Samurai Summer

At a stammtisch earlier this spring, I mentioned that I'd like to watch some samurai movies. We had previously been discussing movies, and DVD collecting in the age of streaming, and my friend Jason revealed that he had purchased more than a few Akira Kurisawa movies. I jokingly said we should have "a samurai summer", and the group enthusiastically agreed.

Now, as summer comes to a close, we're finally getting around to watching our first one! We're going to start with Seven Samurai. There was much discussion whether we should follow this up with The Magnificent Seven (and then The Magnificent Seven), but we decided to stay focused on samurai films.

Seven Samurai is three and a half hours long. We're going to start around 19:00 tonight, and there's a high probability that one or more (maybe all!) of us fall asleep during this. I've never seen it, so I'm looking forward to it!

I'm not sure if I want to watch this academically, or as I might in a theater where the experience and the presentation are paramount; or if I want to engage in discussions with my friends about the stuff we're watching in real time. I'm sure there will be a lot of cultural elements I won't understand, symbols that I don't pick up on, cinematography choices, and more. Some of my friends have seen this film, and may be able to share insight or context. Will it diminish the movie if we talk through it?

I'm not sure what our next samurai movie will be. Maybe Yojimbo, or Hidden Fortress, or Ran. Maybe Rashomon. There's no shortage of choices, thanks to Jason's DVD hoarding! After we get through most of the source material, we may watch the many American remakes, to compare and contrast. Of course, finding time to watch these as a group will be the hardest thing.