THE SEVEN SAMURAI
A film review by Daniel Saunders
Copyright 1997 Daniel Saunders
A week or two ago I had a chance to see my all-time favourite movie, The Seven Samurai, for the fourth time, in a revival movie theatre. Directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, it is the simple story of a tiny farming village on the edge of starvation, threatened by a band of forty brigands who intend to attack and steal everything once the grain has been harvested. One of the farmers overhears their plans, and so the village has time to prepare to fight back. On the advice of Granddad, the local patriarch, they resolve to hire samurai, but they are so poor they can only afford samurai willing to work for three meagre meals of rice a day (while the farmers subsist on millet), so they end up with a rather motley bunch. Nevertheless, they are victorious in their struggle against the bandits. An adventurous friend came along with me, somehow finding the strength to relinquish exam preparation for the three hours and 42 minutes it takes to watch the uncut version of the film. While he was waiting for me, he managed to discover that the two women sitting behind us had seen it six times before! Although it was released in 1954, in Japan, and was filmed in black and white, it still has the power to hold a jaded North American movie-goer's attention and interest to the last minute, whether they're seeing it for the first time or the seventh time. To be sure there are obstacles to enjoying it, such as the subtitles, extreme length, and especially Japanese character names which are a challenge to remember. Consequently once I've mentioned a character in this essay, I will thereafter provide a one or two word reminder in brackets after the character name. Despite all this, it remains rich and spectacular entertainment. Why do I like it so well? First of all it has a wonderful set of characters. They seem like real people you've known all your life, and you care deeply about what happens to them. Each of the seven warrior characters is fascinating. There's Kambei, the wise old bald-headed veteran of many wars, all of them, he says, losing ones. There's Katsushiro, his innocent young student who experiences both combat and romance for the first time during the movie. Then there is Kyuzo, the grizzled, silent, highly skilled swordsman, an enigma to the end. Most intriguing of all is Kikuchiyo, the odd one out. Unforgettably played by Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa's favourite actor, Kikuchiyo is a mad-dog, impulsive, irresponsible wanna-be samurai; he starts off tagging along behind the other six, and ends up fighting bravely and sacrificing his life. There are also a number of memorable farmer charactersManzo, an overprotective father who forcibly cuts his daughter's hair when he hears samurai are coming, and Rikichi, who was forced to hand his wife over to the bandits last time they came by and still feels crippled by guilt. You feel sorry to leave these characters behind when the movie's over. What makes the film really work despite its lengthy running time is its strong structure. Each step of the way the action has a clear direction. The first major section has the party of four farmers in the big city, looking for cheap and strong samurai. They are almost ready to give up when they meet Kambei (veteran), and part two, one of my favourites, is about him recruiting the other six samurai, using the testing device of Katsushiro (kid) trying to whack each one with a big stick as they are invited in. Kikuchiyo (mad dog) makes his unimpressive entrance, falling down drunk, and receives a mighty bump on the head. In the third part, Kambei (veteran) surveys the territory around the village and plans defensive strategy. Each side must have protection against the mounted invaders. In one direction there is a bridge that can be taken down, in another they can build a fence, and in another there are impassible mountains. Section four has general preparations for the battle being made, including the farmers learning to handle bamboo spears and harvesting the barley in record time so the fields can be flooded, sealing off the village from still another direction. Part five is the samurai's bloody pre-emptive raid on the bandit camp, and the last part, which takes up most of the last half of the film, is the three day siege by the bandits. The main characters always have a specific goal they are working towards and even in the first two hours in which there is no fighting the tension is kept up by the ticking clock of the bandits impending arrival, tied to the ripening of the barley. This structure gives the film a strong backbone on which to attach the myriad subplots and minor incidents, and keeps the action moving along. The setting is the beginning of the 16th century, and Kurosawa spares no expense in recreating the period down to the last detail. The credits list four Historical Researchersone for folklore, one for fencing, and two for archery. I am reminded of McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Robert Altman's trail-blazing western, in that the setting is crafted with such integrity and gritty realism that it feels like a peek into a real place in the past, rather than the typical idealized technicolor period piece staged on some backlot. It is dirty and cold and miserabledid I mention dirty?and utterly believable. From the crudely but lovingly constructed wooden huts and the primitive farming implements to the ornate clothing and weaponry of the samurai, everything is perfect. The setting is more than just a backdrop for the story, however. In some ways the scenario is dependent on that particular setting. The 16th century was a chaotic transition period in Japanese history and was especially hard on the farmers. There was a great deal of civil unrest, in the form of large bands of looting and pillaging bandits, unchecked by government action. In addition, new ways of fighting wars brought about by the advent of gunpowder were making the samurai obsolete (in fact all of the samurai who die in the film are killed by primitive rifles), and many master-less "ronin" were forced to wander the countryside looking for temporary jobs and extorting food from farmers. Samurai are not used to having a village full of farmers as their master, and part of the fun of the film is watching the growing understanding and interaction between the two classes as they are forced to work together. At first the peasants are very apprehensive about the warriors' arrival, although the samurai are their only hope. They are all hidden away inside their houses when the seven arrive. Kikuchiyo (mad dog) breaks the tension when he rings the village alarm and everyone streams into the square. "You suckers!" he shouts at them, "You welcomed us as you would a plague! But when you heard the alarmoh! Samurai!'you turned to worship us! Fools!" Another revealing moment occurs when Kikuchiyo (mad dog) is angrily rebuked by Kambei for bringing in some armour from one of the farmer's huts, originally worn by samurai the farmers had hunted down. Kikuchiyo delivers an enraged speech:
What do you all think of farmers? Saints? Bah! They're foxy beasts! They say, "We've got no rice, we've no wheat. We've got nothing!" But they have! They have everything! Dig under the floors! Or search the barns! You'll find plenty!... They pose as saints but are full of lies! If they smell a battle, they hunt the defeated!...But then who made them such beasts? You did! You samurai did it! You burn their villages! Destroy their farms! Steal their food! Force them to labour! Take their women! And kill them if they resist! So what should farmers do?
There is a silence and Kambei says quietly, "You're a farmer's son, aren't you." Kikuchiyo stalks out, ashamed of his humble origin. The class system was especially rigid in Japanese society at that time; children took up their father's station in the social order along with his trade. Kikuchiyo is one of the few with the spunk to flaunt tradition and try to move up the ladder. There is also a sweet "forbidden" love interest between Katsushiro (kid) and Shino, the daughter of Manzo (farmer father). On the second night of the siege the two have an intimate encounter in an old barn, and Manzo is furious. He starts beating Shino. "What do you mean, falling for a samurai?" Kambei (veteran) breaks it up, and Schichiroji, Kambei's (veteran) old side-kick, delivers some sage words: "Manzo! Don't be so angry! When a man sees death in his path he feels the need for a woman's arms....Have some sympathy for youngsters." By the end of the last battle, the two groups have been through a war together, and many have died on both sides. The fear and distrust evident between them at the beginning is gone, but only briefly. As the farmers sing and plant next year's crops, the surviving samurai stand to one side looking on, silent and alienated. Now that they no longer need each other, the gap between the two classes has widened again. The last line of the movie is spoken by Kambei (veteran). "Again we are defeated," he says, looking up at the four samurai burial mounds. "The winners are those farmers, not us." I must say I was a little disappointed with my first experience of The Seven Samurai in the theatre; the 16mm print was poor quality and not widescreen as I'd hoped, and the subtitles were much worse than in the TV version (didn't they notice you couldn't read them at all when they were over something white?) Despite all that it was still a superlative evening at the cinema, enhanced by an appreciative audience and the immediacy of the big screen. Besides what I've mentioned, The Seven Samurai has exciting action sequences, wonderful black and white photography, and just the right amount of humour. This film is an example of how a simple, big-battle-oriented story can be turned into an entertaining, complex and rewarding treatise on the victory of compassion and humanity against tremendous odds.
Daniel Saunders
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