XXI. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai) [1954] (by Lewis Saul)] (Part 2)

• 0:00:00 (Disc 2). These lovely Eisensteinian images are accompanied by a cute, pentatonic ditty by Hayasaka.
• 0:00:15. Very cool. After seven cuts in 14 seconds (average cut, two seconds), this one lasts ten seconds, uses fluid camera motion, and tells the viewer everything he needs to know about the upcoming scene: the camera tracks four young women -- all carrying straw -- along a path. At once, we see Kikuchiyo at the upper left of frame facing away from the camera. He turns and -- seeing the girls -- runs towards them (us). The camera holds on him, smiling, wondrous! (Mifune was never better.)
• 0:00:54. Nothing much to add, except to put a little punctuation mark on Kikuchiyo's growing fondness for Yohei. Here he runs up to him and speaks as if Yohei himself has hidden these gorgeous women away in his own secret harem or something! Bokuzen's face and laugh ... "oni," ("devil") Kikuchiyo says to him, giving his forehead a little push (I see this gesture a lot in Japanese cinema!)
• 0:01:11. Kikuchiyo's desire to help out the girl is perfectly natural for reasons other than his barely contained sexual passion -- he is naturally a farmer, and feels right at home using the scythe.
•  At around this point, the subplots of Manzo/Shino and Rikichi/? are coming into focus; although we're not sure about Rikichi. He has just turned a bamboo grove into a "bear's den."
• The Russian music again here. Ominous.
• 0:05:42. Waking up Kikuchiyo only proves that Kambei knows he is not really a samurai. This again shows Kambei's wisdom, because such a scary test would be sure to nudge Kikuchiyo into more responsible behavior (which it -- in fact -- seems to do, in the end!) ...

• 0:07:38. Hayasaka's score is quite interesting here -- a 5/4 melody; angular and probing. Unusually, Kurosawa uses four separate dissolves in this section ~ perhaps because it all takes place around the softness of water ...
• 0:08:15. A dissolve takes us into this cut, with which I have a huge question. It sounds to me like melody of the song that the kids are singing is exactly the same as the "Sugata sanshiro" song in Kurosawa's 1943 debut film of the same name.
• 0:09:50. Parallelism: after Kikuchiyo falls off the nag, someone in the crowd falls into the pond!
• 0:10:26. Shino and Katsushiro are good friends now (but not yet lovers). Kurosawa makes Hayasaka bring back the awful Rashômon rip-off of a rip-off ... oy!
• 0:11:23. The ECUs of all ECUs! This is "extremely close!" Kurosawa wants to ratchet up the tension -- not only between these two young lovers -- but when the sound of a horse neigh intrudes ... they investigate and then hurry away from the scene ...
• 0:12:56. ... As Kurosawa shortens and elides. The ronin all walk in and give Kambei and Gorobei the news, each in their own unique fashion -- Shichiroji is calm; Katsushiro is freaked out; and Kyuzo is the calmest of all (how did he know? "how could I not? this one here (Katsushiro) was in such a panic.") ...
• 0:13:39. Heihachi rushes in, mildly excited. Kambei rubs his head again (#9).
• 0:14:48. Kambei immediately warns the farmers in the shack to be quiet as the samurai enter to see the spies while remaining unseen themselves. The scary parallelism here is later when two bandits enter a similar (perhaps the same?) shack and tell the farmers to be quiet or they will be
• Once again, notice how much time ( 0:16:22 to 0:18:55) Kurosawa is willing to take to show us a simple scene of killing and capturing the bandits! The "bandit" drum music is mixed with birds chirping and gradually increase in volume.
• I've lost track -- perhaps for the fifth time, the Russian chorus is back (mixed with a sinuous flute). And things are looking very ominous indeed for the poor captured bandit. Grandma has a hoe in her hands!
• 0:22:12. As Kikuchiyo chases Yohei's nag, left to right, a wipe right pushes him off the frame in the same direction as his running -- a very effective cut! And here, an incredibly majestic series of images: the camera pans down the sheer face of a mountain -- it takes in the riders as they enter the frame -- very small figures in the looming landscape -- and it continues its descent down the mountain! A wipe right takes us ...
• 0:22:25. ... Right into a new setup, a small trail under a waterfall, as the men enter the frame, leading their horses on foot. Again, the bandit music starts up.
• 0:24:39. She's billed fourth, but says not a word from her appearance here -- 2:13 into the film -- until she disappears again for good at around 0:27:00.
