Blog 8. Seven Samurai. "We've Lost Yet Again." Due by 10PM Sunday.

A gallery of stills from the climactic battle.

And the result of the battle.

And look at the ending once more.

SHINO.  Are we all going to die tomorrow?
KATSUSHIRO.  There's no way to know.  But we might.  (They fall to the ground in an embrace...later, they come out of the hut and Manzo, Shino's father, sees her.)
MANZO.  (In between hitting his daughter)  Shino!  You tramp!  You wench!  What the hell's a farmer's girl doing with a samurai?  You slut[....] I can't forgive them.  I can't stand by when my only daughter has been made damaged goods.

KAMBEI.  We've lost yet again.  With their land, the farmers are the victors...Not us.

Earlier in the film, Kambei decides that Katsushiro can't go with the other samurai to the village.  He tries to explain why to the youngster:

"I know, I know.  I was once your age, you know.  Hone your skills, then go war and do great things.  Then becomes lord of your own castle and domain.  But as you dream those dreams, before you know it, your hair will turn grey as mine.  By that time you've lost your parents and you're alone."

Donald Richie (1924-2013), who knew about Kurosawa and Japanese cinema perhaps better than any other Westerner of his time, wrote the following about Seven Samurai:

The important thing [...] is that [...] people concern themselves with this search for meaning [between the real and illusion—the pretend] and do not allow themselves to be too misled by illusion.  Kurosawa knows perfectly well that illusion is necessary [....] At the same time, he would invite us—in the very face of apparently certain defeat—to pursue the real in so far as we are able, to face life, and to settle for nothing less.  (Seven Samurai and Other Screenplays, Akira Kurosawa, Faber and Faber, London, 1992)

You may not have liked this film as much as I do—when people ask me what my favorite movie is, if I say anything at all, I say this movie—but you have seen what is universally considered to be one of the greatest movies in the history of cinema.  Better than even Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings, Taken parts 1,2,3,4,7,9, and 14, and anything by Disney.  Even anything by Quentin Tarantino (sorry Isaac).  It is an action film; it is a historical drama; it is study of the Meaning of Life.

1.  What stayed with you from this last 30 minutes—what scene or moment?  And why?

2.  One of your friends asks you what you've been doing this week, and you tell them you've been watching this movie.  "What's it about?" they ask—how do you answer?  Don't give a synopsis of the plot, but really think what Seven Samurai is about, in the way that Wit is about a woman facing her death and confronting what she recognizes was a life lived, to a great deal, in an ignorance of her own making.   Think about this: and answer it in two sentences.

3.  Girls in 6th period and Boys in 5th period: make sense of Shino's story.  Why is she in this movie?  What does she do to further a theme in the film?  Add to what was said by those who wrote before you.  Or disagree and say why.

3.   Boys in 6th period and Girls in 5th period:  what does Kambei mean at the end of the movie by "We've lost again"?  And do you buy this?  Add to what was said by those who wrote before you.  Or disagree and say why.

4.  Whose death in the film most affected you?  And why?

Below are the Seven in 1954, 1960, and 2016.  

It's always interesting to me to see actors in different roles.  For example Toshiro Mifune, the greatest Japanese actor, whose most famous role is Kikuchiyo.  This is him in other circumstances:

This is the great Takashi Shimura, also most famous for his role as Kambei, here with Mifune in the Kurosawa film Stray Dog (1948), where they both play police detectives:

And here is Shino, Keiko Tsushima, in Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) by Yasujiro Ozu, whose 1953 film Tokyo Story was voted the greatest film of all time by critics in the Sight & Sound poll.

See you all on Monday: be ready to discuss. 

Blog 7. Seven Samurai. "I'd Like To Kill Every Farmer In This Village."

KIKUCHIYO.  Well, what do you think farmers are?  Saints?  They are the most cunning and untrustworthy animals on Earth [...] When they smell a battle, they make themselves bamboo spears.  And then they hunt.  But they hunt the wounded and the defeated.  Farmers are miserly, craven...mean, stupid...murderous!  You make me laugh so hard I'm crying!  But then, who made animals out of them?  You?  You did—you samurai!  All of you damned samurai!  And each time you fight you burn villages, you destroy the fields, you take away the food, you rape the women and enslave the men.  And you kill them when they resist.  You hear me—you damned samurai?!
KAMBEI.  You're a farmer's son, aren't you?

"The man who thinks only of himself, destroys himself"—Kambei.

The translations above are by Donald Richie.  They do not perfectly match the translation in the film.

Heihachi's funeral:

The bandits wreak havoc in the village:

Kambei in battle:

The film picks up significantly in its second hour.  Think of how quickly it takes Vivian to get sick in Wit—and how her sickness progresses at such terrible speed.  Well, Kurosawa takes a more leisurely approach than Margaret Edson: but once the action begins—something Kikuchiyo has been wanting as much as we have—it really does not let up.  There is a reason Kurosawa is known as master of the action film. 

1.  What moment in today's viewing stuck with you—and why?

2.  Think of today's viewing in strictly film terms—camera movement, framing of the image, use of sound and/or music, editing, maybe how all of these go together: what strictly movie moment that utilized one or more of the preceding film devices stuck with you and why?

3.  Pick one of the quotes from the top of the page.  How does it help us understand what Seven Samurai is about? 

Again: try and not repeat what those who answered before you wrote.  Help us by trying to add something more to what someone said before you, if you have to say something similar. 

Finally:  here's a gorgeous moment in the film.  Kyozu escaping to the forest in the rain to practice his craft.  You can see why young Katsushiro idolizes him. 

Blog 6. Seven Samurai. "Don't Throw Your Life Away." Due by 11 PM.

