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Cory Fields

Darrell Riffe

FMA 355

April 19, 2018

A look into Seven Samurai

A film about samurai, war, and romance sounds compelling, does it not? Seven Samurai

is a great film and one of the greatest films made by Akira Kurosawa. It follows the tale of seven

samurai’s quest to defend a village from local bandits. This is a dark and gritty tale of real

samurai unlike the ones we see in other movies.

The film takes place in sixteenth-century Japan. Due to a weak shogun, the lords under

him are using his weakened grip to attack other lords. This caused many samurai to abandon

their lords and become wandering rōnin. This also caused a rise in criminals and bandits.

To me, this film has no good or bad guys. The film paints the rōnin as good guys on the

surface, but are they really? The villagers are natural because they just want to defend

themselves. The bandits are painted as the villains. In all reality though, everyone is just trying to

survive. The bandits will take enough to survive and leave enough for the farmers to survive.

Without the farmers, both groups would die. The farmers call on the samurai to defend them, and

they have to pay them in food. Either way, the farmers get the short end of the stick. The bandits

and the samurai both mooch off the farmers and the farmers would be better off without both of

them. The samurai sound like swell guys now, don’t they? Additionaly, the samurai don’t win,

neither do the bandits. The real winners are the villagers. There are less bandits and samurai left

in the world now.

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The film begins with a roaming group of bandits attacking a small village. Due to the

attack, the village decides they need help to fend off these invaders after they harvest their crops.

The village elder, Gisaku, tells them to find hungry samurai since they have no money.

Kambei is a wise old rōnin who is first seen rescuing a young boy who was taken hostage

by a thief. After he rescues the boy, he is confronted by a young boy. This boy is Katsushirō; he

is a young samurai in training who wants Kambei’s to teach him his ways. It is at this point the

villagers confront Kambei about their dilemma. At first, he refuses but eventually comes around

to the idea. He states that he will need at least seven samurai counting himself to get the job

done. He and Katsushirō go about recruiting the required samurai.

They end up only finding four more: Shichirōji, Gorobei, Heihachi, and Kyūzō. Due to

time constraints, they couldn’t find all seven. Kambei is forced to take Kikuchiyo with them. The

seven samurai then depart to the village.

Once the samurai arrive at the village, there is no one there. Everyone is walled up in

their homes cowering in fear. They refuse to meet the samurai because they fear they only want

to kill them or take their food. One villager even makes his daughter dress and act like a boy, so

she will not be raped. The villagers finally come out from hiding when the alarm bell is rung by

Kikuchiyo. After this, there is a brief time skip with the samurai and villagers beginning to train

and trust one another. During this time Katsushirō meets Shino, a local peasant girl, and falls in

love with her.

At the end of this act, Kikuchiyo brings the other samurai armor and weapons. Kambei

explains that the villagers probably got them from injured and dying samurai. This makes

Kikuchiyo angry, and he retorts to the samurai that samurai and the lords are responsible for the
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situation the peasants are in. This reveals to Kambei that Kikuchiyo is, in fact, an orphan of a

farm and is not a samurai.

That wraps up act one, which set the stage for everything that happens in act two. While

act one was slow and built everything up, act two is quick and tears everything down.

The second act begins with the long-awaited harvest. During the harvest, the Kambei

Gorobei plan the defenses of the town and construction begins. For the next scene, bandit scouts

are heard by Shino and Katsushirō who retreat into the brush. Kikuchiyo, being himself, gives

away the samurai’s cover to the three bandits, but the samurai manage to kill two and capture

one of them. The scout spills the location of their camp, and against the will of Kambei the

villages attack and kill the scout.

With the location of the bandit camp now known to the samurai, they plan a pre-emptive

strike on the camp. Kikuchiyo, Kyūzō, Heihachi, and Rikichi are the one’s tasked with carrying

out the attack. It isn’t immediately apparent why Rikichi wants to go on the raid. They travel at

night on horses they retrieved from the scouts. They burn down the huts to drive the bandits out

and kill them at the entrance. It is then revealed that Rikichi’s wife was taken by the bandits as a

prize and that is why he wanted to come. Rikichi runs toward the opening in the building trying

to save his wife and Heihachi runs after him. Heihachi manages to pull him away to safety but is

shot in the process. This marks the first samurai death, and with that, the group retreats.

They hold a short funeral ceremony for Heihachi and prepare for the first battle.

Shichirōji noticed they have three guns and overall the bandits have thirty-three men. Gorobei

manages to kill one of the bandits at the flooded fields with an arrow. At the bridge, Kikuchiyo

stops a family who is trying to get his father to come to the village for his safety. This man is the

village patriarch. Kikuchiyo allows them to fetch him but insists that they hurry. Gorobei takes
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post at the northern border. Kikuchiyo learns that the watermill has been set on fire by the

bandits. This worries him since that is where the patriarch and his family was supposed to be.

Before Kambei and Katsushirō can stop him, he jumps over the fence and runs toward the mill.

