Kurosawa’s Seven
Greetings, fellow Japanese film students,
I was just sort of thinking about how we were watching Kurosawa last week, when a thought donned on me, that I wanted to bringt up. I thought I’d posted it already, but evidently I was wrong, so, here it is.
Over the last few years, the Japanese animation studio, Gonzo(no relation to the Muppet), has been producing anime versions of stories that have come to be considered classics. I’m not sure how many in total, but these are the three I know of: The Count of Monte Cristo; William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; and Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. The anime themselves are known as Gankutsuo: The Count of Monte Cristo, RomeoXJuliet, and Samurai 7, respectively.
This animation of classic stories, both of Japanese and Western culture, is rather interesting: is it a sign of a lack of originality, in coming up with stories? Possibly, but given how drastically they reinvent the worlds the stories occur in (ie. Samurai 7 is set in a sort of post-Apocalyptic future, where the bandits pilot giant robots), I don’t really think so. I think it’s more of an effort to raise awareness of the public of these classics—Eastern AND Western—by making them more appealing to a modern audience. Is this a good thing, though?
There’s more: this is not the first time that Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai has been reworked. Back in the ’60s, Hollywood produced a Western about seven cowboys, brought to a small Mexican village to fend off a gang of banditos. It was called The Magnificent Seven, starring Steve McQueen. So I’ve got to ask, what do people think this says about Kurosawa’s story of the seven samurai? That it’s a classic can be applied to all sorts of settings and cultures, with a little reworking? Or that it’s one of the lowest forms of reproducible film-types imaginable?
Just some food for thought. I’ll see you all in class!
Gregory Cruikshank
October 25th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Funny how you mention about Seven Samurai, cause i heard that it’s being remade……..again……
I guess the same can be said with Shakespeare. Kurosawa reworked a few of his stories into films, like ran and throne of blood.
To some degree it says that this movie, or other movies that tend to be retold ,are so popular, but truthfully it probably all about the money!!! A good story will never fade into obscurity.
I don’t mind and quite enjoy remakes of classics. Like you mentioned, it does bring me back to the original, and make me re-watch and enjoy it again.
I would like to know if there are any Japanese movies were redone from american films?
james C