Move Reviews: The 7 Samari and The Hidden Fortress

[yesthattom]

I got the Kurosawa box set for Christmas from my sister Mary and I've finally had time to watch the first 2: "The Seven Samurai" and "The Hidden Fortress".

It's really difficult to watch a 1950's Japanese movie without understanding the culture or the state of film making at the time. I have to trust people that say that this is some of the best film of its day, especially during the boring parts. It's also very confusing not understanding all the Samurai cultural stuff: why are people afraid of them? Are they just afraid of military people or are Samurai renegades or what? Or are farmers just afraid of everyone?

What really doesn't translate is the humor. A lot of times I found myself going back to a scene because I realized, "oh, that was supposed to be funny!" but I didn't get that the first time because of a cultural barrier.

I've wanted to see The Hidden Fortress since I was about 10 years old and heard that Lucas was inspired by it when he created Star Wars. The DVD has an 8-minute interview with Lucas about how Kurosawa influenced him. It was quite interesting. While the plot for Star Wars is nothing like The Hidden Fortress, you can definitely see similarities in the camera work and some of the characters.

Both of these films have been re-made by western directors. The Seven Samurai was remade as "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) and John Ford's Stagecoach borrows heavily from The Hidden Fortress.

All in all, I enjoyed both. I think I liked The Hidden Fortress a little better, but mostly because I understood the humor: I knew the 2 main characters were supposed to be fools... everything they do is supposed to be funny. So, when they are cower in fear at something stupid, it's supposed to be funny. I can dig it. If I didn't understand that, it would have been a painful movie to watch. It would be like watching The Three Stooges after being told it was a crime drama.

Two thumbs up!

Comments

[holzman.livejournal.com]

It's also very confusing not understanding all the Samurai cultural stuff: why are people afraid of them? Are they just afraid of military people or are Samurai renegades or what?

If I'm understanding correctly, it probably has to do with Samurai occupying a social position relative to farmers such that a Samurai can summarily behead a farmer with impunity if he feels the least bit slighted.

[nulldevice.livejournal.com]

Tokugawa-era Samurai were not looked-upon fondly by the peasant class, since, while they were primary defenders of the country, they were also brutal in their abuses of power. They weren't seen as much better than bandits in a lot of cases. They could randomly kill peasants for any perceived infraction, conscript them, confiscate their goods, etc. They wielded great political power as well, and often abused that.

So the peasants hated and feared them.

Seven Samurai was a brilliant movie, IMHO. Not so much for the topic, per se, but because in a lot of ways it pretty much defined how action movies were going to be made for decades - in both the cinematography and the storytelling. It also really added elements of moral ambiguity to a lot of the characters, which until then wasn't really done in action films.

Plus, Tohsiro Mifune is always a badass in his movies. I just saw Rashomon last week and he plays a pretty good crazy guy.

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

I saw Hidden Fortress for the same reason, and I have to say I didn't see the connection at all.

Ran is one of my all-time favorite movies and I sort of like Rapsody in August, but a lot of Kurosawa's other work just doesn't work for me. Rashomon I would rather read in the original impenetrable Akutagawa-penned Japanese (not exactly a picnic for anyone) than watch. Kagemusha I gave up on half-way through. I think it's partly that I just don't care for the samurai as a subject -- as far as I'm concerned the cool culture of the Edo period was taking place in the merchant class and the entertainment districts -- and partly how I respond to Kurosawa's style. On the other hand I do like Ozu's films from the same period that I've seen (even though I've been known to make fun of him). I should probably watch something like High and Low that is Kurosawa without samurai.

Re:

[xeger.livejournal.com]

I really haven't seen a great deal of Kurosawa myself, either. Ran remains one of my favourite movies - but I know that I've heard many north americans complain that it's terribly slow paced, at best. My only response to that involves classical japanese theatre, and the expectations of pacing that derive from that - I could compare vaguely to opera, but opera's much faster paced...

Re:

[stormsweeper.livejournal.com]

The direct things: C3P0 and R2D2 are modeled after the bumbling peasants (although R2D2 isn't quite that hapless). Leia seems to be very inspired by the Princess character in The Hidden Fortress.

Some of the tone and inspirations for other characters come from the movie and Samurai in general.

Didn't Ozu make that farting movie? ;)

[airshipjones.livejournal.com]

I wrote up a review of The Hidden Fortress about a month ago too. Good stuff. Being a Nipponophile, I do have a better understanding of the ins and outs of the culture (though I must admit I don't know *that* much and it is a very intricate culture). But the humor is often subtle and motivations of the characters do require an understanding of the samurai, the bushido code, and the caste system that existed then. One excellent book on the subject is Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo. It does show the harder side of the samurai life and belief system.