• 0:25:39. The music stops as the massacre begins.
• 0:25:51. Watch Chiaki as he chops just as his character would do -- woodchopping style -- but slow it down and watch how badly he misses his target!
• 0:26:07. On the other hand, watch how Mifune aims at his target (a nearly naked bandit) -- with both of them in motion in the water -- and slashes at him and just barely misses (at normal speed, of course, it looks as if Mifune made actual contact!) ... the camera follows Mifune as he scurries for cover and ...
• 0:26:19. ... Zooms in on an axial cut to a much tighter shot. The long lens paints the entire picture as the structure goes up in flames; panicked bandits run around waving frantically; and Heihachi says to Kikuchiyo: "We did it!"
• 0:26:24. Rikichi sees something which we don't (yet).
• 0:26:28. It is her.
• 0:27:16. The first samurai -- Heihachi -- is killed (all will be by bullets) ...
• 0:28:07. A wipe left takes us to this incredibly dramatic framing of the mass of people paying their last respects to Heihachi. People are grouped dramatically, with the old man -- stooped -- nearly in the middle of the entire frame, the bright cloud-streaked sky above him.
• 0:28:10. After three seconds, a sharp axial cut into the top three groups: six samurai (left), four farmers (right) and the old man in the center.
• 0:30:24. ... He sees something ...
• 0:30:31. ... The bandits!
• 0:30:50. Watch carefully! That is certainly Mifune doing his own stunt and leaping off this flimsy roof from several feet above the ground!
• 0:31:22 to 0:31:38. See how Kurosawa axials in as he divides the motion of Katsushiro running to Shichiroji's side at the fence! Technical filmmaking which makes you feel the motion ...
• 0:33:10. The bandit amuses Gorobei and Katsushiro as he slips into the water. Gorobei reaches back for an arrow.
• 0:33:17. The motion is continued ...
• 0:33:18. Cut back to the bandit in the water ...
• 0:33:21. Gorobei aims ...
• 0:33:24. ... And connects.
• 0:33:54. Although we do not know exactly how many bandits -- eight perhaps, if we understand the count mentioned below correctly -- were killed at the hideout, Kambei has painted circles on his map, representing the remaining force. He makes an "x" in the first circle after Katsushiro informs about Gorobei's success.
• 0:35:58. "On this mountain ... 20 riders ... and 12 to the east." That would mean eight killed at the hideout.
• 0:39:21. At 1:43:45, Disc 1, Mosuke was ready to defy Kambei -- here he runs to the group watching their homes burn down (including his own) and with no hesitation, screams at them to get back to their posts.
• 0:39:31. Big ECU on Mosuke: "They're just rickety shacks!"
• 0:39:35. The structure on the right falls apart from the flames. Dramatic.
• Okay this is cool. At 0:39:59 we see the old man's mill in flames. A second later (0:40:00), an axial cut takes us closer and look carefully: there is someone moving on the left-hand side. There should not be a human down there as near as I can figure it. In a moment, both Mifune and Shimura will head on down there -- but there should not be anyone there at this particular moment! It must be a crew member.
• 0:43:54. Shichiroji watches an escaping bandit as he goes over the fence and follows him to where he lands on the other side and then spears him to death.
• 0:45:20. Avenging his wife's death, Rikichi is in the water trying to cut down as many bandits as he can.
• 0:45:45. Six more bandits are x'ed off on the map circles.
• 0:47:29. The tiniest details are given what sometimes seem like inordinate importance -- such as here when Katsushiro is about to run down the main path with his scarecrow (he surely could or would have been shot!) until Kambei blocks his path and sends him down the side path! Without a master to learn from, the disciple is in terrible danger!
• 0:50:41. Kyuzo has brought back a gun. After handing it to Katsushiro, he moves into the little niche to go to sleep. All are staring at him in awe. Kambei gently takes the gun out of Katsushiro's hand and everyone turns back to look at it -- except for Katsushiro, who continues to stare straight ahead at his hero!
• 0:57:15. Six more circles x'ed out.
• 1:02:48. Kikuchiyo -- remember, not really a samurai! -- cannot understand why Kambei doesn't praise him for his bravery in going out on his own and stealing a rifle and killing one of the bandits. He does not understand that bushido does not condone self-initiative in place of following orders (Kambei: "there's nothing heroic about selfishly grabbing for glory" ... although if you think about it, that's what ultimately made Kikuchiyo acceptable to the others -- he did something "on his own." Ironic.) However, Kurosawa plainly shows us through the preceding scene that at any time, Kikuchiyo could have been caught, discovered and ruined the entire plan.
