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<span class="mu-i">Seven Samurai</span>. Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece of cinema. The inspiration behind a generation of filmmakers, dozens of spaghetti westerns, and the codifier of “assembling the team”. In addition to all of those things, Gully also insists that the film popularized fighting in the rain, but you haven’t seen enough to contest her on that point. You’ll readily agree with everything else, though.
<span class="mu-i">“I may look like hell, but I’m a real samurai! I’ve been looking for you ever since that day. Wanted you to see this. Look at this! This is my family tree. All my ancestors are here. Damn you, trying to make a fool out of me. Screw you.”</span>
The story starts simple enough. A village of farmers preyed upon by bandits wishes to hire samurai to defend them. An old ronin is the sole warrior to answer their call for aid, but soon accumulates a cadre of warriors, even a disciple. Toshiro Mifune, playing the wild Kikuchiyo, makes the seventh and unlikely samurai. From there, they journey to the village in order to train the locals and fortify the village against the bandits’ attack.
<span class="mu-i">“Cut if off! It’s only because I love you. No telling what those samurai’ll do!”</span>
But beneath the veneer of an action movie is a parable of class difference. It hides it well, and kudos for Kurosawa to not otherwise shove it down your throats. Noble as the samurai are, there is still an underlying tension between them and the farmers they’re sworn to protect. Perhaps the only difference between a bandit and a samurai is that the latter has a pedigree to justify his debauchery against the lower castes.
<span class="mu-i">“They kowtow and lie, playing innocent the whole time. You name something, and they’ll cheat on it! After a battle, they hunt down the losers with their spears! Farmers are misers, weasels and crybabies! They’re mean, stupid murderers! But tell me this: who made them into monsters? You did! You samurai did! In war, you burn their villages, trample their fields, steal their food, work them like slaves, rape their women and kill ‘em if they resist! What do you expect ‘em to do? What the hell are farmers supposed to do?!”</span>
It’s surprisingly sober, and translates beyond the time and place that the film is set in. Not even the end of the world could completely eradicate the difference in class. If anything, it’s only served to reinforce and set them in stone. The disparity can be keenly felt just by traveling from one ring to another.
<span class="mu-i">“Is that clear? This is the nature of war: by protecting others, you save yourself. If you think only of yourself, you’ll only destroy yourself. From this day forward, anyone caught doing that…”</span>
(cont.)
