As a bright star in the history of Japanese and even world cinema, the ideological connotation of his works is bound to cause people to think deeply, and the classic "Seven Samurai" has attracted frequent praise and amazement from people. It has created seven samurai with completely different personalities: the righteous and atmospheric Kanbei, the kind and benevolent Shichirōji, the heroic and individualistic GoroBei, the persistent and brave Katsushiro, the delicate and lively Kikuchiyo, the witty and calm Heihachi, and the deep and timeless Kuzo, and the success of "Seven Samurai" lies not only in the perfect coordination of the plot, lighting and actors, but also in the complex human connotations shown through the film. Through the film to peacefully tell the human nature, digging into the inner secrets of the characters is Kurosawa's good play, everyone commented on "Seven Samurai" to see the complexity of Kikuchiyo, but no one tasted the perfection and desolation of the guards.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="4" > the embodiment of the samurai spirit</h1>
In Akira Kurosawa's works, as if there is never an absolute winner, we can often interpret life and human nature from a variety of perspectives, the brave and righteous robber Multi-capsule Pill in "Rashomon", the weak and firm true sand, the peaceful and indifferent Takehiro These are the characters' own views on themselves, and in the process of beautification, we see the hypocrisy of human nature. But the Kanbei in The Seven Samurai is quite perfect, and this perfection is not judged by himself, but reflected by other characters around him--when the Kanbei pretends to be a monk and outwits the thief to save the child's life, three groups of people appear behind him: the peasants begin to pay attention to him and want to ask him to be his guard; Kikuchiyo follows closely to find out; and Katsushiro wants to worship him as a teacher. For example, in the later recruitment of samurai, Goro Bingwei joined this "war without a chance of victory" because the personality of Kanbei attracted him, and "it is rare to know oneself in life" who is willing to throw his head and spill his blood for such a worthwhile friend. This perfection not only comes from Akira Kurosawa's own recognition and touching of the Japanese samurai spirit, but also from the expression and expression of his own inner feelings.
If Rashomon reveals the evil in people's hearts, then "Seven Samurai" is Kurosawa's true reflection of the ideal samurai spirit. Born into a samurai family in Tokyo, Japan, Akira Kurosawa's strict upbringing gave him a deeper understanding of the samurai spirit, which is not only a social phenomenon in Japanese history, but also a spiritual symbol inherited from his own family. Although the samurai class gradually declined over time, the pride buried deep in his bones and the recognition and worship of heroes did not diminish in the slightest. Mr. Xu Ke once commented: Most of the characters in Kurosawa's films are positive people in pessimistic lives, their values are never polluted by the actual society, and the characters in them make sacrifices for more lofty ideals from time to time, which is sad, but always maintains the hope of mankind, which is a weighty influence.
Akira Kurosawa's portrayal of kanbei shows a real and noble samurai image, and he is at the heart of the seven samurai, and it is precisely because of his active promotion that such an invincible team is formed.
He is brave and resourceful: he is not afraid to face the hostage-taking thieves, and he is resourceful to deal with the enemy;
He has extraordinary temperament: in the face of Katsushiro's admiration and teacher, he is humble and friendly, and his attitude is peaceful;
He knows people and is good at his duties: he is cautious and serious in the face of recruiting samurai candidates, careful and sincere;
He is chivalrous: he will never back down in the face of a war that will be sacrificed.
Exchanging blood and life for "a bowl of white rice" is not only a simple war to fill your stomach, but a commitment to yourself, a chivalrous attitude that does what you can to help the weak. The character of the surveyor guard, it is precisely because of his perfection in many aspects that people feel that there is flesh and blood, and they are full of worship. Kikuchiyo has always been a controversial figure, because he has both the atmosphere of a hooligan and the manifestation of a samurai spirit, but unlike Kanbei, he is a complete samurai.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="32" > witness to the decline of the class</h1>
"The samurai class emerged in the late Heian Dynasty of Japan and has played an important role in Japanese society ever since, especially after the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate, when the samurai class held power in Japan for more than 700 years, reaching its peak in the Edo period," [1] and according to Kikuchiyo's "genealogy" information in the film, the story takes place in 1587. The year before, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had completed the unification campaign, 17 years before Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Edo shogunate. This is an era when the world is at its beginning and order is undecided. With the end of the war, the samurai were useless, they received a good education, professional training, and devoted themselves to the ruling class, but after the end of the war, there was no place to settle down, and they wandered around. In the face of such a situation, the kanbei are lost and powerless, but he does not have the ability to resist the tide of history, and in his wandering life, in the face of an unordered society, he keeps the "samurai spirit" in his own way.
