november 4

The author I choose was Akira Kurosawa. The movies I picked from him were Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and Tsubaki Sanjuro. 

Seven Samurai takes place in Japan. The story is about the government attempting to take the land from rice farmers. The farmers seek a way to the government from taking their land and their rice. They seek the help from samurai to protect their land but only have rice to offer as payment. The farmers found it difficult to hire samurai because the government was watching over them. However, one samurai came to their aid and stood against the government. His name was Takeshi Shimura. In the story, the farmers and Takeshi manage to get six other samurais to help their fight against the government. In the end five samurai die for the cause, leaving only Takeshi and a younger samurai live to tell the story. 

Throne of Blood focused on two samurai lost in a sacred forest.  They encounter a mysterious woman in white who tells them about their futures. This mysterious person tells the first samurai his fortune. She tells him how he will be the Emperor in the North.  Then she tells the second samurai his fortune.  He would be the Emperor of the Forest of the Clan. This story is similar to Macbeth by Shakespeare because it has the same story structure.  In this story, the medieval knights in Macbeth are replaced with samurais. The three witches in Macbeth are replaced by one spirit in Throne of Blood. The themes in the stories are similar. The emperor and king are killed.  In the end of Throne of Blood, the first samurai, Emperor of the North died just like Macbeth in Macbeth. 

Tsubaki Sanjuro focused on a group of samurai, who supposed killed one of the emperors from a different clan but untrue. So the emperor tries to go after those people by taking away their land. The samurai group did not know what to do. One man who was a Ronan came to their aid. He was there to save the people and their land.  In the end they manage to get their land back from the emperor and kill him.

Akira Kurosawa focuses on ancient Japan.  His films revolve around three groups of people: the emperor and his men, the peasant or farmers and the samurais.   Through out the three films there appears a struggle for power. The author points to re-appearing themes of betrayal, lies and killings involving the emperor,s the peasants and samurai in ancient Japan in all three movies.