Summary
After a war, a mysterious man and woman recruit two peasants to help them carry gold across enemy lines. Unbeknownst to the peasants, the man and woman are actually a general and a princess.
My Thoughts
This is easily the lightest Kurosawa film I’ve seen, and its one of the more accessible, too. The plot of the movie is much smaller scale than “Seven Samurai” (1954) or “Ran” (1985), but it’s just as entertaining. It’s not as impressive cinematically as the two previously mentioned films, but it is quite a fun ride, and still incredibly influential. It’s easy to see where George Lucas found inspiration for Star Wars in these characters. This film is essentially a road trip film set in feudal Japan, with the whole plot of the film revolving around two peasants obsessed with gold, a legendary Samurai general, and a princess in disguise. The characters are interesting and dynamic; almost everyone in the film changes- and the peasants go through multiple changes, rather quickly and humorously. Most of the actors and actresses in this film are Kurosawa regulars, and I’ve watched so many of his movies lately that I’ve started to recognize them and look forward to their performances. This film came four years after “Samurai”, and almost all of the men were in both that film and this.
(SOME SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH)
The film starts with two peasants, Tahei (Minoru Chiaki, “Rashomon”) and Matashichi (Kamatari Fujiwara, “Ikiru”) wandering through a barren field, complaining about how they arrived late to a war, and how they were forced to bury the dead. Soon the two are rounded up by a team of samurai on horseback and brought to a castle in desolation, where many other peasants are also. Once there, a general tells all the peasants that they must dig through the castle until they find 200 pieces of gold, which has inexplicably gone missing from the wreckage. The peasants soon revolt, and Tahei and Matashichi end up fleeing the scene for the woods. Upon the rocky banks of a stream, Tahei and Matashichi find gold hidden inside a stick, and they realize that the gold is somewhere nearby. Soon however, they spot Rokurota Makabe (Toshiro Mifune, “Yojimbo”), a legendary samurai general, and Makabe tells them to follow him back to a hidden fortress, where Yuki (Misa Uehara, “The Saga of The Vagabonds”), a princess pretending to be mute, is hiding. After a brief discussion with an elder general, Makabe and Yuki decide to enlist the help of the two peasants to carry the gold across enemy lines, back to Yuki’s kingdom.
(SPOILERS END)
It’s refreshing to see how wide Kurosawa’s range really stretches. If you prattle on with any film student long enough, Kurosawa’s name will eventually, inevitably come up, because he’s cemented himself in cinematic history as one of the greats, and that reputation is not without reason. He deserves that reputation; he’s earned it by being incredibly influential, deeply profound, and, as this film shows, subtly humorous. Tahei and Matashichi are unique characters to have as your main protagonists (or POV characters as one of my friends put it); they’re essentially the comic relief of this story. Though, far from being only comic relief, these characters have real depth, and most of that depth comes from their flippancy and squabbles between them. I mentioned above how George Lucas was influenced heavily by this film, I would say most of that influence comes from the characters. The bumbling peasants, Tahei and Matashichi are essentially C3PO and R2D2, while General Rokurota is much like Han Solo (though the General isn’t a scoundrel), and comparisons could be drawn between the strong-willed Princess Yuki and Princess Leia. On top of that, Georgie must’ve really liked the wipe effect seen repeatedly in this film, because the wipes are everywhere in the Star Wars movies, continuing even through today’s sequels.
I feel like I could talk about almost every shot in this film to break down why it’s impressive, but that would turn this review into a novel, and I’m not about to do that. But- I must touch on it briefly. This film is shot in “Toho-scope” or cinemascope, whatever you want to call it. The wide framing makes the film feel much bigger than some of his earlier films. Watching this made me wish Kurosawa would’ve sprung for cinemascope for Seven Samurai, though I’m not sure if they had the means to do so four years prior. Many shots are framed by the landscape; mountains in the distance fall on thirds, while people in the foreground provide action. There are plenty of shots with impressive deep staging; a frame will start outside and follow a character indoors, only to pan over and show more action going on in the room. There are so many impressively framed shots, particularly in dialogue-heavy scenes. It’s far too easy to have constant back and forth, over the shoulder shots that quickly become tepid and boring, but Kurosawa finds ways to constantly keep things interesting.
The plot of this film is rather meandering, and the first act lags a bit. Up until Yuki and Makabe decide to leave the hidden fortress, the film gives no clear direction of where it’s going or what it plans to do with these characters. Eventually, however, are shown many interesting things, events, and places throughout the film (some of which give great insight into the culture of feudal japan), and a rival general is almost constantly pursuing them, so the slow pacing at the beginning quickly falls away and we’re racing towards the finish.
I should mention that one scene feels a little outdated and out of character for Tahei and Matashichi. I suppose this could be a minor spoiler, but nothing really comes of what I’m about to say, so if you feel like skipping this paragraph, do so, and meet me at the verdict. There is a scene were Tahei and Matashichi are left alone with the sleeping princess, and they draw straws to see who “gets lost for a while.” Though the scene is trying for laughs, it’s implying that these two characters, which we’ve come to like, are drawing straws to see who gets to rape the princess. It’s a little jarring, and completely out of the blue. There aren’t any other scenes like this, and though nothing comes of their straw drawing, its still a little messed up, and the ‘humor’ derived from it is juvenile and off base.
Verdict
This would be a fine place to start if you’ve never seen a Kurosawa film. It’s shorter than some of his others, and though it has a few lagging moments in the first act (and a off-putting joke mentioned in the paragraph above), it still moves pretty quickly and is a wonderful romp through feudal Japan. As I mentioned above, it’s not as grand-scale as some of his others, but it is masterfully done, and is better than 99% of the drivel that comes out today. Kurosawa has earned his reputation as a master filmmaker, and the more of his movies I see, the more impressed I am.
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