When 'Star Wars' dilutes the impact of a "Kurosawa samurai standoff"...
It's no secret that one of the major inspirations for Star Wars was Akira Kurosawa movies. The Hidden Fortress influenced the basic structure of the first film, was a basis for Lucas' character archetypes and his use of narrative POVs.
But, really, all of Kurosawa's films were an influence on the making of Star Wars. Including the duels seen in his and other samurai films from the 60s.
Dunno if you've seen a kendo fight, but they're pretty similar.
The duelists size each other up, and there's a lot of mind games going on before the strike actually happens.
If you hold your sword this way, the other guy adjusts his stance.
You move your foot that way, the adversary responds accordingly.
Cinematically, this process allows you to play with a whole treasure trove of elements to build up the drama and suspense. We see this slow-yet-tense approach to dueling reflected all over the Original Trilogy. And we've seen it again in recent Disney-released content.
The perfect and first real example of this in Star Wars is the fight between Ben Kenobi and Maul, in Rebels.
The tension increases more...
... and more until the two fighters move, the music swells...
... and then it reaches its climax.
Dave Filoni's done his homework, it shows, and while it's an awesome homage, narratively it also holds weight. There's a reason why this fight is so quick:
This time, Obi-Wan isn't fighting to avenge the death of his master, he's not fighting to save his own life... he's fighting to protect Luke's. And that means there's no time to fuck about. He'll end the conflict swiftly and decisively, he won't let it come to a prolonged acrobatic fight. So he lures Maul in by making him think he's taking Qui-Gon's form, and strikes true when Maul, increasingly consumed by his own rage to the point of blindness, falls for it.
Again: a wonderful fight and an excellent homage.
Then we get to Luke's stand-off with Kylo on Crait, in The Last Jedi.
An interesting take on the trope, also with meaningful narrative impact. As Rian Johnson writes in the TLJ screenplay:
"This is not like a saber fight. This like an old-fashioned samurai duel."
Here too, the tension gets built up...
... and every time we're close to getting that climax, Luke dodges.
It leaves a feeling of dissatisfaction, which is exactly what Kylo is feeling as he boils with rage.
Suddenly, we do get the climax...
... and a twist. Luke was never actually there. Boom. Those inserts during the build-up phase? If you look at them again they're clues (Luke doesn't leave a mark on the ground, salt doesn't land on his clothes, etc). Luke wasn't engaging because he wasn't actually there, he was buying time for the Resistance to escape.
Next time we see a "Kurosawa" duel... it's here, in The Mandalorian.
Again, a lot of posing, slow movements and patience, as is expected from the trope.
But we know nothing about the opponent Ahsoka is fighting other than her name is Morgan... so no emotional impact, there.
At some point, Ahsoka loses a lightsaber. The apprentice to the Chosen One is struggling against some rando.
We find out later on that Morgan is a Nightsister from Dathomir, and that's cool... but we already know how Jedi-trained folks fare against the Dathomiri.
If you ask me, it feels like manufactured stakes. But that's beside the point. In fact, y'know what? It's fine.
Though the impact of this duel isn't as great as its predecessors, the whole episode is filled with visual homages to Kurosawa's work.
Yojimbo (1961) dir. Akira Kurosawa
The Mandalorian: Chapter 13: āThe Jediā (2020)Ā dir. Dave Filoni
It makes sense that the duel would be too. Also it's the first time we're seeing Ahsoka in live action, in a lightsaber duel, the hype is real. Let's cut 'em some slack.
So we come to the series Ahsoka... where almost every duel in the the show has the Kurosawa posturing and tip-toeing and... I dunno. I was bored?
Like, the primary purpose of this approach to duels is that it's meant to be suspenseful and intense... and now it's not.
Because we know Ahsoka is gonna beat the crap outta these droids...
... so why even bother faking some semblance of "what's her next move gonna be?" suspense? There's a hole right behind her, gee, I truly wonder.
Oh, you think putting her against an Inquisitor's gonna make us fear for her life, wonder if she's gonna get outta this situation unscathed?
She was wiping the floor with two of them at the same time, a decade prior. At 17, she was killing Inquisitors while disarmed.
Do you really expect your audience to fear for her life in a fight against Marrok?
So we get to the fight with Baylan, and the posturing and studying opponent's next move would be welcome here (two Order 66 survivors, knew Anakin, both well-trained former Jedi)...
... if we hadn't literally seen that same dynamic with Marrok who, again, we knew was gonna die.
No tension was built in either moment, the only thing it achieved was me pressing >> on my keyboard.
It's not captivating anymore, it's just slow and un-dynamic.
Tributes to Kurosawa are nice. They're part of what makes Star Wars what it is. But c'mon, we get it already.
Lightsaber duelists don't need to tiptoe around each other and change poses at every fight. Because when the actually meaningful duels come up (like the one with Baylan), the impact will be lessened.
The "Kurosawa samurai duel" is artistic and interesting, but it should be used sparingly in order to maintain its charm and not get old and trope-y. AKA too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing.
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