Akira Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai" (1954) is not only a great film in its own right, but the source of a genre that would flow through the rest of the century. The critic Michael Jeck suggests that this was the first film in which a team is assembled to carry out a mission-an idea which gave birth to its direct Hollywood remake, "The Magnificent Seven," as well as "The Guns of Navarone." "The Dirty Dozen," and countless later war, heist and caper movies. Since Kurosawa's samurai adventure "Yojimbo" (1960) was remade as "A Fistful of Dollars" and essentially created the spaghetti Western, and since this movie and Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" inspired George Lucas' "Star Wars" series, it could be argued that this greatest of filmmakers gave employment to action heroes for the next 50 years, just as a fallout from his primary purpose.
That purpose was to make a samurai movie that was anchored in ancient Japanese culture, and yet argued for a flexible humanism in place of rigid traditions. One of the central truths of "The Seven Samurai" is that the samurai and the villagers who hire them are of different castes, and must never mix. Indeed, we learn that these villagers had earlier been hostile to samurai-and one of them, even now, hysterically fears that a samurai will make off with his daughter. Yet the bandits represent a greater threat, and so the samurai are hired, valued and resented in about equal measure.
Why do they take the job? Why, for a handful of rice
The 1954 movie The Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa, and its 1960 remake The Magnificent Seven, directed by John Sturges have many similarities; for example, the plot of both movies entails farmers hiring mercenaries to help fend off bandits that annually pillage their farms. The two movies also have differences like the characterization of the bandits in The Magnificent Seven as opposed to The Seven Samurai.
“The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life” (Zwick). These are the words of Katsumoto, an important samurai warrior. The movie The Last Samurai directed by Edward Zwick is about an American War Captain named Nathan Algren who is hired to train, lead and modernize a group of Japanese soldiers to defeat a rebellion of the country's remaining Samurai in 1876. Algren is captured by the Samurai and soon becomes part of the village he is being held hostage in. There, Algren learns from the Samurai and comes to respect them. He finds that his true warrior is becoming unleashed as he trains to become a Samurai with the very people we once called his
Secrets fill the garden. In Gail Tsukiyama’s novel “The Samurai’s Garden”, she uses metaphors to show the audience the garden and its’ curator in a mysterious light. Tsukiyama’s character Stephen gazes upon Matsu’s garden with wonder and amazement. He compares it to another world, “The garden is a world filled with secrets… Matsu’s garden whispers at you, never shouts; it leads you down a path hoping for more, as if everything is seen, yet hidden” (Samurai 31). Tsukiyama creates another world within the fences of the garden. She integrates the secrets of its’ caretaker into the aura of the garden. The metaphor to another world impacts the reader by allowing the reader to see the mystery and beauty that shrouds it. The cloak of beauty shows
Japan Test: Feudalism Thinking about our universal theme of chaos vs. order, did Japanese Feudalism have a positive or negative impact on Japan? Use documents 1-4 to support your answer. For many centuries, Japan's society was based on feudalism, a bond of loyalty between a lord and vassal. I believe this system negatively impacted Japan.
The Samurai live to honor their family and Japan, if these Japanese warriors dishonor their family or their country they would have to commit Seppuku, suicide caused by great dishonorment. The samurai also had very dangerous and powerful weapons. These weapons were so powerful they could slice through three bodies at a time. Samurai are interesting because of their ritual suicide based on their belief system and weaponry.
Twilight Samurai is a movie that revolves around the live of a samurai, years before the Meiji Restoration. The main issues that the movie looked at include stereotype of samurais, genders and social class differences. Unlike many typical samurai-themed movies which involve fighting, woman and pride, the director of Twilight Samurai focused on the everyday life and difficulties faced by the main protagonist, Iguchi Seibei.
Michael Swain March, 3rd, 2015 Course: FPC211-Section A Final Assignment: Essay Yojimbo (1961)/ A Fistful Of Dollars (1967) The following essay is on two films, Yojimbo (1961) directed by Akira Kurosawa & A Fistful Of Dollars (1967) directed by Sergio Leone. The film Yojimbo was plagiarized by Sergio Leone when he made A Fistful Of Dollars and Kurosawa sued for royalties.
