defunctzombie
06-22-2011, 02:08 AM
A gang of marauding bandits approaches a mountain village. The bandit chief recognizes they have ransacked this village before, and decides it is best that they spare it until the harvest in several months. A villager happens to overhear the discussion. The news leaves the villagers divided about whether to surrender their harvest or fight back against the bandits. They go to the village elder, who declares that they should fight, by hiring samurai to help defend the village. Some of the villagers are troubled by this suggestion, thinking that samurai are expensive to enlist and believed to lust after young farm women, but realize they have no choice. Since villagers have nothing to offer any prospective samurai except food, the village elder tells them to "find hungry samurai."
The men go into the city, but initially are unsuccessful, being turned away by every samurai they ask — sometimes rudely. Just as all seems lost, they happen to witness a samurai, Kambei, rescuing a young boy taken hostage by a thief. As Kambei walks towards town, a young samurai, Katsushirō, asks to become his disciple. Kambei insists that he walk with him as a friend. Then the farmers ask Kambei to help defend their village; to their great joy, he accepts. Kambei, with Katsushirō's assistance, then recruits four more masterless samurai (rōnin), each with distinctive skills and personality traits: Gorobei Katayama, clever and good natured; Heihachi, a good humored Samurai with mediocre sword skills; Shichirōji, an old friend of Kambei's; and Kyūzō, a taciturn master swordsman. Although Kambei had initially decided that seven samurai would be necessary, he plans to leave for the village with only the four that he has chosen because time is running short. The villagers beg him to take Katsushirō also and, with some prodding by the others, he agrees. A clownish man named Kikuchiyo, whom Kambei had rejected for the mission, follows them to the village at a distance, ignoring their protestations and attempts to drive him away.
When the samurai arrive the villagers cower in their homes in fear, hoping to protect their daughters and themselves from these supposedly dangerous warriors. The samurai are insulted not to be greeted warmly and seek an explanation from the village elder. Suddenly, an alarm is raised; the villagers, fearing that the bandits have returned, rush from their hiding places begging to be defended by the newly-arrived samurai. It turns out that Kikuchiyo has raised a false alarm. He rebukes the panicked villagers for running to the samurai for aid after first failing to welcome them to the village. It is here that Kikuchiyo demonstrates that there exists a certain intelligence behind his boorish demeanour. The six samurai symbolically accept him as belonging with them, truly completing the group of wanderers as the "seven samurai." The villagers feed white rice to the samurai, which is precious to them as they only have millet for themselves.
The men go into the city, but initially are unsuccessful, being turned away by every samurai they ask — sometimes rudely. Just as all seems lost, they happen to witness a samurai, Kambei, rescuing a young boy taken hostage by a thief. As Kambei walks towards town, a young samurai, Katsushirō, asks to become his disciple. Kambei insists that he walk with him as a friend. Then the farmers ask Kambei to help defend their village; to their great joy, he accepts. Kambei, with Katsushirō's assistance, then recruits four more masterless samurai (rōnin), each with distinctive skills and personality traits: Gorobei Katayama, clever and good natured; Heihachi, a good humored Samurai with mediocre sword skills; Shichirōji, an old friend of Kambei's; and Kyūzō, a taciturn master swordsman. Although Kambei had initially decided that seven samurai would be necessary, he plans to leave for the village with only the four that he has chosen because time is running short. The villagers beg him to take Katsushirō also and, with some prodding by the others, he agrees. A clownish man named Kikuchiyo, whom Kambei had rejected for the mission, follows them to the village at a distance, ignoring their protestations and attempts to drive him away.
When the samurai arrive the villagers cower in their homes in fear, hoping to protect their daughters and themselves from these supposedly dangerous warriors. The samurai are insulted not to be greeted warmly and seek an explanation from the village elder. Suddenly, an alarm is raised; the villagers, fearing that the bandits have returned, rush from their hiding places begging to be defended by the newly-arrived samurai. It turns out that Kikuchiyo has raised a false alarm. He rebukes the panicked villagers for running to the samurai for aid after first failing to welcome them to the village. It is here that Kikuchiyo demonstrates that there exists a certain intelligence behind his boorish demeanour. The six samurai symbolically accept him as belonging with them, truly completing the group of wanderers as the "seven samurai." The villagers feed white rice to the samurai, which is precious to them as they only have millet for themselves.