When he arrives there, he is greeted by the sound of a crying baby. The mother is there and

hands the baby to Kikuchiyo before immediately falling forward revealing a spear in her back.

Kikuchiyo then udders the words, "This baby. It's me! The same thing happened to me!"

Cementing the fact that he was orphaned as a child.

It is now night time. On the eastern side Kikuchiyo and Yohei’s group spot some bandits.

Both of them manage to kill a bandit each. On the western side, Shichirōji and his men manage

to kill two more. The fight is over for now. Kyūzō then runs out into the darkness and the day

ends.

Day two of fighting. Kyūzō returns with a gun and reports that there are two fewer

bandits. Kambei’s plan works drawing two into the town and being cut down. Kyūzō also kills

another. Kikuchiyo feels as though he must go one up Kyūzō abandons his post and goes to the

bandit camp to retrieve a gun too. He watches the leader kill two deserters. He takes the armor

from one of the dead bandits. Then Kikuchiyo uses his disguise to get close to the bandits and

kill one of them and take his gun. This raises the alarm, and he runs back to the village with

bandits in tow. The bandits break through the defenses and enter the heart of the city killing

many villagers including Yohei and the samurai Gorobei. Kikuchiyo blames himself for their

deaths and stays the night at the cemetery. Kambei instructs the villagers to enjoy the night for it

may be their last. He also seeks out Kikuchiyo to raise his spirits In a different part of the village

Shino is trying to seduce Katsushirō because this may be the last night of their lives. Manzo is

searching for Shino and eventually finds her. Both Katsushirō and Shino emerge from a hut and
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Manzo sees this. This makes him angry, and he begins betting Shino. The commotion causes an

uproar in the town, and the others come over to see what is going on. Finally, Shichirōji and

Kambei question Manzo about what happened but to no avail. The two spy Katsushirō in the

darkness traumatized by what has happened. Shichirōji tries to open Manzo up, but his attempts

were in vain.

Day three of fighting, the final battle is about to start. There is torrential rain pouring over

the whole village, but over this, another sound is heard, it is the galloping horses of the bandits.

Kikuchiyo is furiously swinging his sword at the bandits until he falls into the mud. One of the

bandits breaks Kikuchiyo sword, so he picks up a new sword off the battlefield. This may be a

case of symbolism. Kambei shoots another bandit with an arrow. Katsushiro kills his first bandit;

this is also the first time he has ever killed an enemy. Katsushiro watches the bandit writhe in

agony before falling to his knees at the sight of this horror. Shichirōji finishes of another bandit

and commands Katsushiro and Rikichi to the eastern front. Inside one of the huts, the bandit

leader captures one of the women. We cut back to Kyūzō downing one of the captains that was

on horseback. Then there is a gunshot and Kyūzō falls to the ground, and another samurai has

been claimed by the bandits. Katsushiro watches his idol fall to the ground and is both sickened

and enraged. He begins to run toward where the sound came from, but Kikuchiyo pushes past

him and gets to the door of the hut. Another shot rings out, and Kikuchiyo falls to the ground, but

through willpower alone gets back up to confront the chief. With his dying breath, he plunges his

sword into the chief killing him. Kikuchiyo manages to stagger outside the hut and falls lifelessly

into the mud.

The battle is won but at a heavy cost. Of the samurai that started only three are left;

Kambei, Shichirōji, and Katsushiro. The flag Heihachi made is still waving implying that they
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won but they must not forget why they fought and what they have lost. Some time passes, and it

is now springtime and the villagers are planting rice. We get to see the last exchange between

Katsushiro and Shino. Shino moves past him as though nothing has happened and takes her spot

in the planting line. Shino has moved on past whatever happened between the two and

Katsushiro must move on too because he is a samurai and she is a farmer.

At the end of the film, we are left with a few quotes from Kambei with his conversation

with Shichirōji. He states, "So. Again, we are defeated." Pause, “No, the farmers are the

winners.” Pause, "Not us." The camera then shifts to the graves showing the loss of their

comrades.

This wraps up the basic plot of the film, but I haven’t begun to talk out the implied

meaning of certain scenes or the characters themselves. I think the film portrays a period of

history where much change is occurring. The samurai are beginning to disappear, and Japan is

feeling the pain. Many of the samurai have become rōnin because they can’t find masters, or

their masters have been killed. The power is slowly shifting from the samurai to the peasants.

Before the peasants needed the samurai, but now the samurai are the ones who need the peasants.

As a side note, Kurosawa uses the classic trope of heavy rain and darkness to set the scene for

the final big battle.

There are many forms of symbolism in the film but, by far, the most powerful is the flag

Heihachi sews as their banner. On it is the Japanese symbol for farmer at the bottom. Above that

there are also six circles representing the samurai, and a triangle above that to represent

Kikuchiyo. To Heihachi, this banner represents what they are fighting for, but to us, the

audience, it could also represent a hierarchy where the samurai are above the peasants. Another

form of symbolism is the circles Kambei draws. They each represent a bandit, and as one is
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killed, it gets crossed out. This is basic but is still symbolism. To me Kikuchiyo tossing his

broken sword away is yet more symbolism. It can be interpreted as how the lords use samurai,

and once they have served their purpose they throw them away.

