Hi friend, how are you?
Are there any old / obscure movies that you like that no one else might not even know what it is?
I have one, “The Seven Samurai”
It came out in 1954 in Japan
The length of it is 3hrs and 45minutes
It’s in Japanese with English subtitles
Over my lifetime I’ve watched it at least 30 times
Anyone else know it???? 🤣 It was “all the rage back in the day” 😉
If you’re a fan of westerns “The Magnificent Seven” was made after it in 1960 but Americanized
In 2016 the reboot came out with a all star cast / Denzel Washington / Chris Pratt / Ethan Hawk / Vincent D’Onofrio and a bunch of others
Back to Japan, 1954
To make a very long movie very short it went like this::
Rice farmers terrorized by bandits in legit fear of being robbed
Older / experienced / kind hearted Samurai takes concern
He organizes a band of rag tag have nothings in life other Samurais
They train the farmers / villagers
Bad guys come / big battle ensues / good guys win
But at what price did that win actually cost?
And exactly who won what?
The last line of the movie has the lead Samurai say this:
“Again we are defeated, the farmers have won, not us”
He said that because after the big battle there was no need for the Samurai anymore, so the farmers had no use for them, and they were back out on their own again
No food / no lodging / no money
The Samurai were only paid in a rice meal daily while preparing for the battle
And after the battle they didn’t offer them any of the soon to be riches either
While the farmers came off as greedy, both parties had their flaws
The movie is about being of humble service to others without expectation of worldly gains
And for anyone that has ever read Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” you will recognize parts of the battle strategy from that book written in 500BC
I don’t know about you but I can honestly say that I can’t count the times in my life that I did something then after the deed was done there wasn’t a need for me anymore
In some ways it sucked some of the time
In other ways serving is part of what we’re called to do not only by Christ, but as humans in general to assist in survival of the species… No pressure there 😉
But helping others isn’t only about others / it also helps us
It helps us to be better human beings
To get outside of ourselves
A “wise person” once said “Don’t ever expect to get anything back after you give a part of yourself, if you do you’ll be very disappointed in life”
I believe in service and servitude to help others / what about you?
Invest wisely, live charitably and be well
Brother Bill
Side note::::
That pic of the moon up above? I took that last night over my garage
The full moon is Monday night, Octobers full moon is called “The Hunters Moon”
It’s going to be bright, real bright….. Grab your people / get outside and check it out