STORY STUDY - CRITERION WEEK - 2. “Seven Samurai”
The New Year has rung in four weeks ago, so I felt it was time to begin a new subject matter for Story Study.
This is Criterion Week, the segment where we explore the films in the Criterion Collection (website: https://www.criterion.com/) on the last week of every month.
We will be exploring titles in my personal collection and will go in order of the Collection’s numerical order.
January 2017 starts off big with the 1954 samurai epic Seven Samurai.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa and written by Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Aguni, the film is about a village populated by farmers who learn that bandits will be invading their village after harvesting season.
The village elder suggests a group of farmers go into town and hire hungry samurai, since they have no money.
The first of the samurai is the ronin (masterless samurai) Kambei, who impresses a group of townsfolk and other samurai by saving a child from a bandit by pretending to be a monk to the point where he shaves his head to make his masquerade convincing.
After being hired by the farmers, he finds five other samurai, as well as a man who claims to be one, to join him in defending the village.
While getting the village ready for battle, the seven train the able-bodied villagers to fight as well.
Despite being a slow-burn samurai film (mirroring that of a “slow burn western”) and clocking in at 3 hours and 27 minutes, Seven Samurai has the advantage in that it doesn’t feel sluggish or boring; something on screen is just fascinating to watch. The action, when it kicks in, is very efficient. When someone is killed, it’s very unceremonious and quick, whether it’s by gunshot or getting stabbed.
For me personally, the beautiful scenes are the group shots.
The characters, for the most part, are enjoyable to watch. Sadly, three of the seven get lost in the shuffle for me, but the four that stand out include the leader Kambei, the youngest, Katsushiro, the stoic Kyuzo, and of course, the loud-mouthed Kikuchiyo.
It’s an early example of the kinds of archetypes that still exist in today’s ensemble teams.
Speaking of the film’s influence, Seven Samurai has inspired many other works, including an American western remake, The Magnificent Seven (1960) and an anime Samurai 7, which has a futuristic-steampunk setting.
I will admit that some knowledge of Japanese culture, especially feudal Japan culture, may be necessary. I mentioned earlier of Kambei shaving his head. This is probably not a big deal. However, for a samurai, having his hair shaved brings him great shame to the point where they may commit suicide.
There is even a moment where one of the farmers sees his captive wife at the bandits’ hideout. After setting the hideout on fire, all the bandits and captives run out. When the farmer and his wife lock eyes, she runs back into the fire, unable to face him or live with the guilt.
These are my assumptions, as both of these issues are never brought up in the film.
Some might find the circle-triangle banner familiar. Seven Samurai is where it originated from. The kanji means farmers; the six circles represent samurai; the triangle represents Kikuchiyo, who is not. The banner represents their unity for a common cause. For me personally, I noticed a version of this in the anime Digimon Tamers, which is my first exposure to the banner.
Seven Samurai is a film that requires patience. I would not recommend it to casual movie goers, unless they know what they are getting themselves into. But once you get it going, you’ll want to watch it to the end.
Gather up your team, and check it out.
https://www.criterion.com/films/165-seven-samurai?q=autocomplete
