This is a masterpiece that is equivalent to three episodes of upper, middle and lower. Japanese film critics believe that this film promotes the ancient Chinese philosophy: the death of a cunning rabbit, the cooking of a fool; the end of the bird, the good bow. "Seven Samurai" is a unique masterpiece in martial arts films. Its success lies not in martial arts, but in depicting many lifelike characters, and one person.
The film can be roughly divided into four parts: The first part is based on what Wu Zuo has heard. After the wheat harvest, the mountain village will inevitably be attacked by bandits. The villagers are panicked. The main warlord and each have their own advantages, disadvantages and difficulties. The old man Yisaku insisted on fighting to the death by hiring a samurai. The second part is from the four representatives to the seven samurai coming to the mountain village one by one. The third part is the deployment and training of the subsequent battles, and the victory after fierce battles and sacrifices. The fourth part is the epilogue.
Relatively speaking, the first two parts are more exciting, especially the second part, which describes the appearance of seven samurai. It can be said that the seven samurai "walked out" one by one, all "walking" on the screen from his own path.
At the beginning of the film, the audience was fascinated: more than 40 thieves riding mountain bands, strong horses, strong helmets and excellent weapons. In the face of such a powerful enemy, the peasants are unarmed. Contending with it is like hitting a stone with a pebble. If you want to fight, how can you win? The audience can't help but figure it out. The way to implement this determination is to send someone out to hire a few samurai who can just provide food. Can such a samurai be hired? Is such a samurai who is willing to come with the lowest conditions to use it? This is also what the audience has to watch anyway.
Immediately afterwards, the film takes the audience into a plot that is full of doubts and seems to have nothing to do with hiring a samurai. These four farmer representatives sang songs and followed others to watch the excitement: the thief took the only child of a wealthy farmer as a hostage. How to rescue this child became the most concerned thing for people watching the excitement, and the four farmers wanted See the result. As for the audience, they originally wanted to see how these four representatives hired samurai, but they were also attracted to see what happened. A monk, a middle-aged warrior, who lost his hair and put on a robe, of course puzzled the audience, and finally understood, because the warrior's superior wisdom and superb martial arts subdued the robber and rescued the child. When he said goodbye to his master, when the young warrior had to approve his teacher, the warrior said that he was Kanbingwei. Only then did the audience realize that they could "hire" the first samurai. Kurosawa's description of Kanbei's appearance was purely after the audience was suspicious. For Kanbingwei's wit (disguised as a monk and approaching robbers), bravery (empty-handedly grabbing a blade), modesty (no ability to collect disciples, all defeated), honesty (admitting to have a bad meal), etc. Disposition is not expressed in a single sentence, but confirmed by the characters' own actions.
The most successful description is one of the samurai, the protagonist of the film Kiku Chiyo. He was a fake warrior, a farmer, and his father died at the hands of a robber. He is eager to get the temptation and guidance of a real samurai. His first appearance was in the farmyard, sitting in a big wooden barrel to see how the Kanbingwei rescued the child. The child was rescued, he took the Kanbing Guard, bent on following him. But he is dull and not good at expressing his meaning. Later, knowing that the counterfeit is inferior to the others, he got the genealogy of an individual, and it turned out to be a joke. Those true warriors despised him and ridiculed him. However, he is magnanimous and never cares about it. He is witty, brave and humorous, and his perseverance is particularly commendable. The true samurai ignored him, he was "following" him. He looks at the problem from facts, and has novel opinions. What made him stand out was the scene of knocking the police and clapper. The peasant has no samurai who wants to find a samurai, and when the samurai comes, he is afraid of the samurai. He knocked on the clapper, and the situation of ignoring the samurai suddenly became a warm welcome to the samurai. Even if he has made military exploits, those people do not regard him as a samurai. On the flag made by Pingba, the six circles represent the six samurai, and the triangle representing him is the triangle, but he is the best to Pingba. When people are happy, he alone mourns the tomb of Pingba. He fights bravely, and has a good strategy. He was the one who killed the bandit spies, he who attacked the bandit village, and he was also the one who went into the enemy's side to pay the fire. Just as the accomplishment was about to be completed, he still spared his life to fight the enemy with fire, and even smashed the enemy to death before he fell. But after his sacrifice, people were still confined to traditional bad habits, and they didn't regard him as a samurai, and his grave could not be pierced with swords like other samurai. Thanks to Katsushiro's justice, he said that he was an "excellent samurai" and put his own sword in him.
Kiku Chiyo was an authentic farmer. When he realized that he was a decent samurai, looking back at the farmer's shortcomings or limitations, he naturally knew well. It was he who persuaded the peasants to contribute the armor and weapons that the warriors who killed the defeated warriors had obtained, and always stood in the villagers' position to defend them. He thinks that farmers are like this, and there is nothing to fuss about. The peasants are cunning and stingy, so they hide things when they have them. As soon as the conversation turned, he enthusiastically pointed out that this kind of character was entirely caused by the samurai, which was caused by the government. He didn't show any mercy to the samurai.
If Kanbei's appearance is described from the perspective of the necessary qualities of a samurai, then Kuzo's appearance is described from the perspective of the necessary martial arts of a samurai. The big wandering warrior was a gangster. He forced Jiuzang to compete with the real guy, and he was chopped down by Jiuzang in only two rounds.
The samurai who didn't want to help the peasants knocked Katsushiro's bamboo sword with an iron fan. On the other hand, Goro Katayama pointed out that there was an ambush behind the door as soon as he arrived at the door.
In short, Akira Kurosawa carefully conceived and designed the appearance of the seven samurai one by one, and devoted all his love to these characters.
The film's arrangement for martial arts is just right, it is not a fight to the end, and there is no unpleasant "fight". What is unique is that this type of fighting involves banditry on horseback fighting with peasants on foot. There are many difficulties. Akira Kurosawa used three cameras to shoot these scenes. Immediately and with the intense action under your feet, it is difficult for a camera to take good results. In many films, the battle of the horse team is shot horizontally, which shows the flowing beauty of the horse, which is both good-looking and easy to shoot, but the authenticity is poor. The film was shot from the front, which is difficult but extremely authentic. The most exciting is the final battle scene, the two sides braved the heavy rain in a decisive battle, and the men and horses fought desperately in the mud. Using a wide-angle lens to shoot the bandits galloping towards the village, and the samurai and farmers suddenly appear in front of the rushing horses, the horses are stuck in a dilemma in the heavy rain, all of them are unique.
The film portrays the peasants as ignorant and timid, as if they are always living in fear. Knowing that the enemy would come to looting after the wheat harvest, he panicked and was helpless, kowtow to ask the samurai for protection, and wrote about the peasants' evil roots.
Kanbingbei's saying, "After all, we have defeated this battle" is of profound significance. The warrior who won the war is obviously the samurai, but the benefits brought by the victory have nothing to do with the samurai, which is meaningful.
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