Samurai in Film :: essays research papers

From Akira Kurosawas 1954 remove Seven Samurai, to the recent box office sensation, The Last Samurai, the illustrious Japanese warrior, the samurai, has been the subject of hundreds of films. Classically depicted as carrying two swords and neat a top knot (chonmage), the samurai has been portrayed not only as a warrior and expert swordsman, but as a man of rail and principles consistent with the bushido.Samurai films exhibit two basic dramatic styles. The jidai-geki (period drama) which argon stories establish on characters and how they negotiate a variety of political, personal and romantic situations and the chanbara (sword trash 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 both styles as exhibited in Akira Kurosawas Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961), as well as the many films more or less the legendary Musashi Miyamoto.In addition to Seven Samur ai and Yojimbo, Kurosawas samurai classics, The Hidden protection (1958) and Sanjuro (1963) all star samurai incarnate, actor Toshiro Mifune. While Kurosawas later films, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985), are not found on the samurai, they are set in feudalistic times in which the samurai played a significant role.Kurosawas films greatly puzzle outd the film industry in both Japan and the West that during his career he gained greater notoriety and even support for his operation pictures overseas than he did at home. The Seven Samurai was the basis for American film director John Sturges The Magnificent Seven (1960) Yojimbo for A Fist in 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 Eastwood s Unforgiven (1992).During his career, Toshiro Mifune (1920-1997) starred in 134 films and played both a classic samurai or a common man of samurai principles in nearly half of them. Besides his Kurosawa films, Mifune also starred in a figure 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 television mini-series, Shogun (1980) based on the James Clavell novel.