I just recently watched Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece. What's that? All of Kurosawa's films are considered masterpieces? I shall be more specific then. I just recently watched Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece 'Seven Samurai'. Seven Samurai is probably the closest of Kurosawa's films to being a household name in the USA, even among people who aren't film geeks. There are so many adaptions and remakes that even if you haven't watched the original you've probably seen something that was at least heavily inspired by Seven Samurai.
The reason I finally knuckled and watched this is because I'd just seen the 2016 'Magnificent Seven' with friends. I'd also seen the 1960 Magnificent Seven, the 2004 anime series 'Samurai 7' and the 1980 Roger Corman B-movie 'Battle Beyond the Stars'. I wanted to talk about some of the differences between adaptions, and figured I had to go back to the original source to do that right.
So, why HADN'T I watched Seven Samurai all this time? Other than 'Foreign films are expensive,' which isn't a good reason, because I had seen it available for free at my local public library and just didn't get it out. My big reasons where A: The run-time is about 3 and a half hours, and B: That's 3 and a half hours worth of subtitles and I'm not really a fast reader. My concerns were insignificant. There's an intermission and the 2 hour mark, so you can easily watch the movie over two nights. The intermission is a pretty good stopping place, particularly if you're already a little familiar with the story. As for the subtitles, well, most of the Kurosawa movies that I've seen are pretty minimalist when it comes to dialog. There were about two places where I had to rewind and hit 'pause' to finish reading the subtitle, but for the most part I was able to keep up pretty well.
Once upon a time in Feudal Japan a group of bandits ride up to a small farming village with the intent of pillaging and plundering and putting big hickeys on all the fair damsels (Ray Stevens: Erik the Awful. Look it up). They decide to hold off their attack until after the harvest. The bandits are overheard by one of the farmers, who warns all the other villagers of the oncoming attack.
The impoverished farmers are distraught. There's no way they'll survive the year without the harvest. After consulting the village elders they decide to hire Samurai to ward off the attack. As they have nothing to offer the Samurai other than rice they are advised to find 'Hungry Samurai'.
So a group of volunteers go into the city to find Samurai. Just throwing this out there, one of the major themes in this movie is class differences. I don't fully understand the social system of Feudal Japan, but it's made pretty clear that protecting the lowly farmer is not worth the time of the mighty warrior class. The farmers are treated like dirt by all of the Samurai that they meet. They're just about ready to give up and go home when they witness a Samurai performing a selfless act. A bandit has taken a young farm boy hostage and is hiding out in the barn. The Samurai we'll come to know as Kambei shaves off his topknot and disguises himself as a monk taking food to the boy, and quickly takes out the thief.
The village people (No, not THOSE village people) decide that they want THIS Samurai to defend their village, so they hurry after him. But before they can approach him another individual beats them to the punch. Enter Katsushirō, a young Samurai who wants to be the Luke Skywalker to Kambei's Obi Wan Kenobi. Kambei is all 'Aw, guys, this is to much,' to about all this attention. He's nothing special. He's reluctant to train Katsushirō, but agrees to let the youth travel with him. He's also reluctant to help the farmers, not because he's not sympathetic to their plight, but because he's never been on the winning side of a war.Kambei is eventually convinced to help, and after hearing the lay-out of the village decides it would take at least seven samurai to defend. So they go about recruiting Samurai. They eventually scrounge together six, plus a loud and clumsy town drunk with a Katana who goes by the name of Kikuchiyo. He's a real Samurai, just like the rest of these guys, and he has a family tree to prove it! Kambei isn't convinced, but he's unable to keep Kikuchiyo from tagging along. And so, they become the Six Samurai + This Guy!
Some of the farmers begin to develop private reasons to resent the Samurai. One, fearing for the safety of his daughter, forces her to cut her hair and disguise herself as a boy. Several of the villagers live on the opposite side of a bridge that Kambei intends to destroy to help fortify the town. Odds are good they'll lose their homes in the coming attack. And then there's the fact that, because of the class difference the Samurai are allowed to treat the farmers like dirt. Interestingly, even with the class difference, the Samurai treat the village elders with the utmost respect.
Katsushirō discovers the disguised Shino, and the fact that she's a girl, and the two fall in love behind her father's back. The seven train the villagers for the upcoming attack, and Kambei is busy with strategy and fortifications. We learn that Kikuchiyo was actually raised as a farmer, and that's why he's such a good moderator between the villagers and warriors.
After a few skirmishes, the bandits attack for real. Thanks to Kambei's strategy they're able to pick off the bandits a few at a time. Unfortunately, the bandits have the Samurai outmatched in firepower. One of the Samurai, Kyūzō, sneaks into the enemy's camp to steal on of their matchlock guns. Katsushirō gets a bad case of hero-worship over Kyūzō's bravery, and Kikuchiyo gets it in his head that if HE gets another gun then maybe the others would start to respect him. So he leaves his guard duty in the hands of one of the villagers and sneaks off to steal a gun. Unfortunately this plan backfires. Some of the bandits break into the camp because Kikuchiyo shirked his duties. One of the Samurai is killed in the attack, and of course Kikuchiyo blames himself.Having picked off a good number of the bandits, the Samurai prepare for a final battle. They plan to allow all of the remaining bandits to break through there defenses and then trap them in the village to finish them off. Unfortunately the bandit leader breaks away from the others, and finds his way into the hut where the women and children have barricaded themselves. He has a matchlock, and he starts picking off the Samurai one by one. In a scene that mirror's Kambei's introduction, Kikuchiyo fights his way into the hut and takes out the bandit leader, but at the cost of his own life.
Kikuchiyo is buried with the other Samurai. The completion of his story arc is that he's finally shown the honor that he craved the for the entire movie. He fought and died and was buried with his comrades. This is the part of the story that really resonates with me, and it's a part of the story that most remakes, with the exception of the anime series Samurai 7, fail to capture. And that's why you should watch the original Seven Samurai. I've enjoyed both the 1960 and the 2016 versions of 'The Magnificent Seven,' but each version strays further and further from the source material.
If you want to get into Akira Kurosawa movies and don't know which one to start with I'd recommend starting with Seven Samurai. I personally found it more accessible than the others I've seen - 'Rashomon' and 'The Hidden Fortress' - because I was already familiar with the story.
I'd like to follow this up with some thoughts on the remakes, but we all know how good I am at finishing series of posts that I start. See you next time.
-Geekboy.
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