March 17, 2004
SS-20XX
Dear Sammy Studios,
I am very excited for the video game version of The Seven Samurai, but I read in The New York Times this week (via cinetrix) that Sammy Studio executives were concerned that the long, dramatic scenes between the action might strain the attention span of your 18-to-24-year-old audience. I understand why you felt it necessary to move the action from feudal Japan into the distant future, and to substitute the 40 bandits with hoards of killer robots, but I really do think you should consider adapting some of the quieter moments of the film. I’ve come up with some ways to spice up a few of the key slow-scenes for future upgrades, and I hope you will consider using them.
When the villagers first meet the Samurai leader, Kambei Shimada, he is reluctant to help them. It is only when he learns that the farmers have been subsisting on millet while feeding him with the last of their rice that he agrees to join the fight. This scene is important in the movie because it shows the way that duty is born out of a combination of honor and empathy. In the update of the video game, it would be cool to give the 18 to 24 year old audience a sense that the killing and explosions are really just there to communicate the challenge of living in a world where you are forced to be indifferent to starvation. One way might be to add little rice bowl icons that fill up as the first-person samurai racks up kills – when the bowl is filled, a bag of rice could be dispatched to someplace where people are starving.
Another key moment is when Kikuchiyo rescues a freshly orphaned child from the burning mill. In this scene, Toshiro Mifune’s mad-dog despair is reflected in the circle of the burning mill-wheel, and in the churn of the oncoming river; every element of this tableau is meant to show that violence and despair is cyclical. One way to show this in the game might be to have big colorful Ying Yang symbol flash up now and then to remind the player about their personal engagement with the flux of good and evil in the universe.
The best action scene in the movie isn’t actually shown on screen, it is when Kyuzo vanishes into the mist behind enemy lines and reappears at dawn the next morning. We don’t see any violence, but the look on Kyuzo’s face on his return -- pure, detached, and cool -- communicates exactly what happened better than anything explicit could. It is an exhilarating moment -- and one that hints at the existence of an ideal course of action in the midst of chaos. This would be very hard to communicate in a video game, but one way might be to have a character with flashing eyes who appears on screen and says, “YOUR LIFE IS YOUR ACTIONS!” in Japanese just before the game shuts itself off.
There are so many great slow-scenes in this movie, I do hope you will consider programming some of them into your next version. Thanks for your commitment to keeping the Seven Samurai a vital part of our cinematic heritage. I look forward to playing the game.
Update
same scenario, but now the future of mankind is at stake
I heard back from Sammy Studios, and they sent me the following list of the six most memorable film-to-game-moments in the Seven Samurai 20XX. Yes, this is for real.
Most Memorable Film to Game Moments
FILM: a thief is holed up in a village hut with a baby as hostage. With the village folk watching, Kambei disguises himself as a monk to approach the hut, then enters and kills the thief
GAME: same scenario. With people in the city watching, Kambei disguises himself as a homeless man with the same results
2) False alarm helps win acceptance of the samurai
FILM: feeling that the villagers are being ungrateful, Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune) fakes an invasion by ringing the town bell to frighten villagers and convince the village elder that they need the samurai for protection
GAME: same scenario, with the bell rung by Tatsume, a samurai recruited by Natoe
3) Planning the village defense
FILM: Kambei tours the village to lay down the battle plan for defending it and defeating the thieves
GAME: same deal, with the samurai gathered around a table over a map of the village. Natoe plays a major role in many of the plan’s key scenarios
4) The famous flag that represents the seven samurai
FILM: the samurai stitch their war banner, with circles representing six samurai and a triangle for the loose cannon Kikuchiyo
GAME: Tatsume makes a banner designed just like the on in the film, but now the triangle represents our main hero Natoe, who shares some of Kikuchiyo’s traits as a talented loose cannon
5) The first battle in the village
FILM: the thieves’ cavalry plunges down the hill on horseback to begin their assault on the village
GAME: same scenario, but now the future of mankind is at stake
6) The battle against the cavalry
FILM: the samurai post up at a bottle neck through the woods into the village to take out as many approaching horsemen as possible
GAME: Natoe is given the task of cutting off the approaching humanoids on horseback to take out as many as possible
Sammy Studios
