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Islamabad
The Japanese Film Fest being held at the National Art Gallery (NAG) continues to attract movie buffs. Organised by the Embassy of Japan, Japan Foundation and the Pakistan National Council of the Arts, the film fest marks the celebrations of 60th Anniversary of Diplomatic Bond between Pakistan and Japan.
The Sunday morning show screened Akira Kurosawa’s great film, ‘Seven Samurai’. The film reflects the nature of life in post-1945 Japan. Although the story is set in the turbulent era of the Sengoku, its characters and themes illustrate the changing era in which it was produced. Akira Kurosawa was the first Japanese director to become widely known in the West. With the release of ‘Rashomon’ (1952) and ‘Seven Samurai’, he both stimulated interest in Japanese film and established himself as one of the world’s leading and most influential directors.
‘Seven Samurai’ is a story about a poor farming village community in the 16th century Sengoku era of civil strife and feuding samurai clans. Without the protection of a strong feudal warlord’s samurai, the village is repeatedly raided by a band of outlaws. Its crops are pillaged, its men killed, and women abducted. The villagers decide to hire wandering, master less samurai (ronin) to protect themselves from the bandits, offering only board and three meals a day as their payment. The first half of the film depicts the plight of the farmers and their difficult search in the nearby provincial town for samurai who are willing to stoop to working for their social inferiors.
‘Find hungry samurai!’ is the wise advice of the village elder; Kanbei is the experienced leader chosen, and he recruits five others once the more ambitious willingly turn away. The seventh is Kikuchiyo, a buffoonish, drunken samurai wannabe, who follows the men and eventually endears himself to them.
The remainder of the film is a series of stunningly visualised skirmishes that lead to the final battle. The film not only illustrates the power of the new weapon in 16th century Japan, it illustrates in the destruction of four of the seven in the senseless nature of modern war. Although the seven are fighting for a just cause, their enemies are not just and use ‘coward’ weapons, not the honourable sword and bow, to take down their most fierce foes. There is equivalence here between the sniper and the bomber carrying a nuclear bomb.
Another Kurosawa film ‘Yojimbo’ was screened on Monday. While Akira Kurosawa’s masterful ‘Jidaigeki’ (or period drama) turned dark comedy, ‘Yojimbo’, is a riveting archetypal character portrait of the mythical wandering samurai Sanjuro Kuwabatake, it is more deeply a historical fable regarding the effects of capitalism in multiple eras of Japan’s history.
The Japanese Film Fest being held at the National Art Gallery (NAG) continues to attract movie buffs. Organised by the Embassy of Japan, Japan Foundation and the Pakistan National Council of the Arts, the film fest marks the celebrations of 60th Anniversary of Diplomatic Bond between Pakistan and Japan.
The Sunday morning show screened Akira Kurosawa’s great film, ‘Seven Samurai’. The film reflects the nature of life in post-1945 Japan. Although the story is set in the turbulent era of the Sengoku, its characters and themes illustrate the changing era in which it was produced. Akira Kurosawa was the first Japanese director to become widely known in the West. With the release of ‘Rashomon’ (1952) and ‘Seven Samurai’, he both stimulated interest in Japanese film and established himself as one of the world’s leading and most influential directors.
‘Seven Samurai’ is a story about a poor farming village community in the 16th century Sengoku era of civil strife and feuding samurai clans. Without the protection of a strong feudal warlord’s samurai, the village is repeatedly raided by a band of outlaws. Its crops are pillaged, its men killed, and women abducted. The villagers decide to hire wandering, master less samurai (ronin) to protect themselves from the bandits, offering only board and three meals a day as their payment. The first half of the film depicts the plight of the farmers and their difficult search in the nearby provincial town for samurai who are willing to stoop to working for their social inferiors.
‘Find hungry samurai!’ is the wise advice of the village elder; Kanbei is the experienced leader chosen, and he recruits five others once the more ambitious willingly turn away. The seventh is Kikuchiyo, a buffoonish, drunken samurai wannabe, who follows the men and eventually endears himself to them.
The remainder of the film is a series of stunningly visualised skirmishes that lead to the final battle. The film not only illustrates the power of the new weapon in 16th century Japan, it illustrates in the destruction of four of the seven in the senseless nature of modern war. Although the seven are fighting for a just cause, their enemies are not just and use ‘coward’ weapons, not the honourable sword and bow, to take down their most fierce foes. There is equivalence here between the sniper and the bomber carrying a nuclear bomb.
Another Kurosawa film ‘Yojimbo’ was screened on Monday. While Akira Kurosawa’s masterful ‘Jidaigeki’ (or period drama) turned dark comedy, ‘Yojimbo’, is a riveting archetypal character portrait of the mythical wandering samurai Sanjuro Kuwabatake, it is more deeply a historical fable regarding the effects of capitalism in multiple eras of Japan’s history.
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