Samurai in Film :: essays research papers

From Akira Kurosawas 1954 film Seven Samurai, to the recent box office sensation, The Last Samurai, the famed Japanese warrior, the samurai, has been the line of business of hundreds of films. Classically depicted as carrying two swords and sporting a top knot (chonmage), the samurai has been portrayed not only as a warrior and expert swordsman, only when as a man of discipline and principles consistent with the bushido.Samurai films exhibit two basic dramatic styles. The jidai-geki (period drama) which are stories based on characters and how they negotiate a commixture of political, personal and romantic situations and the chanbara (sword fighting films) which are action packed with dramatic sword fighting scenes. Films in the samurai genre which deal with ronin (masterless samurai), demonstrate strong elements of twain styles as exhibited in Akira Kurosawas Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961), as well as the many films about the legendary Musashi Miyamoto.In addition to Se ven Samurai and Yojimbo, Kurosawas samurai classics, The privy fort (1958) and Sanjuro (1963) all star samurai incarnate, actor Toshiro Mifune. While Kurosawas later films, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985), are not based on the samurai, they are set in feudalistic times in which the samurai played a significant role.Kurosawas films greatly influenced the film industry in both Japan and the West however during his life he gained greater notoriety and even support for his motion pictures overseas than he did at home. The Seven Samurai was the basis for American film director washstand Sturges The Magnificent Seven (1960) Yojimbo for A Fist full of Dollars (1964) the first in a series of 3 spaghetti westerns created by Italian film director, Sergio Leone and The Hidden Fortress which influenced George Lucas Star Wars (1977). The parallels between the samurai and cowboy archetypes and the influence one had on the other is as evident in Kurosawas Yojimbo as it is in Clint Eastwoods Unforgiven (1992).During his career, Toshiro Mifune (1920-1997) feature in 134 films and played either a classic samurai or a common man of samurai principles in nearly half of them. Besides his Kurosawa films, Mifune also feature in a number of Hiroshi Inagakis samurai films including the classic, Musashi Miyamoto (1954). His reputation worldwide landed him a number of starring roles in Western productions including the award winning tv set mini-series, Shogun (1980) based on the James Clavell novel.