NOTES on SEVEN SAMURAI 七人の侍 Shichinin No Samurai
NOTES ON SEVEN SAMURAI 七人の侍 Shichinin no Samurai
3 1/2 hours
Released 1954 (2 years before Fords “The Searchers”)
Released 1956 – USA – Same year as “The Searchers”
Chanbara (チャンバラ?), also commonly spelled "chambara", meaning "sword fighting" movies,[1] denotes the Japanese genre called samurai cinema in English, and is roughly equivalent to western cowboy and swashbuckler films.
Chanbara is a sub-category of jidaigeki, which equates to period drama
Seven samurai first of Kurosawa’s samurai film (Roshomon is more a period piece)
Japan Post War, when film comes out:
US censorship board ends 1952 (two years before 7 samurai)
Golden Era of Japanese Cinema 1950s-1960s - prolific
1946 – 67 films a year
1954 – 400 flms a year
7000 Screen in Japan – Few American films, 50% are Samurai films.
THEMES
Rogues as team
Social Castes/heiarchies and the problems they cause.
Realism /naturalism in portrayals of personalities
First real commentary on WW Ii and society
Loyalty / lacking lords - ronin
All 4 Samurai Deaths are by GUNs – changing of times, Samurai way of life dying/losing.
Film not celebrating war/violence - honor and respect and dread
IMPORTANCE OF SEVEN SAMURAI
Samurai Film’s go international.
Swearing in films
Common narrative tropes/motifs copied so many times its familiar
Kurosawa influened heavily by Ford and Fritz Lang, Eisenstein.
"The Seven Samurai" represents a great divide in Kurosawa’s work; most of his earlier films, subscribe to the Japanese virtues of teamwork, fitting in, going along, conforming. All his later films are about misfits, noncomformists and rebe Instead of the slow, ritualistic, and highly theatrical style of the typical sixteenth-century saga, Seven Samurai moved with the sure swiftness of a Hollywood/western action epic, like Gunga Din or Stagecoach. American remake, The Magnificent Seven (1960) and again in 2016, but went on to influence a score of other westerns, particularly those of Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch) and Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West). But to hear it from director Kurosawa, the most important inroad Seven Samurai made was on home turf. The characters may inhabit historical settings, but their manner and bearing were, often as not, strikingly contemporary-particularly in the case of the buffoonish Kikuchiyo, the high-spirited would-be samurai played with great gusto by Toshiro Mifune. FIRST SLOW MOTION DEATH (later to be copied by Arthur Penn in Bonnie and Clyde and Sam Pekinpah in The Wild Bunch) Seven Samurai was among the first films to use the now-common plot element of the recruiting and gathering of heroes into a team to accomplish a specific goal, Origin of the practice, now common in action movies, of introducing the main hero with an undertaking unrelated to the main plot. Opening of Seven Samurai – Saving of the Boy by Kambei
Kurosawa made use of telephoto lenses, which were rare in 1954, as well as multiple cameras which allowed the action to fill the screen
Use of multiple cameras, during filming and especially during action sequences. Fluid style of action. 1982, it was voted #3 in the Sight & Sound critics' poll of greatest films.
In the Sight & Sound directors' poll, it was voted at number ten in 1992 and number nine in 2002.
It also ranked number seventeen on the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll
The Seven Samurai
Kikuchiyo - Toshiro Mifune as a humorous character who initially claims to be a samurai, he even falsifies his family tree and identity. Mercurial and temperamental, he identifies with the villagers and their plight, and he reveals to the group that he is in fact not a samurai, but rather a peasant.
Kambei Shimada - Takashi Shimura as a ronin and the leader of the group. The first "recruited" by the villagers, he is a wise but war-weary soldier.
Shichirōji - Daisuke Katō as an old friend of Kambei and his former lieutenant. Kambei meets Shichirōji by chance in the town and he resumes this role.
Katsushirō Okamoto - Isao Kimura as a young untested warrior. The son of a wealthy landowner samurai, he left home to become a wandering samurai against his family's wishes. After witnessing Kambei rescue a child who was taken hostage, Katsushirō desires to be Kambei's disciple.
Heihachi Hayashida - Minoru Chiaki recruited by Gorōbei. An amiable though less-skilled fighter. His charm and wit maintain his comrades' good cheer in the face of adversity. Fencer of the woodcutting school!
Kyūzō - Seiji Miyaguchi. He initially declined an offer by Kambei to join the group, though he later changes his mind. A serious, stone-faced samurai and a supremely skilled swordsman whom Katsushirō is in awe of. Zen Swordsman. Archetype, based on Miyamoto Musashi- the master swordsman of historical/mythical Japan. Wins a supporting actor Japanese award.
Gorōbei Katayama - Yoshio Inaba as a skilled archer recruited by Kambei. He acts as the second-in- command and helps create the master plan for the village's defense.
THE SHOOT ITSELF
148 DAYS
Shut down 2 to 4 Times because of need for more money.
Kursawa goes fishing while studio raises money.
Shot in built village.
Village Built from scratch
Realistic Treatment of warfare.
Real Arrows. Real Fire.
Kurasowa Edits his own film (not a common place thing at the time)
Strong use of wipes, dips to black.
Film cut down by 50 minutes for US and Internation Release.
2006 complete 207 minute version restored and released. Criterion collection.
2 Oscar Nomination
Venice Film Festival – Nominated for Golden lion wins Silver Lion.
REMAKES
1960 The Magnificent Seven- d. John Sturges
1989 - Zhong yi qun ying/Seven Warriors – d. Seiichiro Uchikawa
1998- A Bug's Life (1998) references both Seven Samurai (1954) and its Hollywood remake The Magnificent Seven (1960) d. John Lasseter
1980 - Battle Beyond the Stars- d. Jimmy T. Murakami, Roger Corman (uncredited)
2004 - Samurai 7 (anime television series) –d. Toshifumi Takizawa (and others)
2016 - The Maginicent Seven – d. Antoine Fuqua
Third highest Grossing film of the year 1954 in Japan. (cost 3 million dollars)
Trivia Tatsuya Nakadai: One of the samurai who is seen walking through the town. This uncredited bit part is the second known film appearance by Akira Kurosawa's regular, Nakadai, who would quickly become one of Japan's most accomplished actors. His active career continues more than 50 years after Seven Samurai (1954).