Seven Samurai is a 1954 sword film by Akira Kurosawa. The reason why it occupies an important position in the entire history of Japanese film, and even can enjoy the history of world film, must have its superiority.
Generally speaking, it can be divided into breakthroughs in themes, innovations in artistic techniques and profound connotations of films.
1. Before that, Japan did not have a real era drama, so Akira Kurosawa decided to cooperate with the veteran hero of the screenwriting industry, Kokoku, to shoot a Japanese Western.
"Period drama" is the Japanese name for costume history drama, its story takes place in a time span between ancient Japan and the Meiji era, for example, the story of "Seven Samurai" takes place in japan during the Warring States period, and the period drama in addition to the theme of loyalty, Bushido, filial piety, but also reflects the social outlook of the entire era.
That's why you feel the whole film is lengthy and protracted. Because, although the main line of the story is that the villagers invite the samurai to the village to help drive out the robbers, the screenwriter Xiaoguo Hero does not hesitate to write about the villagers' living habits, the tortuous experience of the peasants looking for samurai, and the relationship and attitude of the fallen samurai. This is why the film is too long.
With nearly four hours, patience with the audience was a challenge in itself. If you can stand up to look closely, you will find that in a large number of seemingly lengthy and tedious shots, each character stands up and has its own unique personality.
Naturally, the seven samurai who are the protagonists need not be said much, and even the peasants in the village, Shino, Riki, and Manzo, have become vivid and three-dimensional.
2. In terms of artistic techniques, hitchcock's "Rear Window" and "Murder at the Telephone Booth" were also released in 1954 with "Seven Samurai", which may be more attractive to the public because it attracts the audience through the twist of the plot and the creation of a suspenseful atmosphere.
The only way to attract audiences as a sword-and-sword film is to attract audiences is through the creation of spectacle, at which Akira Kurosawa not only surpassed his peers, but also had a great inspiration for future directors.
In the film, Akira Kurosawa uses frequent switching between long-range, medium-range, close-up, and close-up shots, which can easily lead to confusion in the logic of the film, leaving the audience confused, especially when shooting action scenes.
However, through the way of "multi-camera shooting", Akira Kurosawa stretched a shot that was originally two seconds long through the switching of three shots to more than three seconds during editing, so that the audience could see clearly and clearly.
In terms of action design, Akira Kurosawa does not have a special arrangement, completely following the principle of actual combat, so the simplest and most effective attacks are difficult to be fancy, but this is also consistent with the realist style of the entire film.
3. The film connotation of "Seven Samurai" is not only profound but also has a lot of aspects that can be interpreted. For example, a reflection on the relationship between the two classes of samurai and peasantry. The plot of the peasant hiring samurai to protect the village was fictionalized by the screenwriter after seeing the relevant records in history.
From this, we can see that the samurai in the Warring States period were displaced, and even sold their armed forces in exchange for rice for the untouchables to survive, which shows that the dignity of their class has long been lost. The peasants, as a large but cowardly and blindly obedient group, needed the protection of the samurai at the same time for fear of being bullied by the samurai.
Kikuchiyo, played by Toshiro Mifune, can be counted as an alternative role among the seven, and he can understand the suffering of the peasants at the bottom and unceremoniously point out the inferior roots of the peasants, but he can also see that the reason for this inferiority is inseparable from the oppression of the samurai class.
As you say, the central theme of the film can be summed up in the words of the guards: "We still lose, and it is the peasants who win." ”
Just imagine, if there is no delicate character portrayal and plot display in the front of the film, when the audience hears this sentence, can still have the same shock.