Out of all the characters Kikuchiyo is my favorite. He is goofy but has a tragic backstory.

Throughout the film, we learn that as a kid his farmer parents were killed by bandits, leaving him

orphaned. At some point, he ran away and became a “samurai” but failed to find any work until

he meets Kambei. Kikuchiyo presents his stolen family tree to Kambei, and he immediately

realizes it is a fake and tells Kikuchiyo to leave. Determined to join he follows the samurai all

the way to the village and they still don’t accept him. It is not until he rings the bell getting all

the villagers come out of hiding that they accept him. This was the first showing of his

determination and willpower. The second showing of this was at the burning watermill when he

jumped over the fortifications to try and save the family from the burning building. The final act

was when he was shot but got back up to kill the last bandit. Out of all the characters, Kikuchiyo

is the most dynamic. We get to see his highest highs and his lowest lows. Overall, I think he is a

good character and pure at heart even though his methods are strange.

The other major character is Katsushiro and his relationship with Shino. Not only does he

become a man he also becomes a samurai. Their story draws heavily from the works of

Shakespeare. When Katsushiro first meets Shino, he thinks she is a girl until he sees her clothes

and then questions it. She flees, and he gives chase, he catches her when she falls to the ground.

He feels her chest to see if she is a girl and his suspicions were correct. Katsushiro is horrified at

finding this out. Nothing happens again until he brings food to Shino in her hut out in the middle

of the forest. This is observed by Kyūzō who would later question him about this. In the next

scene Katsushiro reserves his rice, but Kyūzō speaks up and reserves his instead. At first,
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Katushiro doesn’t understand why but they meet outside, and he explains he saw them earlier

and wants him to be happy. The big climax of it all is the night of the second day of fighting.

When Shino and Katushiro enter a hut, and she tries to seduce him claiming that they are going

to die tomorrow, so it doesn’t matter. Shino’s father beats her for having sex with the samurai.

Their relationship ends at the end of the movie when Shino brushing him off like nothing has

happened.

The story flows in complete chronological order with no flashbacks. It contains many

skips forward in time to tell the narrative quickly and not drag on small details. Every scene has

a purpose, and no screen time goes to waste, which is incredible considering the movie is 207

minutes long.

For me, this film was slow in the beginning but picked up steam in the second act. The

fast pace of the movie captured the audience, and the action and romance kept them interested. If

Kurosawa cut about thirty minutes off the first act, I think it would be a much stronger film. It

would better match the pacing of the second act. Part one was all about buildup, which it

accomplished. We get to meet all the samurai and learn some of their histories with one another.

In the second act, we get to learn about Kikuchiyo and his motives. They all have a reason as to

why they are helping the villagers. Kikuchiyo and Katsushiro both want to prove themselves as

samurai. Kambei wants to help the villagers because of his kind heart. Shichirōji is an old friend

of Kambei and wants to help him, Gorobei wants a fight and shows compassion for others,

Heihachi is the morale boaster of the group, and Kyūzō is always ready to test his skill. A lot of

stories don't give the motives of all the characters, but Kurosawa saw that it was important and

gave them all causes.

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I think this film tells a great and compelling story. It has elements of romance, action, and

sorrow. This allows many different people to enjoy the film from different angles. This naturally

helped the film at the box office letting it raise 268 million Yen or 2.3 million USD. To many,

this is the greatest samurai movie of all time because it tells a story where samurai are on the

decline, and it is very much real and not a facade. Akira Kurosawa was master of cinema, and I

believe this was his greatest masterpiece.

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Works Cited

Shmoop Editorial Team. “Seven Samurai Plot Summary.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov.

2008, www.shmoop.com/seven-samurai/summary.html.

Kurosawa, Akira. “Seven Samurai Summary.” GradeSaver: Getting You the Grade,

www.gradesaver.com/seven-samurai/study-guide/summary.

Agatucci, Cora. “Seven Samurai Film Notes.” Seven Samurai Film Notes Part I,

web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum210/coursepack/samuraifilmnotes1.htm.

Kurosawa, Akira, director. Seven samurai. Film Stuck,

www.filmstruck.com/us/watch/detail/1300007240.

Kurosawa, Akira (1983). Something Like an Autobiography. Translated by Audie E. Bock.

Vintage Books. ISBN 0-394-71439-3.

Sharp, Jasper (7 May 2015). "Still crazy-good after 60 years: Seven Samurai". British Film

Institute. Retrieved 29 April 2018.

Ebert, Roger. “The Seven Samurai Movie Review (1954) | Roger Ebert.” RogerEbert.com, 19

Aug. 2001, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-seven-samurai-1954.