Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Just like my Battleship Potemkin post, I find it really, really hard to discuss the great works of cinema that have been discussed by far smarter people than I. Usually because I feel like anything I say has been said, said better, or is juvenile in comparison to the far more in-depth analysis out there. Tony Zhou's Every Frame a Painting video essay on Kurosawa is going to give you more bang for your buck than I ever will, link here. Regardless, I'm going to discuss it anyway, because damn it, if a film is this good it bares talking about by all the new generations discovering it!
Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), the most comic and enigmatic of the seven samurai in the film, has his moment to shine in this scene. To be pedantic, he isn't a samurai, and it is in this scene that we discover this. The scene begins with Kikuchiyo bringing in, and wearing, some traditional samurai armour that has been discovered in the village the samurai are protecting. As usual, he's laughing a lot, really happy that they have some actual armour, and frankly, geeking out at how cool it is!
However, we learn that the reason the armour is in the village is that the villagers have been hunting down the injured or fleeing samurai from other nearby battles across the years. This infuriates the other samurai, their honour insulted by the villagers' keeping of secrets. But interestingly, Kikuchiyo begins to rant and rave at the other samurai. He think that the villagers aren't in the wrong, that they are no worse than the samurai who were little worse than bandits, who are the enemy in the film. Kurosawa has Mifune deliver his performance directly to camera, with the camera placement telling us that Kikuchiyo is ranting at the other samurai. Kikichiyo calls samurai in general rapists, thieves, and overall "mean, stupid murderers".
This doesn't make sense to us. Kikichiyo, while more inept than the other samurai, has acted as one, carrying the symbolic sword and joining the others. He breaks down crying, and the other samurai know, they can tell that Kikichiyo used to be a farmer, and has suffered at the hands of bandits and samurai. He is self-taught, not even a ronin. This revelation occurs due to the finding of the samurai armour. It acts as a catalyst for some serious characterization of an otherwise comic character, and a stand-out performance from Mifune.
Later in the film, as Kikichiyo and Shimada (Takashi Shimura) attempt to rescue the outskirt villagers from death, as the houses burn, a mother cradles a crying baby, dies in Shimada's arms from being speared, and the baby is handed to Kikichiyo. Kikichiyo breaks down, crying "It's just like me", and we completely understand his earlier animosity to the samurai as they insulted the farmers' actions. It informs us of the harsh upbringing of Kikichiyo, orphaned by the violent actions of this world, and how it all continues to happen, a cycle of violence and death. We know the real reason he joined the defending samurai, he wanted to protect his kin, and stop history repeating itself. Unfortunately, he couldn't.
The armour serves no more purpose than making our heroes look cool, and of course giving us a fantastic insight into Kikichiyo's character. Kikichiyo himself sheds the armour later in the film, wearing the attire of his enemies to blend in and thin their numbers. The armour hammers home the theme of history repeating itself, as the samurai wear the armour of old to face new, yet unchanged, threats. The end of the film however does imply that a change is coming, as four of the seven samurai lay dead, the remaining three reflect that the victory for the villagers has been a defeat for them, the samurai at large. With each victory, the samurai will lose some of their numbers, until none remain. Shimada already felt too old to lead the conflict, and the youngest to survive, Katsushiro (Daisuke Kato) is already seen to long for love with one of the villagers. The apprentices then will integrate into modern society, and the remaining samurai will be killed or become too old to fight. It's a sad end to the film, as we know all the good they can do. But what Kikichiyo reminds us, through the use of that armour, is that perhaps the samurai were never noble heroes to begin with. Yet among these samurai, and the non-samurai Kikichiyo, bravery and sacrifice remain, but for how long?
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