Food and the Endless Waltz Essay

Akira Kurosawa’s seminal work Seven Samurai is a stirring and heart-rending commentary on 16th century Japan. The movie focuses on the rigid caste system of Japan where warriors fight while peasants farm to support them. The film’s artistic value makes it worthy of being called a Kurosawa masterpiece. However, it is in the lesson the film seeks to impart that is perhaps where the true genius of Kurosawa is seen. Set in the Sengoku Jidai, the century of war, the haughty warrior class are locked in an endless waltz of bloodshed while the food producing peasant, the true heart of Japan, are ignored though they always win in the end. For pure production value alone Seven Samurai was a masterpiece. Kurosawa introduced a number of filming techniques that would soon be mainstream fare for action films the world over. One example is the use of slow motion filming to emphasize the death of a main character. It was also the most expensive Japanese film of its time and is possibly the most successful Japanese film period. The premise of the film is as common as rice in Sengoku Jidai Japan. A group of bandits, either masterless samurai called Ronin or desperate peasants driven to banditry by the loss of their farms to the constant warfare, are terrorizing a village. Peasants lacking the skills and weapons to fight back they seek help from the Gentleman Warrior class known as Samurai. After much hardship they find Seven Samurai, well six considering that Kikuchiyo was just a pretender, who after much blood shed succeed in fending of the bandit. Ironically, instead of a victory parade or laurels they are ostracized by the people they just bled for. The main theme is the separation between the Warrior class and the peasants. The peasants humbly admit that they are incapable of fighting and are forced to go to the city and recruit Samurai who are willing to fight for mere three meals a day since that is all they can afford to pay. The haughty Samurai reject this offer since, as member of the gentleman warrior class they deserve better than three peasant meals a day as wages for their services. With the help of a grizzled veteran Samurai named Kanbei they managed to recruit Six Samurai plus a straggler named Kikuchiyo. They receive a cold welcome from the other villagers who fear them as much as they feared the bandits. This theme continues to be played out during the movie. In the past wounded, fleeing Samurai were killed and robbed by the villagers when the Samurai sought refuge there. The Seven Samurai are enraged at this brutality and nearly turn on their employers. The farmers are worried that the Samurai would take their young women and in fact one of the Samurai does carry on an affair with a village daughter. All this is the result of the age old tradition that only certain worthy individuals could become Samurai warriors. The rest of the rural folk are consigned to becoming peasants. The Samurai choose to break this tradition by training the local peasants to help them defend the village, albeit with limited success. The end of the movie displays the most poignant scene in the whole film. Four of the Samurai are slain but the village is sucessfully defended. Instead of showing gratitude, the villagers ignore the surviving Samurai and busy themselves with planting next year’s crop. Kanbei lament that â€Å"He has never won a battle† is given new meaning. Doubtless, the three surviving Samurai will move on to another of the endless battles of the era known as â€Å"The century of war† leaving the villagers in peace. Victory belongs not to the slain bandits nor the ostracized surviving Samurai but to the common peasants. They won because their life can now go back to normal to planting the life giving rice that sustains Japan to this day. True, they are maltreated by their lords, helplessly slaughtered in the battles, and at times forcibly conscripted as they were in the film. But the peasant’s life will continue, planting rice, water and tend the crop, then harvest just as he had for centuries, just as he will continue to do.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another theme is the superiority of modern technology over the old. Many subplots in the movie are about disabling the firearms of the bandits. There are fourty bandits and only seven Samurai but the Samurai are better skilled only the firearms give the bandits the upper hand. In fact all four of the Samurai killed died due to gunfire and not in honorable single combat.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Finally there is the wisdom of Kikuchiyo. He was a phony Samurai lacking the high-birth of a proper member of the warrior class. Yet with the exception of Kanbei perhaps he had the most significant role in the movie. He is the one who sucessfully breaks the ice and convinces the Villagers to flee from their hiding places and meet the other Samurai. He was also the one who pointed out that the reason the fleeing Samurai are maltreated by the villagers is because they too absorbed cruel treatment from the warrior class. It was mainly through his wisdom and understanding, he is not actually a Samurai but a farmer’s son, that the Samurai and the villagers are able to work together in harmony. Truly, despite his unworthy roots and oafish behavior he is probably the most ‘Samurai’ of the seven. He dies a noble and worthy death avenging a fallen comrade and slaying the leader of the bandits.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As stated earlier, Seven Samurai is a testimony to the skill of Akira Kurosawa in both writing and directing. The films shows the suffering of the peasants during the Sengoku Jidai. The Samurai win victories only to waltz on to another of the endless battles perhaps to win or perhaps to die. But after the warrirors leave the food producing peasant will stay in his field and contiue planting his life giving crop. Sources Kurosawa, Akira â€Å"Seven Samurai† (26 April 1954)