Each samurai in "Seven Samurai" has a short story before joining the team, the first samurai to appear is him, the film does not describe his martial arts from a positive point of view, but shows his wisdom in his confrontation with the thieves, taking advantage of the thief's distraction, he rescues the baby, and the thief suddenly falls to the ground a few seconds after running out of the house. No one knows how the two clashed in the house, but through the viewing of the thieves' downfall, the audience can naturally imagine the fight scene in the house, which is different from the direct-to-face display of the late martial arts high-skilled Kuzo and the people, this way of expression gives the audience more room for imagination, and it is not difficult to find the director's attention to the surveyor from here. But it was such a wise and courageous samurai who said in the face of Katsushiro's followers, "I am nothing special, I have fought many battles, but they have all lost battles, and there is no benefit in following this unlucky egg like me." The samurai were enfeoffed for the loyalty of the monarch, but when the world was about to be determined, the samurai also lost their original value, and the ronin people wandered around and made the sea their home, and the taste was only clear to the guards.
Lucky to escape in the war, Shichirōji, who was a samurai but began to pick up a flat burden and sell goods on the street; Heihachi, who was willing to chop firewood for people for a little food and boasted of his "wood cutting god skill"; even after the end of the war, the survey guards who were wandering everywhere with their own samurai swords... They are all remnants of history, and when he advised Katsushiro not to follow suit to kill the mountain thief, he said, "When I was as old as you, I also thought about fighting and making meritorious contributions by my own ability, and then becoming the king of a city, but I thought that I had gray hair." "The former guards must also be full of pride and ideals of samurai, but with successive wars, after the defeat of the ronin, he also fell to the "hungry" samurai, the former hero Haojie is now running for a living, he has witnessed the decline of the samurai class, but also lost and helpless, but still clutching his own samurai sword silently forward.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="33" > reflector of ignorant human nature</h1>
From the first day they arrived in the village, they were doomed to be a "unwinnable" war, and the limitations of the class made it difficult for the two classes to merge and cross. While training the peasants in war, a gun was accidentally discovered that caught the attention of the samurai, who had previously obtained weapons by killing the fallen samurai. It turned out that the object of their protection had also been the demon that had slaughtered themselves, and the samurai who learned of this were angry and chilled, but after listening to Kikuchiyo's statement, the kanbei shed tears of sympathy. The war has brought too much pain to the peasants, and they are only a part of the chaotic world, even the low-level figures in the war, who have no ability to resist, and what they can do is to guard their houses and land in a down-to-earth and shrewd manner. In response, the guards and the other samurai in the team chose to tolerate and defuse.
In the arrangement and deployment of the peasant army, the kanbei always held the child to communicate with the elders and villagers, and this detail showed the benevolence of the kanbei and also showed the temporary integration of the relationship between the samurai and the villagers. In the face of villagers who are unwilling to give up their houses and only want to take care of their small families, the always gentle and calm guards pull out their samurai swords for the first time and loudly rebuke "defending others can better defend themselves", the villagers seem to be just victims of the times, simply and diligently learning the things taught by the samurai. But as the film progresses, a series of unexpected things surface: the seemingly simple villagers hide women and fine wine and food; Manzo actually raises a daughter but has been deceiving the samurai to say that she is a son; After Shino and Katsushiro are combined, his father punches and kicks her, and the first sentence is "How can I combine with the samurai"... On the eve of the Great War, the peasants enjoyed fine wine and food, and then they were embarrassed to hand over a copy to the samurai, and Kanbei and Kuzo laughed at themselves--it turned out that they had never regarded the samurai as their own, but the samurai had sacrificed their lives for them.
At the end of the film, there are only three of the seven samurai left, facing the graves of their former comrades and the hillside where the peasants who died in the battle are buried, and the villagers continue to cultivate the fields and even beat gongs and drums to encourage labor, looking forward to the harvest of the coming year. It was as if the fighting and bloodshed of the past few days were just stories of passers-by. Katsushiro and Shino did not come together after the war, and the always brave Shino chose to escape, and the peasant and samurai never seemed to be able to go together. The peasants were cowardly, ignorant and tenacious, and the samurai class, as a group of highly trained people, naturally had higher pursuits in life, but in the end it was still such a group of oppressed people at the bottom who lived happily and frankly. "It is the peasants who win", the guards said this sentence, falling into a long silence, and the film also came to an abrupt end.
Good movies can always reflect complex human nature through the lens, and through these lens languages, we know more about these ineffable secrets. Reading the helplessness and pain of various classes and characters from the movie, there is a newer understanding of the characters in the movie, comparing itself at the same time, but also having a more comprehensive understanding of the real face of the life of the times - this is also the reason why the classic is a classic.
Pan Changhe,Zhang Jianhua. On the Samurai, Samurai Regime, and Bushido in Japan[J].Dongjiang Journal,2012,29(02):9-15.
Text/Yuan Hao
Editor/Xiao Yang
The pictures in this article are from the internet