Synopsis: During the Warring States Period, a group of villagers hired seven samurai to eat three meals a day in order to avoid bandits robbing them of their food. Finally, relying on their courage and wisdom, the warriors armed the peasants and defeated the bandits.
The film begins with the sound of hooves. Fierce mountain thieves want to wash the village and rob the grain. But before the rice harvest, I must go home first. And this information happened to be known by a villager who went up the mountain to collect firewood. The villagers fell into panic and disputes, some complained about the tragic fate, and some rose up and resisted. Finally, under the decision of the elders in charge, they came up with a way to ask the hungry warriors for help, because they only had food. As a result, several villagers embarked on the road of recruiting samurai.
Obviously, this strategy is unreliable and the chances are slim. Samurai are mostly people with flamboyant personalities. A samurai who can be bought by satisfying hunger conditions is neither reliable nor effective.
Seeing that the rice is about to mature, the villagers have found nothing. They are helpless and almost desperate.
The turning point in movies always appears at the bottom. The turning point began with an onlooker: a samurai shaved his head, cut his hair, pretended to be a monk, and skillfully and bravely rescued the child from the trapped thief. The soldier's kindness brought hope to the villagers, but also won the admiration of a young soldier and attracted the attention of an excellent soldier.
At this point, the three samurai officially appeared. Camby, an excellent soldier, was the first soldier who promised the peasants, the leader of the last seven soldiers who took part in the war, and the war planner and commander who fought against mountain thieves. He has rich experience, great wisdom and noble character.
Under the call of Kanbee, all kinds of chivalrous men gathered in succession, and soon, seven samurai were seated accordingly.
On the surface, these warriors were moved by the peasants' pain when they helped them, and thus they had the desire to punish evil and promote good. Careful analysis of such factors is actually rare.
In many conversations, we can learn that although Camby has rich experience and fought many wars, he was defeated. When he was young, he dreamed of making meritorious military service and becoming the king of a city, but now he has become a ronin. He feels that he is not qualified to be an apprentice, and he has begun to get tired of fighting and killing. The appearance of farmers only provided him with an opportunity to display his ambitions. Other samurai also have their own needs.
The young soldier, Katsushiro, is inexperienced and wants to experience himself through the war with his master (Camby). Some samurai are invited by friends, such as Jiro. Others admire Kanbee and want to find a bosom friend, such as Wu Lang Bingwei. Some samurai just want to improve their martial arts and realm, such as hiding for a long time. Others, such as Qing Chiyo, have no goals and no principles. They just want to join in the fun and prove their worth. Like a clown, he acts strangely, is responsible for joking, has nothing to hide, has no sympathy for the weak, and can't see the cowardice of others at all. But in fact, he is also the most pitiful and true person in his heart.
Therefore, the cohesion of this team is not the same belief, nor how many interests are divided. They are just coupling the values they need. This may be regarded as the hidden realism in the film.
This film has selected multiple perspectives, and about the first third of the time, almost all of them are from the perspective of farmer Li Ji. He is young and vigorous, actively fighting the main battle, and is the first farmer to stand up and duel with mountain thieves. At the beginning of the film, Li Ji showed extraordinary hatred for mountain thieves, which made people puzzled. It was not until the war with the mountain thief that he gave the answer. His beautiful young wife was taken away by a mountain thief not long ago. At one stage, the pain and vulnerability of farmers were exposed without omission.
However, the society at that time was very complicated, and farmers were not so simple and kind. They also have a mean and vicious side. Farmers and soldiers are not in the same camp. When Chiyo found those excellent weapons from farmers, the film showed the contradiction between farmers and soldiers for the first time. These weapons were snatched by the peasants who killed the fallen soldiers. This bad behavior of the peasants angered the samurai present. The atmosphere is deep and dense, and the contradictions seem difficult to reconcile. At this time, for the first time, the film briefly focused on the giant Chiyo. He angrily criticized these peasants for their meanness, cunning, cowardice, bad-hearted and imbecility. They were murderers, but they quickly pointed the finger at the warriors, because all this was also related to the warriors. They worked hard to burn down villages and ravaged rice fields, and abused women. Their evil deeds were also forced out. Qing Chiyo, who hates others crying, also burst into tears at this moment. Because he is a collection of this contradiction, as a samurai, he also hates the behavior of farmers, but he is actually the son of farmers, who was orphaned by a fire when he was very young. In this way, the contradiction faded and even, and the next story continued as usual. Only Chiyo was injured. It is easy to understand his strange behavior now. I can't hide the cowardice of others, but I'm afraid I'm at a disadvantage.