As the above quotation proving how critical it was for the farmers and the samurai to unite. Energizing the farmers was a hard task as they feared for their lives, however the samurai begun to teach the peasants how to fight and defend themselves, once again showing their loyalty. Kambei, kikuchiyo and kyuzo are three characters kurosawas gives specific bushido values too, while each influencing the movie greatly through the budido virtues. In Akira Kurosawa’s the seven Samurai (1954), Kambei’s character is created with unique characteristics so he can excel as a leader, therefore being the main character throughout the film. Kambei is given an early task of assembling a team of seven samurai to ultimately defend the famer’s village from bandits.
A samurai was a member of the warrior class, and nowadays is typically associated with loyalty and respect. However, the way these ‘warriors’ are perceived in the field of entertainment is often grossly over exaggerated. Samurai served their Daimyo, or warrior lord below the shogun, who used them for their own personal gain. Samurai protected their Daimyo’s land, which then allowed for their power and amount of land expand. Though they were respected, they were simply servants to their Daimyo and were constantly ordered around.
It is difficult to imagine that two nations as culturally distinct as the United States and Japan in the 1960s, could find any common ground. However, the similarities between Akira Kurosawa 's Yojimbo and Sergio Leone 's A Fistful of Dollars are undeniable and yet both films reached similar levels of success in their respective nations. In fact, the films were found to be so analogous that Kurosawa is known to have sued Leone for the unlicensed production of his film. All of this aside, it is the differences between each of these films that reveal the most about the cultural nuances between each nation at the time. Although A Fistful of Dollars follows Kurosawa 's plot line almost exactly, he fails to capture the humour and self-reflexivity that is pervasive throughout Yojimbo. Additionally, Leone was forced to adapt his plot line in order to better suit the predominant use of firearms in his picture, which in turn bore a clear influence on other key elements of the film. Moreover, his characterization of the female roles in the story leave much to be desired as they present merely a shallow interpretation of Kurosawa 's characters. Over all, Kurosawa makes significantly bolder choices in his film making style, flirting with different reflexive techniques in order to push the boundaries of cinema, while Leone follows a more traditional path.
The 1954 movie The Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa, and its 1960 remake The Magnificent Seven, directed by John Sturges have many similarities; for example, the plot of both movies entails farmers hiring mercenaries to help fend off bandits that annually pillage their farms. The two movies also have differences like the characterization of the bandits in The Magnificent Seven as opposed to The Seven Samurai.
Hayao Miyazaki’s film, Spirited Away, depicts the journey of a young girl, Chihiro, into the spirit world and the struggle to escape back into the real world with her parents. Chihiro is the protagonist in Spirited Away. She is a ten year old girl moving to a new house in a new town. While travelling to the new house, her parents take a wrong shortcut which end up in front of a tunnel. After entering into tunnel they found it was the entrance to abandoned theme park which was closed a long time ago because of economy. In the course of a time she matures and finds the things she truly values. Spirited Away ia animated movie by a japanese anime studio, which was made in 2001.Lively Away is less a peppy dream than an unpredictable investigation of a contemporary Japan that is hunting down what may be termed social recuperation … in a degenerate postindustrial society"
The Seven Samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa uses many film techniques and features of the Japanese samurai film genre to engage and influence the viewing audience. The Japanese samurai film genre focuses on the physical martial arts, and is very similar to American westerns. These films are usually set in the Tokugawa era and the main characters are samurai, or Ronin. The Seven Samurai is a stereotypical Japanese samurai movie set in the Tokugawa era about a village full of farmers who hire seven samurai to protect their village from a group of bandits. Kurosawa has used many features of a typical samurai film in The Seven Samurai such as the use of the katana, the samurai were usually clean cut and are seen as socially superior and that
It is a classic story of a small force of highly skilled warriors who are vastly outnumbered and who do not expect to survive but know that they must give their lives for the good of their country. It has strong influences of the Kurasawa classic 7 samurai, the director said that he thought this is the movie Kurasawa would have made if he had the money and technology of today and wanted to make an all-out action movie.
In contemporary Japanese cinema, a common theme that is portrayed is that of the failing family. Films with this theme show families that do not fit the ideal family image and are instead riddled with issues and problems that conflict that prevent the families from being whole and can lead to the separation and breakage of them. One film that has aspects of the failing family theme is Ringu (1998) directed by Hideo Nakata; a film about a tape that curses and kills the viewer in seven days after watching which prompts the lead character, Reiko Asakawa, to stop the curse. The failing family theme is expressed through two different families, Reiko’s family and Sadako’s family, which both show, in different ways, the failings of their respective families and what those themes convey in their depiction. These families show together how the failings and problems they have impact the family members in negative ways.