SHICHIROJI.  I hid among the grasses on the moat until dark.  When the outer walls tumbled on me in flames I knew I was finished.  
KAMBEI.   What ran through your mind at that moment?
S.  Nothing special.
K.  Sick of fighting yet? (Shichiroji doesn't answer)  Truth is, there's a tough battle ahead leading to neither money nor rank.  Will you join us?
S.  (without hesitation) Yes.

The tall samurai demands that Kyuzo fight with real swords.
KYUZO.  If these [swords] were steel, you'd be dead now.
TALL SWORDSMAN.  Then we fight with steel!
K.  Don't throw your life away.
TS.  What?
K.  Don't you see?  With the steel blades, you'd die.  It's a waste of your life.
Kambei is watching.  After a moment he comments.
KAMBEI.  This is preposterous.  There's no contest.

 Take a look at this scene from the 1960 American remake: it is a re-imagining of the scene where master swordsman Kyozo fights the arrogant samurai.  Here is the scene from the Seven Samurai. 

This is Kurosawa filming Seven Samurai. 

Think about what it must have been like for him to make these large and heavy cameras as mobile as they are in the film.  Think about how often the camera is moving: following the characters running of moving through cramped spaces like the shack where drunk Kikuchiyo chases young Katsushiro. Look at this contemporary trailer and see how mobile the camera is.  The camera is rarely still in this movie.

1. What moment in today's viewing stayed with you—and why?

2.  Look at the two scenes I posted above, one from the 1960 American western remake and the original.  Which do you prefer and why?

3.  Leaving Kambei out of the discussion for a moment: which character in the film—samurai or farmer—do you find yourself drawn to.  Why?

4.  Finally:  look at the two sections I quoted at the top of the page. 
•5th Period:  look at the second quote—Kyuzo, Kambei, and the Tall Swordsman: how does this moment help us understand what Seven Samurai is about?  Quote from the section.  Don't simply agree with each other—come up with your own answer and/or add to what others have said.
•6th Period:  look at the first quote—Kambei and Shichiroji:  how does this moment help us understand what Seven Samurai is about?  Quote from the section.  Don't simply agree with each other—come up with your own answer and/or add to what others have said.

As always, about 200 words to answer the four questions.  
  
Finally: Toshiro Mifune, who plays Kukichiyo, is considered the greatest of Japanese actors; or at least the best known in the West, due to his roles in several Kurosawa films (and mostly due to what we're watching).  The late John Belushi, one of the stars of Saturday Night Live back when it started, did a hilarious part-homage, part-parody of the Mifune samurai figure.  Watch it here. 

Blog 5. Seven Samurai. "That's Absurd."

A definition of Samurai.  Kambei, who has become the leader of this samurai band, refers to himself as a ronin.  All the samurai we see are ronin as well; the period the film takes place in is called the Sengoku period (1467-1600): "a period in Japanese history marked by social upheaval, political intrigue, and near constant military conflict" (thank you Wikipedia).  The samurai we see roaming the streets of the town are all masterless warriors, whose only skill—fighting and killing—is not wanted—unless it's by a farming village that cannot offer anything but food. 

Lewis Beale wrote in the Los Angeles Times when the 2016 Americanized sequel, directed bty Antoine Fuqua and starring Denzel Washington:

The plot of director Akira Kurosawa's 1954 classic, "Seven Samurai," can be summed up in one sentence: Mercenaries are hired to protect a farming village from marauding bandits. Yet within that simple framework is a rich tale involving self-sacrifice, honor, male bonding and sympathy for the underdog. And that's why Kurosawa's masterpiece continues to inspire filmmakers and other artists.

 Film critic Roger Ebert wrote of the film (he gave it 4 out of 4 stars):

Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" (1954) is not only a great film in its own right, but the source of a genre that would flow through the rest of the century. The critic Michael Jeck suggests that this was the first film in which a team is assembled to carry out a mission—an idea which gave birth to its direct Hollywood remake, "The Magnificent Seven," as well as "The Guns of Navarone," "The Dirty Dozen" and countless later war, heist and caper movies. Since Kurosawa's samurai adventure "Yojimbo" (1960) was remade as "A Fistful of Dollars" and essentially created the spaghetti Western, and since this movie and Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" inspired George Lucas' "Star Wars" series, it could be argued that this greatest of filmmakers gave employment to action heroes for the next 50 years, just as a fallout from his primary purpose.

And indeed it has been remade several times as an American western: this a clip from the 1960 version—the farmers are now Mexican and the samurai are now gunfighters.  Here is the trailer for the 2016 version.

And here is a trailer for the Kurosawa film we are now watching.   It took the director 148 shooting days over the course of a year to film the movie.

This is not an easy viewing, especially if you are used to the much quicker pace of contemporary American films.   The film really can be split into three sections: the first is the defining of the conflict—bandits want to take everything from a poor village—and the selection of the samurai who will defend the village; the second is the preparation of the samurai and wary villagers (after all, as Manzo says in today's viewing, the girls all go for the samurai) for the bandits inevitable return; and the third section is the defense of the village, the destruction of the bandits, and the fate of the samurai. 


So:

1. Response to the first almost fifty minutes?  Like?  Dislike?  Why?

2.  What moment—or even shot or sequence—struck you: has stayed in your mind since watching the film?  And why?

3.  Kambei, the samurai leader: what word best describes him?  And why?  Try to not repeat what others have said—or add to what has been said.

200 words.

The seven samurai:

Kambei, the taciturn leader:

 Gorobai, second-in-command:

Shichiroji, Kambai's old friend:

Katsushiro, the youngster:

Kyuzo, the master swordsman:

Heihachi, the "mediocre" swordsman, but who chops wood with spirit:

Kukuchiyo, the clown:

Akira Kurosawa with his samurai:

See you all tomorrow.