More often, depending on the corner on the young warrior Keitaro, he is immature, less prejudiced and eager to make contributions. He looks at the master's world, the human suffering, the separation of love and the cruelty of war from his perspective ... He is full of curiosity about all this, just like the audience's expectation for the aftermath of the movie, so most viewers may easily choose him as their projection in the movie.
After harvesting the grain, digging trenches, laying traps, and the role of the intermediate adhesive of chrysanthemum for thousands of years, the samurai and farmers are temporarily integrated into one, and everything is ready except the east wind.
Mountain thieves arrived as scheduled, but to their shock, the village in front of them was fully armed. What surprised them even more was that before they started, their lair had been hit hard, and the other side attacked first, which greatly frustrated their spirit. But after all, how can a mountain thief be afraid of farmers? This war is inevitable.
The film describes the whole process of the war in an all-round way for nearly an hour, mainly from the perspective of bystanders, interspersed with a short transition of perspective.
Under the careful layout of the leader Kanbee, the operational profile of the peasant side is as follows:
Defense: the whole village is backed by mountains, and mountain thieves ride horses, which is a natural barrier. There are rice fields ahead, and ditches have been dug to drain water, so this road is impassable. There is a bridge in the west, which has been demolished and built, so it is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Leave a small opening in the east to draw the enemy in. The whole defense system is arranged in a bottle shape.
Tactics: break through in dispersion and catch turtles in a jar.
Staffing: The Seven Warriors are divided into three parts, leading farmers to stand at the bottle mouth, bottle body and bottle bottom respectively.
Strategic realization: the three detachments are: front lure, middle attack and rear defense. Put the bottle mouth into one or two seating places at a time, and then tighten the bottle mouth immediately with the help of many people. It is easy to solve the problem of attacking more and attacking less in the middle part. At the same time, the last part can also take care of the middle part When people are nervous and have the upper hand, women can also come out and kill a fallen mountain thief to vent their anger and amuse themselves.
The whole battle plan is coordinated and unified, with division of labor and cooperation and strong operability. Not only that, the leader Kanbee also recorded the enemy's personnel and armaments by statistical analysis, knowing ourselves and knowing ourselves, and having a clear goal in mind.
This is a game in which both sides are prepared. Although the scale is small, it shows wisdom everywhere.
As far as the strength of both sides is concerned, defeating the plane artillery is simply millet plus rifle. Mountain thieves have well-equipped forty riders, and their weapons are not only steel knives and spears, but also bow and arrow muskets. On the peasant side, there are only seven warriors, and their weapons are only swords, and a bow and arrow has been used once, while the peasants' weapons are only sharpened bamboo poles. Fighting power is even less comparable. Mountain thieves are unstoppable and have rich experience in killing and setting fires, while farmers are only mud legs who can transplant rice seedlings and carry loads, cut firewood and plow fields. They haven't fought a war and are afraid of killing. Although they invited warriors, after all, the number was too small.
The strength difference between the two sides is so great that if the contest is fair, the farmers will undoubtedly lose, but in that case, there is naturally nothing to see.
So the war must be won, but it will be bitter, tired and treading on thin ice.
Soldiers, heavy casualties, seven deaths and four injuries. On the other hand, farmers are the biggest winners. Their casualties are few, their property has been preserved, their worries have been solved by the roots, and they will soon return to a stable life. The surviving soldier lamented that he was alive again. They don't know if they will have good luck next time, but they won't choose to settle down like farmers.
A question worth thinking about: Why are there four dead warriors?
A dead soldier has the following characteristics: either superb martial arts, such as hiding for a long time, or optimistic, such as black bully, or lawless, such as giant Chiyo. Their death actually gives the film a realistic color. Looking at the survivors, Camby is a ronin who has failed countless times, Qijiro is a peddler who goes with the flow, and Kasiro is a young warrior with little record.
Generally speaking, this is a film worth savoring. It is rich in content, and there are many places worth studying, such as soundtrack, lens effect and so on.