& # 8217 ; s Sanshiro Sugata And Seven Samurai Essay, Research Paper

It is non hard to talk of thematic dichotomies in Akira Kurosawa & # 8217 ; s Judo Saga ( Sanshiro Sugata, 1943 ) and Seven Samurai ( Scichinin no samurai, 1957 ) , and upon review, a thematic presentation development is identifiable. This giant of the universe cinematic community has inspired much treatment, much congratulations, yet small incorporate thematic analysis. This, nevertheless, seems queerly fitting, since Kurosawa himself is unwilling, and possibly unable to specify his thematic or stylistic purpose any more than we the viewing audiences can pigeonhole his reluctance.

Donald Ritchie ( one of the few writers to really measure the manager & # 8217 ; s work, and because of this whose positions and critical sentiments I will be mentioning to throughout ) contends, & # 8220 ; Aesthetics presume a system, a manner presumes an look, and a contemplation of the adult male himself. Neither are of any involvement to the actuality of the movie to be made. & # 8221 ; This alluding to the objectiveness of what is & # 8220 ; existent & # 8221 ; compared to what is implied, or presumed. There is a distinguishable duality at work within Kurosawan movies, a didactic presence that insists the practicality of the image & # 8211 ; observed, undisputed & # 8211 ; and the purpose & # 8211 ; abstract, philosophical.

In mention to heroes in Kurosawan movies Richie explains, & # 8220 ; [ Kurosawa ‘s ] heroes are ever wholly human in that they are corrigible. The Kurosawa fable shows that is hard so & # 8216 ; to cognize & # 8217 ; ; but at the terminal of the image the hero has come to larn that & # 8216 ; to cognize and move are one and the same. & # 8217 ; The Kurosawa villian is the adult male who thinks he knows, who thinks he is complete. & # 8221 ; This is a running subject throughout Kurosawa & # 8217 ; s movies, peculiarly in those which combine jidai-geki with gendai-geki ( chambara ) , such as Sanshiro Sugata and Seven Samurai. In the former, Sanshiro is the hero who learns humanity. In Seven Samurai, it is Kambei who teaches it. Both heroes act out of & # 8220 ; goodness, & # 8221 ; to be certain, but each must give their beliefs, thier award, even their position in order to make so. Basically, they discard the semblance of gallantry to accomplish its world, though adding gray sunglassess to our pre-conceived impressions of gallantry.

This is a popular concern of Kurosawa & # 8217 ; s. His heroes are about ever executing Acts of the Apostless taking us the viewing audiences to doubt thier purposes: Sugata & # 8217 ; s haughty battles in the villiage square ; Kambei executing an act of misrepresentation by shaving his caput. Stephen Prince in his book, The Warrior & # 8217 ; s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa, acknowledges Kurosawa & # 8217 ; s heroic manner, take a firm standing that the hero service humanity. This is good demonstated in both movies: Sugata forfeits triumph of Higaki & # 8217 ; s challenged lucifer by saving his life, and Kambei removes his top-knot ( a great forfeit for a samurai ) in order to salvage a babe, to function humanity.

Bert Cardullo, in his first-class essay, & # 8220 ; The Circumstance of the East, the Fate of the West, & # 8221 ; utilizations Seven Samurai & # 8217 ; s secret plan construction to separate destiny from circumstance, & # 8220 ; Seven Samurai is a movie about circumstance, or about adult male and his relationship, at his best, to circumstance ; it is non a movie about destiny. In calamity, adult male Acts of the Apostless, frequently doltishly if necessarily, and so reflects on his actions, sagely.

In the work of circumstance, adult male acts sagely in the face of the stupidity and unpredictablility of circumstance… [ it is ] existent or touchable ; adult male is most frequently defeated by it. At his best, he meets it ( the adverse sort, that is ) on equal land, and if he does non prevail, he does non lose, either. He distinguishes himself in the battle. That is all, and that is enough.”

Seven Samurai & # 8217 ; s puting and construction are more touchable ( in America ) than that of Sanshiro Sugata due to its cosmopolitan secret plan line ; Kurosawa uses this strength to pull us into his movie. Sing Sanshiro Sugata, one feels like an foreigner, nevertheless Kurosawa does a much better occupation enchanting our involvement in Seven Samurai. Never are we tempted to give over to the occult for way. Alternatively, the husbandmans take affairs into their ain custodies, moving out of their circumstance, finding their ain destiny, and deriving our esteem. In contrast, Sugata relies on advice from his seniors, Mr. Yano and the priest, endangering his destiny, wordlessly inquiring for aid.

Kurosawa & # 8217 ; s strength in both movies is his ability to underpin a queerly intangible sense of day of reckoning. In Kambei & # 8217 ; s first scene of Seven Samurai, after he kills the madmad with the babe in the shed, an unblinking slow gesture shooting follows the deceasing lunatic as he erupts from the shed and stumbles into the dust. This is one of the few times in the film that one suspects particular effects, supplying penetration of the manager & # 8217 ; s playful fraudulence. It is evocative of Momma & # 8217 ; s decease scene in Sanshiro Sugata, the camera following him in slow gesture through the air & # 8211 ; the window frame floating down & # 8211 ; the elusive settee of decease. Kurosawa strips off any and all semblances of gallantry and leaves merely decease in these scenes.

In both films, Kurosawan decease weighs heavy. The heroes and the villians feed off each other, fade outing gallantry, and go forthing enduring. Such is the instance in Seven Samurai. Kikuchiyo, lying face down in the clay, his natess bare and rain-soaked ; the image is undeniably child-like. In his last, despairing act of gallantry, he has killed the brigand head, but as the rain washes over him we can merely retrieve the babe lying in the H2O, the world of force and decease all around him. In Sanshiro Sugata, the concluding battle scene is less unstable, nevertheless, the ocular impact is still present. Higaki has merely been thrown by Sugata, yet he wants more, he thinks he knows, he thinks he is complete ; the image is best described as desparate. He stumbles, so falls, skiding down the soakened hillside. With violent storms brewing above, the scene belittles both Sugata and Higaki with a great force, decease.

The rice seting ceremonial in Seven Samurai allows for a palingenesis of the movie & # 8217 ; s most cardinal thematic elements. Says Kambei, & # 8220 ; And once more we have lost. We lose. The husbandmans & # 8230 ; they & # 8217 ; re the winners. & # 8221 ; Recognizing his function, Kambei accepts that there is no terminal, merely the agencies ; the semblance of gallantry has been broken by the world of the loss they have endured, the empty victory they have gained. Kurosawa closes with the double images of the rice seting ceremonial and the four Gravess of the samurai ; life/death, heroism/humanism, all laid out in a juxtaposed, concrete portrayal.