"Seven Samurai" is a classic Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa and released in 1954. It tells the story of a group of seven samurai warriors who are hired by a village to defend them against a group of bandits who plan to attack and plunder the village.
The story begins with a group of bandits led by a man named Kambei Shimada (Takashi Shimura) who are on the lookout for a village to attack. Meanwhile, a village of farmers is also on the lookout for samurai to defend them against the impending attack. The village leaders approach Kambei and ask him to lead a group of samurai to defend them. Kambei agrees, and sets out to recruit six other samurai to join him in the task.
The seven samurai who join Kambei include the young and inexperienced Katsushiro Okamoto (Isao Kimura), the hot-headed Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), the skilled swordsman Kyuzo (Seiji Miyaguchi), the clever strategist Shichiroji (Daisuke Kato), the elderly Gorobei Katayama (Yoshio Inaba), and the charismatic Heihachi Hayashida (Minoru Chiaki).
Together, the seven samurai set out to prepare the village for the impending attack. They train the villagers in the art of combat and set up various defenses around the village. As the day of the attack approaches, the samurai and the villagers brace themselves for the confrontation.
When the bandits finally arrive, the samurai and the villagers put up a brave fight. Despite being outnumbered, the samurai use their skills and strategies to hold off the bandits and protect the village. In the end, the bandits are defeated and the village is saved.
"Seven Samurai" is a timeless classic that has inspired numerous adaptations and remakes in various media. It is a poignant tale of bravery, loyalty, and the enduring human spirit. Its themes of honor and selflessness continue to resonate with audiences to this day.
Seven Samurai Themes
I'm going to focus mainly on the samurai, because while these characters are indeed important, it's the samurai who develop the most, and are what really make this series what it is. Waves, 97 But these values are increasingly hard to come by, even in the world depicted in the film. The warrior's camera: the cinema of Akira Kurosawa Rev. Although Seven Samurai was the first proper samurai film that Kurosawa directed, he had actually already written two such films in the years before committing to his own samurai project: Fencing Master, which similarly explores the question of realism in samurai representations, was directed by Masahiro Makino and released in 1950, while the 1952 Vendetta of a Samurai was helmed by Kazuo Mori. While he initially refuses to help the villagers, seeing their utter despair and desperation at this response leads him to change his mind. The samurai fight for honour, the merchants seek riches, and the bandits, who were once samurai, have. The main characters in the story are Shu Lein, Li Mu Bai, Sir Te, and Jen.
Kurosawa also intended it to be a dynamic film, one based on movement. The Journal of Asian Studies. University Press of Mississippi. . The samurai at the end have lost four of their seven, yet there are no complaints, because that is the samurai's lot. I was pleasantly surprised by the first four episodes, and it just kept getting better.
The importance of the group is very much also reflected in the way shots in the film are framed, with groups and groupings gaining primacy over solitary figures. After further research and plotting, the three-man writing team locked themselves at an inn, and after six weeks emerged with a completed screenplay. At first introduction, he comes off more hot-headed than anything, but we soon learn he does have some wisdom kicking around in that metal head of his. In his aim to achieve historical realism, Kurosawa was strongly influenced by the works of Kenji Mizoguchi in Seven Samurai, as well as in his later period films. In front of the arquebus, introduced to Japan in the mid-1500s by the Portuguese, the samurai truly become equal to the peasants. The parents are so preoccupied with their problems that the children are left lost.
He is more concerned with doing good deeds than with social hierarchies or superficial ideas of honor. Rikichi remains bowed on the ground, crying, until Mosuke walks up to him and begins brushing the dirt off his clothes. The Legend Returns and Dies Harder Another Day: Essays on Film Series. There have been Seven Samurai in Japan. Then he starts slowly gaining courage until he finally goes down trying to defend his post.
Chinese drums are employed frequently, but they never really get annoying. It's underdeveloped and uninteresting, to say the least. Rikichi says to his companions that they can manage seven, but Manzo says that the old man only requested four. Gojira opened on November 3, 1954 and receipts were strong: the film recorded the best opening-day ticket sales ever in Tokyo and eventually grossed ¥152 million on 9. The opening is among one of the best I've ever seen, and the fast-paced fighting scenes are extremely well choreographed, with not a lot of cut-away shots. Rikichi begins running toward Kambei again but again Kikuchiyo pushes him out of the way and runs up to Kambei himself.
GradeSaver, 26 November 2022 Web. While his sister matures into woman all while molting her innocence and naivety. The village's water priestess, Kirara, her younger sister, Komachi, and a heartbroken villager, Rikichi, set off to hire willing samurai with nothing to offer but rice from their meager harvests. Bernard Berkman is a novelist whose career has gone into a slow decline and is now reduced to teaching. Yohei cries, and says that he was very careful and even slept with the jar of rice in his arms all night. Their leader says that it would be better to be born a dog than a peasant and tells the farmers that they should go hang themselves, but Katsushirō steps in to defend the farmers.
The victory belongs to the farmers, not to us. Time Out Film Guide, 7th Edition. But with a story that is so enriched with drama and impact, why in the holy mother of grilled cheese would you integrate a steampunk-inspired, futuristic dystopia complete with flying samurai hover units!?!? It also indicates that it will be hard to find samurai willing to fight for farmers, and that they may only be able to convince desperate ones. Kurosawa and the writers were innovative in refining the theme of the assembly of heroic characters to perform a mission. Kambei walks away as Katsushirō remains in his spot, looking disappointed.
Seven Samurai : Akira Kurosawa : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Shimura's Kambei is the veteran warrior, who in an early scene shaves his head to disguise himself as a priest in order to enter a house where a hostage is being held. The scene in which Kambei rescues the child from the thief in the barn serves to introduce the viewer to Kambei, Katsushirō, and Kikuchiyo. Overseas, the box office income for the film's 1956 North American release is currently unknown. Kurosawa was able to mix this new focus on more democratic ideals—such as individuality, greater class mobility, and loyalty to personal morality before leaders—with some of the older traditions of samurai films to create what would become a hugely popular film in Japan. Following their research on the period, it was also important for the writers to get the samurai just right, the individuals realistic, and the world that they inhabit life-like. Buy Study Guide Charity motif Charity comes up frequently in the film, especially in the first part. Finally, Kambei tells Rikichi to go after one of the samurai, and Rikichi begins to follow him.
"Seven Samurai" and "The Magnificent Seven" Movies
It was the second-highest-grossing domestic film in Japan in 1954. It took a year to shoot and faced many difficulties. Some of his previous films featured samurai characters, but the samurai film was a genre unto itself, which came with certain conventions and expectations. For most of the last half of the series the last episode being an exception , Ukyo is simply brilliant both in brains and otherwise. In the first scene, the crying woman and other villagers suggest that they are better off dead and should just kill themselves, and this is repeated by men in the larger town as well. Suddenly, the soundtrack is interrupted by screams and a wide shot shows many villagers scattering as a samurai throws Rikichi to the ground. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
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