Society and Tradition: Evaluating the Theme of Universality through the Seven Samurai - Movie Review Example

Society and Tradition: Evaluating the theme of Universality through the Seven Samurai (1954) Man’s spontaneous urge for entertainment and recreationgave birth to different types of performing arts. Though, primarily, such forms of performing arts only were aimed at providing relaxation to a person but gradually theatre or drama performance became one of the major sources to reflect life of people in the society and at the same time it also included different cultural and aesthetical inspiration of people in a particular society. Gradually technological progress and people’s understanding about entertainment gave birth to movies but, like drama, it also mirrored the essential ingredients of a particular society and its people, when it comes to tracing the aspects related to culture and issues of identity. To understand the cultural-aesthetic dimensions of different societies it is important at the first place to go through the psychological basis of inhabitants of the society. However, it is always not possible for an individual to be present physically in such a socio-cultural backdrop and evaluate the cultural-aesthetic dimension of the people but in this context movies produced from those societies are sources of abundant materials that help an individual to indentify the reactions of people belonging to a particular society, regarding their situation of living as and exploring basic features of their identity as well. Globalization, though it actually has encouraged the process of Westernization only at the global arena, has received a great deal of boost from the due to the Hollywood movies and cultural orientation of different societies has greatly been influenced due to such effects. Some of the very fundamental aspects related to human existence in a particular society have greatly been influenced though cultural-aesthetic dimensions as it has been portrayed in the movies. In the same manner issues associated with existence of an individual and exploring the essence of their identity have been treated in a different way through the films of Japan and Korea. Emotional conflict, themes of sexuality and different layers of aesthetic dimension have been explored through the films. Analysis of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954) would expose the truth behind such observation. The year 1904 to 1920 was the time when Japanese cinema was proceeding towards developing as a mature art form every aspect of performing arts and its aesthetics. The main inspiration behind development of Japanese films was derived from traditional Japanese theatrical form “Kabuki.” (Baron, Carnicke, 2008, p. 140) During the initial stages of Japanese film history, as film critics, like Cynthia Baron and Sharon Marie Carnicke, have observed that “the Japanese did not … view motion pictures as a new, different, modern, mass produced, machine-driven, autonomous entertainment.”, (Baron and Carnicke, 2008, p. 140) it was one of the main reasons that Japanese directors used to provide special emphasis over stressing over the theme of aesthetic impulse in a clear manner. Cinema, for Japanese audience as well as for the directors used to be another form of performing arts that already existed in their tradition. However, Japanese directors or the pioneers of Japanese film production were always interested in fusing the elements of their own tradition and Western society that were depicted by several authors and dramatists in their creative works. This tradition of fusing elements of traditional performing arts with Western cultural elements has explicitly been observed in Japanese film making tradition mainly due to the reason that Japanese directors always wanted to ensure further development of their cultural heritage. However, amidst all such experiments influence of Japanese theater has always received special importance by people associated with film making. In the post World War II era, due to American oppression use of dramatic forms, though, were restricted but The Seven Samurai (1954) is one such bright examples of Japanese film history that carried strong evidences of the influence of Japanese theater over film. The Seven Samurai from Kurosawa has dealt with the themes of place and identity both from thematic as well as aesthetic perspectives. He asserted his opinion clearly that if a director wishes to make screenplay of a film excellent, he needs to follow the Western style. In case of construction of the film’s plot and line of development, he believed that a person needs to follow the traditional elements of the Noh play structure, where the dramatists used to divide the actual structure in three parts, namely, “jo (introduction), ha (destruction) and kyu (haste).” (Baron and Carnicke, 2008, p. 141) When it came to acting also he ensured that actors of the film should come up with such performance so that their acting is marked with both physical solemnity but aesthetic vehemence. Looking at the character of Kyuzo, the great warrior in the film, it becomes clear what he actually tried to mean by co-existence of physical solemnity and aesthetic vehemence in one character. As we start pondering over the aspect that how in this film the director has raised the issues of place and identity, we realize that though he fused the elements of Western performing arts in his depiction of story but traditional elements of Japanese culture have played the role of basic element of the film. The cultural-aesthetic dimension that has repeatedly been emphasized since very beginning of the discussion, receives proper attention from the director as he has chosen the principle of election and it has also been derived from the Kabuki and Noh theatrical traditions. So, in the context of technical approach, Kurosawa has mainly depended on Western technological progress and art of framing so that it lets open the initial flow of aesthetic pleasure at the psychical level of the audience but when it comes to exposure of the “Japaneseness” and developing the feeling of integrity with national culture, his mainly depended over traditional form of performing arts. However, critics like Sato Tadao and Yoshimoto Mitsuhiro have argued that Kurosawa was preoccupied with the “essential cultural aspects of ““Japaneseness”” and such preoccupation “ignores the historic specificities of source dramatic forms such as Noh and Kabuki. …” (Dennison and Lim, 2006, p. 176) but if we consider his other works, specifically the films that have been made depending over the samurai theme, we will find that he actually attempted to touch the spirit, ethical and philosophical approach to life of the Japanese people - “Another popular approach to finding evidence for Kurosawa’s ‘Japaneseness’ is to emphasize his evocation of the samurai spirit and the ethics of bushido … Kurosawa’s so-called ‘samurai films’ do much more than just simply invoke the spirit of bushido to portray a Japanese ethos. Looking more closely at Rashomon, … we find that the tale told from the samurai’s point of view is just a suspect as the tales told by the woman and even by the bandit, so that the samurai ethic of truth, courage and steadfastness is laid open to doubt.” (Dennison, Lim, 2006, p. 176) Thus, identity and place for Kurosawa not only focused entirely over ‘Japaneseness’ that many of his critics have interpreted through his use of traditional elements of performing arts in his movies but it actually elaborated to a wider scope of art. He not only identified individuals as a human being belonging to a particular ethnic community but tried to incorporate the elements of universality in his treatment of a subject. Union of Western technological advancement and use of traditional materials, associated with Japanese lifestyle not only asserted the fact that his identity as a citizen of Japan is only substance but his focus over the elements of basic human virtues also asserted that every individual is expected and to maintain their identity as universal creatures, need to retain such basic aspects in their personal lives. One of the most famous Korean directors, Kim Ki Duk, while questioned about the importance of film, opined, “I had always thought that film is a kind of culture that could be appreciated only by those who are college graduates. People like me who were factory workers wouldn’t be able to understand such a level of sophisticated culture. I think that, before arriving in Paris, I thought movies were meaningless entertainment.” (Merajver-Kurlat, 2009, p. 9) It is clear from such refection of the eminent director that staying within the bias of his identity and so-called nationalism never helped him to understand or perceive the bigger canvas of human existence across the world. The moment he shed off such yoke of so-called nationalism and identity the horizon for understanding the essence of actual human existence opened for him. Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai can also be viewed as an attempt that not only explored the dimensions of cultural-aesthetic aspects of the Japanese society but it also stressed upon the existence of an individual as a universal creature and not only a community centered entity. Truth; rather logical argument behind such observation receives a further stronger foundation as we cite for the observation of Alastair Phillips and Julian Stringer regarding Japanese films: “… no national cinema is ever intrinsically static and it is always wrong to seek to define any non-Western cinema in terms of its supposed relation to a set of different, equally mutable, mainstream norms….Japanese cinema’s history, as already mentioned, has been remarkably porous and it has been continually marked by productive engagement with other film cultures…Today, it is widely recognised by scholars and critics that there is no such thing as ‘the Japanese’ or indeed a single ‘Japanese cinema.’” (Phillips, Stringer, 2007, p. 11) Though the critics have identified the Japanese cinema as a tradition of art in its own ways that is very much associated with the culture of film making from a broader perspective but at the same time we cannot deny the fact that despite its liberal or universal approach towards handing of a particular subject, cinema that are produced from Japan have been able to maintain a secular approach. In this era of universal complementing and supplementing at least in the forms of performing art like film, the Japanese films have been able to create a niche of their own and the main factor that is responsible for such is emphasis over the traditional aspects that have helped to retain their identity. The Seven Samurai has been elevated to the dimension of a classic mainly due to the reason that on one hand, despite being very much universal, it is also very much national. The original pamphlet of the film contains Kurosawa’s own reflection regarding the philosophy of its making: “An action film is often an action film only for the sake of action. But what a wonderful thing if one can construct a grand action film without sacrificing the portrayal of humans.” (Yoshimoto, 2000, p. 240) Emphasis over the humanness or humanity has elevated Kurosawa’s creation to a different aesthetic dimension. Dimensions that have been explored in the film by the director has not only proved to be highly effective for “an expert’s disposition” (Rossi, 1991, p. 187) but also in the context of what we call it ‘breaking the myths’ in the postmodern context. Though he was “trained within the strict tradition of Japanese apprenticeship system, Kurosawa eventually broke away from that tradition ….SEVEN SAMURAI actually looks like Western in its use of landscape, the placement of characters in the landscape and the interplay of movement and stasis.” (Heide, 2002. p. 39) Not only in case of such characterization or depiction of landscape but it also has come up with a political overtone of class segregation and power play within the social construction that it also inspired John Struges to come up with The Magnificent Seven in the year 1960. (Wright, 2007, p. 153) Here perhaps lies the universal appeal of The Seven Samurai that despite being very much focused over culture, aesthetics and identity of Japan, the film actually encompasses different issues of human existence, at every layers of human life, within its scope. It is not that the Japanese people or Japanese culture only experiences these aspects but like human virtues, these issues are also universal in nature and transcends the man made boundaries of nationality, culture of differences in perception. References 1. Carnicke, S.M., Baron, C., 2008, Reframing screen performance, University of Michigan Press (Michigan) 2. Lim, S.H., Dennison, S., 2006, Remapping world cinema: identity, culture and politics in film, Wallflower Press (London) 3. Merajver-Kurlat, M., 2009, Kim KI Duk: On Movies, the Visual Language, Jorge Pinto Books Inc. (New York) 4. Rossi. F.F., 1991, Expert witnesses, American Bar Association 5. Stringer, J., Philips, A., 2007, Japanese cinema: texts and contexts, Taylor & Francis (New York) 6. Van der Heide, W., 2002, Malaysian cinema, Asian film: border crossings and national cultures, Amsterdam University Press (Amsterdam) 7. Wright, M.J., 2007, Religion and film: an introduction, I.B.Tauris (London) 8. Yoshimoto, M., 2000, Kurosawa: film studies and Japanese cinema, Duke University Press (North Carolina) Read More