• 1:05:04. High crane shot with traveling shot into
• 1:05:21. A bandit archer shooting a woman in the back.
• 1:06:08. Another farmer is killed by a bandit archer.
• 1:06:40. "I defended my post." Yohei's dying words are crushing to Kikuchiyo. A stray arrow lands next to Yohei's now lifeless body. Kikuchiyo is enraged.
• 1:06:57: "Go ahead. Shoot me!" He confronts a bandit on horseback and takes him down.
• One of the film's more avant-garde shots. At 1:07:11 a bandit rides left to right. At 1:07:15 a reverse POV has the rider coming towards us -- but the camera is resting right between two horizontal logs, creating a new frame within a frame. The bandit falls off and is killed. Soon we hear a gunshot, followed by another. Soon, we discover our second samurai death has occurred -- Gorobei.
• 1:08:40. Seven crossed off the map, but at "a steep price."
• 1:09:13. Look at this shot! Kyuzo, Katsushiro (asleep) and Kambei -- way in the back -- with a geometric creation of long spears and sleeping bodies forming a sort of trough. Another neat composition. The camera pushes in and Kyuzo asks the farmers how they feel.
• 1:11:40. After asking Katsushiro about Kikuchiyo (still by the graves), Kambei rubs his head one last time (#10).
• 1:12:08. The Shino/Katsushiro love scene is played out over a lovely Hayasaka guitar and flute duet.
• 1:14:01. The farmers are drinking and singing. We'll hear this song again, with more elaborate accompaniment in 18 minutes ...
• 1:19:02. The Russian chorus hums in a higher register than usual.
• 1:20:02. Manzo's daughter fooled around the night before a big battle. Shichiroji famously tries to console him: " ... this often happens, even inside castles."
• 1:20:50. Perhaps the most foretelling shot in the film, a fire blazes as Shino continues to whimper. Gradually, we can see that it is beginning to rain -- harder and harder -- and the fire is beginning to go out!
• 1:21:37. The camera rises and finds Heihachi's now iconic banner -- and it is definitely raining hard! Here we go!
• 1:24:36. As the 13 remaining bandits ride in hard, the camera finds them from behind some rocks, but pretty much captured full frame. However, when the last of the riders passes the camera, it pans left and shoots the remaining horses through a small aperture. What we get is a tightly-boxed blur of moving horse legs.
• 1:25:16. Best seen in slow-motion, Kikuchiyo's sword breaks off as he slashes away at a bandit.
• 1:25:19. He throws the stub away.
• 1:25:20. And runs to the pile for a new sword (good forethought!).
• Although I won't go into this kind of detail here and now -- one of the reasons I counted and catalogued the cuts in this film was to study how Kurosawa made this entire final ten minutes so dramatic and exciting. Most cuts are very short and almost always an ECU or unusually close. In addition, everything is in motion, so anything shot tight will be blurred. But in very short cuts, it all becomes atmosphere!
• In rapid succession now, we lose our last two samurai. Kyuzo is shot at 1:28:27 and Kikuchiyo at
• 1:29:00 (although he will take 27 seconds to actually die!).
• 1:30:39. It seemed like the rain would never stop. An FTB comes up on these happy farmers, singing in the sunshine!
• 1:32:07. The surviving three samurai pause before the burial mound. Left to right, Kambei, Shichiroji and Katsushiro stand at the base of the frame -- each samurai directly in between two mounds (i.e., Shimura between 1st and 2nd; Katô between 2nd and 3rd; and Kimura between 3rd and 4th). An extremely powerful pose.
• 1:33:21. After all the frantic action and the rapid cutting in this planting scene -- Kurosawa lets his camera play out the last cut -- an eternity of 1:15! At first, Kambei says nothing. Finally, he turns to his old companion and says, "In the end we lost this battle, too." "What?" "I mean, the victory belongs to those peasants, not to us."
• The camera pans up to the funeral mounds as the planting music fades away in favor of the horn sounding out the great "samurai theme" which closes out one of the finest and most exciting motion pictures in history.
• There are 1,467 total cuts in this film; 1,399 straight cuts; 15 fade-to-blacks; 32 horizontal wipes (left); 13 horizontal wipes (right); and eight dissolves.