accidentally encounters the kind--but also young--samurai, Katsushirō Okamoto (Isao Kimura) in the forest, he mistakes her for the boy she is disguised to be, and tries to forcibly drag her to drill practice. Their roll in the meadow awakens something in them both; Katsushirō brings Shino his rice in an act of chivalry, but we begin to understand that Shino is actually looking to create a scenario where he will take liberties with her. This turn of expectations is not to suggest that Shino is wanton, but like the other villagers, they are petrified at the idea of their approaching death, and it draws out the fear in unexpected ways. Ironically, when the liaison between the young lovers is revealed to all, the attitudes of members of the samurai and the village underscore that the class rift between them is still present, regardless of the acts of selflessness and efforts to unify the community have tried to yield--the soil has been salted. At three and a half hours long, Seven Samurai is a full movie which moves at a pretty fast clip, the impending peril already lurking in the shadows, a persistent threat which looms over the samurai tasked with the defense of the town, and the villagers who are drafted to aid it their own defense, trained as well as possible, and made into warriors, like it or not. Yet the villagers are not warriors, but their fevered passion to protect their home is what drives them to wield bamboo spears, dressed in scavenged, piecemeal armor. And just as the anticipation grows, the samurai begin to know their charges more personally, but none more passionately than Kikuchiyo, himself a farmer who sympathizes greatly with their plight. These bandits have harried the village before, and the depth of the wounds inflicted upon the community is devastatingly conveyed when a few of the samurai lead a raid on the bandit camp in the night. Their plan is to set fire and ambush the escaping rogues; when a woman emerges--whom the farmer Rikichi (Yoshio Tsuchiya) recognizes as his wife--she races back into the flames to kill herself. Although it's never clearly announced, there is a sense that she had fallen in with the bandits for one reason or another, and that her shame drives her to suicide, adding a layer of moral complexity to the otherwise straightforwardness of the war between the farmers and the bandits. The inevitable confrontation between the bandits and the samurai is more than just a single confrontation--it is a protracted siege with several skirmishes lasting over the span of days, and it is not without casualties. Seven Samurai has tense and frantic battle scenes, yet avoids glorifying war by showing the fear and fury both in the eyes of the warriors...and those who are not warriors, but who fight nonetheless.
Recommended for: Fans of a deep and moving tale of haves and have nots banding together to stand up against a horde of vicious opportunists in 16th century Japan. The movie is the quintessential samurai movie, portraying a convincing medieval era through costumes and set design; it is also a moral story about selflessness, without being patronizing.
While the village is wracked with anxiety at the battle to come, they are also afraid of the samurai--the very samurai they had solicited to save them. Some tell stories about how the women will be ravished by the samurai as a reward, prompting the paranoid father Manzo (Kamatari Fujiwara) to chop off the hair of his young daughter, Shino (Keiko Tsushima). When Shino accidentally encounters the kind--but also young--samurai, Katsushirō Okamoto (Isao Kimura) in the forest, he mistakes her for the boy she is disguised to be, and tries to forcibly drag her to drill practice. Their roll in the meadow awakens something in them both; Katsushirō brings Shino his rice in an act of chivalry, but we begin to understand that Shino is actually looking to create a scenario where he will take liberties with her. This turn of expectations is not to suggest that Shino is wanton, but like the other villagers, they are petrified at the idea of their approaching death, and it draws out the fear in unexpected ways. Ironically, when the liaison between the young lovers is revealed to all, the attitudes of members of the samurai and the village underscore that the class rift between them is still present, regardless of the acts of selflessness and efforts to unify the community have tried to yield--the soil has been salted. At three and a half hours long, Seven Samurai is a full movie which moves at a pretty fast clip, the impending peril already lurking in the shadows, a persistent threat which looms over the samurai tasked with the defense of the town, and the villagers who are drafted to aid it their own defense, trained as well as possible, and made into warriors, like it or not. Yet the villagers are not warriors, but their fevered passion to protect their home is what drives them to wield bamboo spears, dressed in scavenged, piecemeal armor. And just as the anticipation grows, the samurai begin to know their charges more personally, but none more passionately than Kikuchiyo, himself a farmer who sympathizes greatly with their plight. These bandits have harried the village before, and the depth of the wounds inflicted upon the community is devastatingly conveyed when a few of the samurai lead a raid on the bandit camp in the night. Their plan is to set fire and ambush the escaping rogues; when a woman emerges--whom the farmer Rikichi (Yoshio Tsuchiya) recognizes as his wife--she races back into the flames to kill herself. Although it's never clearly announced, there is a sense that she had fallen in with the bandits for one reason or another, and that her shame drives her to suicide, adding a layer of moral complexity to the otherwise straightforwardness of the war between the farmers and the bandits. The inevitable confrontation between the bandits and the samurai is more than just a single confrontation--it is a protracted siege with several skirmishes lasting over the span of days, and it is not without casualties. Seven Samurai has tense and frantic battle scenes, yet avoids glorifying war by showing the fear and fury both in the eyes of the warriors...and those who are not warriors, but who fight nonetheless.
Recommended for: Fans of a deep and moving tale of haves and have nots banding together to stand up against a horde of vicious opportunists in 16th century Japan. The movie is the quintessential samurai movie, portraying a convincing medieval era through costumes and set design; it is also a moral story about selflessness, without being patronizing.