The farmer’s hire six Ronin who decide to help; though these masterless samurai don’t turn away the food, their rationale seems to be retribution for this perceived moral injustice. Maybe each hides a shameful secret and seeks cosmic exoneration for a good deed, especially at the risk of their lives. A seventh nameless warrior jokingly called Kikuchiyo, who plays the violent jester and offers slapstick relief, is a counterpoint to the other’s stoic and grim disposition. The samurai aren’t even welcome in the village they have sworn to protect: the farmers cower and hide; even disguising their daughters to look like young boys. True to their code, the samurais repress their disgust and humbly prepare the village’s defense and remain willing to fight to the death.
Kurosawa structures this narrative in chronological order and slowly develops important characterizations: each farmer and samurai is described with a unique quality or attribute thus creating believable individuals. His compositions and choreographed movements within rioting crowds or during quick slashing duels explode with spring wound tension. The rain-soaked apocalypse is violently beautiful: a ballet of blood, a dance of death, and the bandits slaughtered to the last man. Kikuchiyo proves himself a virtuous warrior but as the farmers begin the cycle of growth and rebirth once again, it’s the samurai who are spiritually defeated. They have become an anachronism; their time and need are past.
Final Grade: (A+)
