Legend of Eight Samurai

Legend of Eight Samurai is about young Princess Shizu. Her family is killed and she is on the run from people who are after her. She encounters a bandit, Shinbei, but is rescued by two men who claim it is their fate to protect her. They tell her a story about a curse that had been put on her family and that it will take eight samurai who hold a special crystal to lift the curse. They are also in search of a mother and son duo that killed Shizu’s family, but require all eight samurai to do so as well. Shinbei returns and kidnaps the princess for the reward, but they end up having to run from trouble. Throughout the two samurai’s journey they find five other samurai that hold the crystals, but they are still in need for one more. While on the run, Shinbei and Shizu find the seven samurai, but the samurai do not trust him. He runs away, and meets the evil mother and son and finds out that he is part of their family. They turn him evil and he attacks the samurai, but they knock him out and when he awakens, he is back to normal and receives a crystal making him the eighth samurai. They get together and attack the powerful mother and son. Many samurai die during the fight, but the ones who survive prevail and kill the mother and son.

            I think the theme of this movie is loyalty. The seven original samurai are very loyal in their cause to lift Shizu’s curse and to defeat the mother and son who are out to kill them. Shinbei is, at first, only loyal to the money that he will receive for handing over the princess, but as he spends more time with her, he becomes loyal to her. However, when the samurai show their distrust towards him, and he finds out who his family is, his loyalties turn to them. Then, when Shinbei gets knocked out and wakes back up, his loyalties are back to Shizu and he even receives the last crystal of the eight samurai, which proves his loyalty.

            This is my favorite movie so far. It was humorous and action packed and that is something that I love in a movie. The fighting was not that convincing, but that is to be expected during the time it was filmed. The characters were interesting and entertaining and worked well together.