[FILM] Seven Samurai

I have heard of this masterpiece countless times but have not gotten a chance to watch it until recently it aired in the cinema. Truth be told, I was always weary of watching foreign language films – not knowing the language and culture does make me wonder if I can understand the film well. Adding on to that was the fact that Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) is a black-and-white film. No colours. Goodness.

I signed up for this without knowing what I got myself into, but hey, I’m glad I made that decision.

Despite being over 3 hours long, excluding intermission time, I was not bored at all. In fact, I find myself enjoying the lines, the recruitment of the samurai, the planning they had and the fight scenes. Unlike many other films today that squeeze multiple complicated plot lines into the film, Seven Samurai was quite well-paced in my opinion.

SAMURAI IN FEUDAL JAPAN

The film takes place in 16th century Japan, the Sengoku period where civil wars were rife and unrest common, and particularly in a mountainous village which was the target by bandits. Tired of letting the bandits steal their crops, a villager by the name of Gisaku decided to find hungry samurai to fight off the bandits. Gisaku and few other villagers then head to the city and successfully recruited seven samurai:

• Kambei: The first to be recruited and the de facto leader of the samurai
• Katsushiro: An eager young man who wanted to be a samurai
• Shichirōji: Kambei’s old friend in war
• Gorobei: More of an archer than samurai
• Kyuzo: An aloof swordsmaster and the MVP
• Heihachi: An average samurai whose laughter and charm helped lifted the spirits of villagers and the samurai
• Kikuchiyo: The samurai wannabe. Often hasty in his actions and speaks loudly. Comic’s relief but in a good way.

A GREAT BLACK-AND-WHITE EXPERIENCE

The storyline was really simple: hire the samurai, defend the village and kill the bandits, and precisely because it was so simple, the movie was turned out well. It was a very elaborate storytelling and something that is not seen in today’s movies. Akira bothered to show us audience how the farmers recruited each of the samurai, how they strategised against the bandits and how the sparring scenes played out. By the end of the 3+ hours, I felt that I know the characters and that I, too, have been on a wild ride with them. I felt elated for the farmers and samurai at their victory. It was touching and hard to say goodbye to these characters too. This does not come easy but it would happen if writers spend more time to explore these characters, give them a back story (for example, Kikuchiyo’s actions were rationale after we understood his backstory; Katsushiro who was born into a samurai family and his bittersweet love story with girl, a member of a different caste).

Modern day films would have condensed all that or skipped them entirely! This reminds me of a recent, ok not so recent, film that had pretty good narrative somewhat – Babylon. I wrote about it HERE a few years back when I first watched the film. It was a box office flop unfortunately.

Anyways, back to the feudal era. I had no idea what the film was about apart from it being a samurai vs bandits thing and thought it would be a serious depressing show. But it was not. Sure, some characters died while fighting – I was so sad when Kyuzo died – but overall, the film was quite hilarious. And I was actually surprised I laughed during the film. The countless times the six of them made fun of Kikuchiyo and name-calling him Lord Kikuchiyo; how Kikuchiyo stole the gears of the bandit and smoked with the bandit; how Kyuzo very calmly went after the bandits to bring back a musket; and when Heihachi was recruited. Akira didn’t had to try too hard to make us laugh, everything flowed naturally.

There were a couple of scenes that made me reflect further as well. In the beginning, when the samurai entered the village, the farmers fled as they were afraid the samurai would sleep with their daughters. The farmers wanted their help yet did not welcome them at all. Kikuchiyo being Kikuchiyo intentionally rang the bandits alarm and immediately, the farmers came rushing out begging for help. Kikuchiyo then chastised the farmers for being hypocritical which was true. In another related scene, Kikuchiyo went into an emotional outburst after he brought in the armour of dead samurai and distributed to the rest of the samurai as armour. The others were disgusted by his actions but Kikuchiyo retaliated that farmers only killed samurai as they had no other means to survive but to fight back, but that the people who forced them to do that were the samurai themselves. When you are at the bottom of the caste, the only thing you can think of is yourself and to survive. I think the audience went momentarily silent after this scene.

Probably the most impactful scene in original Japanese dub but Chinese subbed

Seven Samurai, though very long in screen time, does not feel boring at all. The soundtrack is amazing. That drum rhythm, reminiscent of an imminent battle, gave me the thrills, as if something warning us of a great battle to come. The cinematography, especially during the heavy downpour scenes, was stunning as well. I never expected that camera technology would be that sharp in the 1950s – better than some films today.

Would I watch it again? Definitely.