Seven Samurai

As many of you know I am planning to take Dunn to Japan this spring to visit my friend Warren. In the spirit of preparation for the trip, Dunn and I have started reading books on Japan and Japanese culture. Warren also suggested that Dunn might enjoy a back-to-back viewing of the 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) and the 1960 cowboy-western remake of it, The Magnificent Seven. We watched both this past week and surprisingly, Dunn and I both liked the Seven Samurai better, even though it was a full hour longer, black & white and in Japanese with English sub-titles. It was interesting to see the cultural differences between the two, particlarly concerning the love-interest in either film. Check them out sometime--a great study in applied cinematic anthropology.