The peasant class, with the most miserable destiny, bears the heaviest burden in society: taxes, annual tributes, labor, wars, natural disasters, and looting by bandits and bandits.
The samurai’s fate has been ups and downs with years of war. As Shimada Kanbei said, “When he was young, he also thought about fighting and making a name for himself, becoming the lord of a city. I'm still alone..." Not all warriors can stay high all the time. The war fails, the owner is killed, or he loses his salary for some reason, becoming a ronin, a peddler, a woodcutter, and even a bandit.
Akira Kurosawa portrays the characters in three points! The main characters in the film, the seven samurai are either indifferent, or bumpy, or optimistic, or martial, or humorous. They have distinctive characteristics as soon as they appear, just a few lines of dialogue, an expression, a few actions, and a facial image. On paper.
The film is called "Seven Samurai". In fact, they can hardly be called real samurai. There are ronins and farmers, but they are indeed loyal adherents of the spiritual ideals of Bushido. In the Japanese Warring States period, the samurai lost to the times, the decline of the samurai class is a foregone conclusion, and the elimination of cold weapons with firearms has become a historical necessity. The four warriors who died in the film all died of muskets, which is also a microcosm. They have no utilitarian purpose in helping farmers fight against bandits, and of course it is not for "feeding and feeding". Except for the counterfeit samurai Kikuchiyo who participated in the battle because he was the son of a farmer, the others were simply for their belief in Bushido and sympathy for the farmer. They defend the honor of the katana with their lives, and they are also the last adherents of the Bushido ideals. They are the light of this dark age.
The numb and cowardly peasant dared to kill the fallen warrior to snatch the item, but he did not resist the bandit; when he heard the alarm, they all shouted the samurai for help, and they all became fighters when they wanted to kill the captives. The first samurai was killed indirectly by the peasants they wanted to protect. This is simply the best interpretation of "the hero of the people died in the hands of the people"!
We can think of a familiar scene: once the Chinese people in Lu Xun's works, when the heroes died, the blood did not wake up the people, but the people ate blood steamed buns to cure their illnesses; now when the police fight the gangsters, there is no help but only onlookers. People gather together when they are caught. Attack it.
The peasants in the feudal society worked on the land, and they reaped the land! It was they who supported the landlords, warriors and all the upper ruling class! They are short-sighted, cowardly, inferior, hypocritical, stingy, they are so hateful and sad, but on another level I have to admit that they are also so great. They use their weak bodies to support all the strata that are pressing on them! It can only be said to be the sorrow of the times. An era that has produced countless miserable people is undoubtedly the fate of the sorrowful era.
In the film, Kiku Chiyo made the samurai understand the nature of the peasants, and at the same time tore through their inner beliefs. The peasants' survival consciousness and behaviors that they look down upon are the samurai who only know how to fight for fame and gain, fight and kill. Given that, in the end, the samurai is just like ordinary people, saving people from danger, to what extent is pure chivalry? Even though war can be exchanged for glory and wealth, in the end, it is still hard to escape the fate of the Shroud of Horse Leather. Therefore, at the end of the battle, facing a few new graves with swords, Kanbingbei will say: "We have failed again. Those peasants are the victors. The samurai is like the wind. The earth stays together and lives forever."
We have also passed through this black age. We must face history squarely before we can learn from history.
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