Classical Film Reviews · Film Reviews

Classical Film Review: Seven Samurai [1954]

The Seven Samurai is Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s finest work and made an easy transference into a Western, The Magnificent Seven, six years later. A Samurai answers a village’s request for protection after he falls on hard times. Kurosawa’s characterization of the six Samurai and the farmer’s son who wants to join them is peerless- as is his direction of the samurai and cavalry action.

Don’t be put off by the surface of an almost four-hour, black and white, subtitled film set in sixteenth century feudal Japan- The Seven Samurai is not only a great film in its own right but the source of a genre that would flow through the rest of the century. Film critic Michael Jeck suggests that this was the first film in which a team is assembled to carry out a mission- a theme we can see in films right from the early Westerns to modern films such as ‘Fast and Furious’ and even ‘The Avengers’.

Despite the length, the film moves quickly thanks to clear and defined storytelling and action scenes with a thrilling sweep. Kurosawa photographs men in action near better than anyone- one of his trademarks is the use of human tides, the camera sweeping through the action as people move, flowing from high to low rather than cutting into separate shots.

There are visual patterns within the film- at the start of the first battle with the bandits, the villagers rush around in panic and Kambei orders his samurai to calm and contain them, herding them under cover. Later, as just one bandit has been left, the villagers rush forward with delayed bravery to kill him. Now the samurai hurry to push them back.

This is a blockbuster in every sense, being the most expensive Japanese film ever made after everything was shot on location. It is also an epic period film (called a ‘jidaigeki’ in Japanese) that pits Takashi Shimura’s wise, zen-like leader against the wild intensity of Toshiro Mifune’s son-of-a-farmer samurai. They are employed along with five other swords-for-hire (of mixed ability) to protect a farming village from raiding bandits.

The film is also funny- occasionally darkly comic. When asked how many enemies he’s recently killed, one samurai responds: “since it is impossible to kill them all, I usually run away.”

Director Kurosawa was from samurai stock himself and wasn’t afraid to demolish the mythical status cinema had attributed to samurai figures.

Although the film is anchored in ancient Japanese culture it argues for a flexible humanism in place of rigid traditions. The samurai and the villagers who hire them are of different castes and must never mix- indeed these villagers have previously been hostile to samurai. Yet the bandits are an even greater threat and a value is added to the samurai along with resentment as the villagers are forced into hiring them.

The Samurai live through this resentment and open hostility as they risk their lives because that is the job and nature of the samurai. The bandits equally persevere, despite the village now being well defended. Both sides are bound by the roles imposed on them- a masochistic dedication to the implementation of complex social obligations is a basic cultural trait of Japan and Japanese cinema. The characters perform the roles they have been assigned.

Yet, two of the movie’s significant subplots deal with rebellion against social tradition. The boisterous showoff, Kikuchiyo, was not born a samurai but jumped caste to become one- he can barely ride a horse because his childhood gave him no opportunity to learn. There is also a forbidden romance between another samurai and a village girl but a farmer’s daughter could never marry a ronin!

When their relationship is discovered towards the end of the film, on the eve of the final battle, there are arguments in the village to “understand the young people”- although the appeal to romance is deigned for the modern 1950s audience and unlikely to have been uttered in the 1600s!

Should the hero get the girl? Japanese audiences in 1954 would have said no. Kurosawa spent the fifty years of his career arguing against the theory that the individual should be the instrument of society.

Chronically Fabulous · Femme

Why is Youtube Demonetising Disabled Creators?

Since YouTube brought in its new rules about monetisation a few months ago I’ve seen my some of my videos being declared ‘not suitable for all advertisers’ and having their adverts pulled. This means I’m loosing the money I would have earned from each view and is being applied to videos released far before the new algorithm! Disturbingly, demonetisation is predominantly happening to videos that are about or even just mention my disabilities!

Smoothies: a controversial topic.

Is living life with a disability really a sensitive or controversial issue, as the demonetisation guidelines suggest?

Adverts have also been pulled from many of the videos I make with my wife, Claudia, or videos in which I discuss being gay! Whilst it’s awful that LGBT videos are being targeted- especially since our videos are largely PG- I at least understand why it’s happening. Although the sexualisation of people outside of the heterosexual realm is horrific and wrong… at least it’s a reason.

Examples of Lesbian related videos demonetised on my channel.
But why are my disability-related videos being targeted?

My ‘disability’ videos targeted for demonetisation:

  • The video in which I explain part of my disability and give tips on living with a chronic illness.
  • This video that says we can still take pride in being disabled people.
  • The video where I question what ‘normal’ means anyway.
  • This video in which I share my experiences of partially loosing my eye sight but also say that you can go on to live well.
  • The video where I share my frustrations at being invited to an event to speak about disabilities but there being no disabled access.
  • This video with handy tips for beating nausea.
  • The video sharing what’s in my pillbox and how important it is to have a good system when you take daily medications.
  • This video about using a healthy diet to control symptoms.
  • This video that asks event organisers to consider disabled people’s needs.

That last video being picked up particularly annoyed me- I’m just asking that disabled people can be included! So I took to Twitter, tweeted the video’s tags and asked YouTube exactly which of them was setting off the algorithm. Was it “accessibility”? “Disabled friendly”? “Deaf”? “Wheelchair”?

This video is finally monetised after manual review
Tags that’ll make the $ icon go yellow!

 

Their response was ‘check our guidelines’ and then, when I said I had already done that, ‘check our guidelines.’

Thank you, that’s… so helpful.

If you check through you’ll see they’re monetised now… because they should not have been demonetised in the first place. Creators can only request that video demonetisation be manually checked if the video has gained 1,000 views in the last 7 days. Unfortunately this means a video will miss out on all of the money is could have earned before the manual review takes place. One of my most recent videos, Wife Does My Voiceover, gained it’s first 1,000 views in just a few hours and was only manually checked after going over 2,500. That’s a lot of potential revenue to miss out on!

YouTube and other online routes are a great opportunity for disabled people, since many of us would otherwise struggle to work. Equally, disabled voices having a platform to be heard is a good thing for non-disabled people. The best way for people who have no experience of disability to learn about it is from people who have disabilities. How can we normalise things if they’re being marked as ‘controversial’ or ‘incendiary’. Is it really controversial to be talking about daily life with a disability?

Why is this happening in the first place?

Other disabled creators who have faced this on YouTube include: Rikki Poynter, Andrea Lausell, Krystal-Bella Shaw, The Aspie World, Connopolis and the Invisible I. None of them have heard back on why this has happened either!

Here’s a link to YouTube’s guidelines, have a read through and let me know what you think. Why is this happening?

I’m calling on YouTube and its advertisers to be brave and recognise the power of disabled creators and the market for disability content. There are 13 million people with registered disabilities in the UK alone, with a spending power of over £200 billion. That’s a lot of money these companies could be missing out on due to short sighted prejudice.

ps. This video isn’t about disabilities or gayness, it’s about my puppy’s birthday present, but despite being adorable it was still demonetised!

UPDATE 20/09/17

Time to get angry at again… demonetising a video about in the middle of ? That’s low.