“But then . . . who made them such beasts? You did! You samurai did it!”
Turning seventy this year, let’s look at one of the most oft imitated storylines in film—and also what’s considered, alongside Rashomon, the most iconic entry of an iconic director. From Akira Kurosawa comes the epic Seven Samurai—the quintessential story of the few outcasts gathered to protect those who cannot protect themselves from a marauding threat. Being basically the origin point of this setup as far as pop culture is concerned, it’s interesting to see how this differs from its many, many imitators, and how it holds up itself in turn.
Indeed, even recently we have another mimic coming from Zack Snyder, moving the premise in outer space with Rebel Moon—something already done with Star Wars spinoffs. Twice. And before that we had the 1980s knockoff film Battle Beyond the Stars, set even on ‘Planet Akir’ just to drive the point home. And naturally the most famous western imitator is ‘The Magnificent Seven’, itself also remade. So you can see already what I mean about this one’s shadow stretching far. As for Rebel Moon, I’m not sure I’m interested to see another Snyder indulgence that might put me to sleep, only to wake to find the same character still swinging the same sword in slow motion.
Anyway, Seven Samurai isn’t exactly something you can sit down for a casual watch—it’s over three hours, and usually comes with an intermission to boot theatrically. Considering its wide range of protagonists, the length makes some sense in theory—and in a modern session, it might also make sense enough to view it in instalments akin to a series. Either way, for 1950s Japan, the scope and technical sense is on display from the get-go—it’s set during the Sengoku period, a time of intense civil conflict, where violence became the norm. Here the focus is on but a village, learning of bandits intending to raid their food, and have no choice but to find samurai who might save them if only for a morsel.
Said samurai are lead by the second most memorable player in the film—Takashi Shimura as Kambei, the eldest and de facto leader, who also starred in 1954 in another equally notable Japanese flick with the original Godzilla. The same gravitas in both films gives every line a reverb—and it is him that takes center in the very memorable gravesite-overlooking final scene itself.
But the first most memorable is of course none other than Toshiro Mifune as the black sheep of the ronin—Kikuchiyo, a rogue with secrets to share, and despite the stoic image one might of Mifune from the likes of Yojimbo, is a rather overacting jokester. This character was added later almost on studio mandate—and yet you can hardly imagine the film without him, for a couple of reasons. The first, his performance, has already been mentioned—but what also distinguishes the film as a whole from many of its imitators is the rather sombre self-awareness it has. Kikuchiyo, it turns out, is a peasant whose family have been oppressed by samurai before—and though they now come to save peasants, it is only really by circumstance.
It’s something that gives it all a rather bittersweet atmosphere, and a commentary on the violence that defined this part of Japanese history—and with this being made less than a decade after WW2, also accompanying a rather jaded look towards militarism and warrior ethos that lead to so much destruction. Thus we have the theme of these warriors trying to cede their sense of pride to something else in a backdrop of cyclical bloodshed, which is the overriding one throughout.
And that’s what gives Seven Samurai a little something extra to stand out from the parade of successors—in many ways it feels a little less about the conflict itself than what’s around it. Beyond that, the performances stand out, and the combat scenes still feel intense to a modern watch—some of them done by rather masterful editing to hide that not everyone here knew how to wield a sword. The rather hardcore length will put some people off understandably, but going past that, there’s still plenty to appreciate here and to educate how Kurosawa in turn cast such an influence over the Pacific on so many directors even to the present…
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