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.Grossman s idea, then, that a transnationalized Hindi production such as China Gate is probablyas user-friendly an introduction to popular Indian cinema as one couldwish for , is a clear acknowledgment of the transnationalized (what Iam calling globalized ) image of Seven Samurai.It s a Man s (Globalised) WorldIf, as I indicated above, aspects of Japanese culture seem to have beenevacuated by Seven Samurai, then it has proven unsurprising that thefilm has been so amenable, so available, for reworking.The narrativestructure and character patterning may then be filled up with thematicconcerns that easily find equivalents elsewhere.Almost sui generis as agenre entry, the film also reproduces little of the traditions of Japaneseculture which underpin the samurai film.Chinese martial artists,American gunfighters, space jockeys or ex-Indian Army soldiers easilysubstitute for ronin, and the protection they afford to besieged farmersmay similarly translate to any number of isolated communities.Moreto the point, the specificities of the feudal system, upon which thebedrock of the samurai film rests, may similarly be evacuated in favourof more generalised issues of lawlessness, corruption or simply laissezfaire capitalism.By the same token, the feudal class system of Japanmay find some homologies in other Asian cultures (Hong Kong filmsoften rely on this feature), but it may also be completely ignored insideand outside of Asia.The same is true of one of Kurosawa s most typ-ical motifs, which is a characteristic of Asian culture, but one particu-larly resonant with Kurosawa: the master/apprentice or teacher/pupilrelationship.Indeed, one could reasonably ask what martial arts movieswould be without this motif, but for Kurosawa it extends well beyondhis period films.And even the motif of the young warrior seeking guid-ance leads more to the homo-social than the educational in many filmswhich reproduce this element.One element that is never ignored is perhaps the one element thattranslates into the global most easily: the male group.Although we havenoted the introduction of a woman warrior into the basic pattern begin-ning in 1978, the majority of direct or partial adaptations of SevenSamurai retain this feature.I have suggested elsewhere that ShawBrothers Studio dominated Hong Kong cinema and made theirinevitable push toward a global presence when the films of Zhang Chebegan the shift away from the traditional reliance on women stars.11 02 EA Cinema_015-040 28/1/08 11:36 Page 35Remaking Seven Samurai in World Cinema 35The male-dominated films of Hollywood beginning in the late 1960s (Iwould suggest the increasing reliance on male stars was as much a fac-tor in the so-called Hollywood Renaissance as the increasing focus onyouth) became the first sign of a globalised cinema, and any cinemathereafter, especially those operating more in the commercial realmthan in the art cinema mode, was obligated to follow this model.Eventoday there is an attendant masculinism to many of the globalised gen-res of Hollywood, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea: the action film,neo-noir, martial arts.The homosocial world that Kurosawa createdtranscended its origins or recollections in the Second World War com-bat film and John Ford s cavalry westerns.In particular, Kurosawaextended the worldview of Howard Hawks the all-male group bondedby professionalism into a universe where male camaraderie was per-haps the highest value.Where Ford and Hawks underpin (and grow outof) American cultural values, Kurosawa s masculinist vision provedmore universal and could even be retranslated into the American cin-ema.Of course, such values do not exist outside of history and culture the samurai homo-social tradition, for instance, may be seen operat-ing within Kurosawa s universe
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