Seven Samurai / Amrut Fusion Single Malt Whisky

0:00 In 1954, director Akira Kurosawa and star Takashi Shimura gave the world a serious war drama that pit a small force for good against overwhelming odds. In 2023 we try a whiskey that embodies the spirit of the team up. The film is 7 samurai. The whiskey is Amroot Fusion, and we'll review them both. This is. The Film and Whiskey podcast. Welcome to the Film and Whiskey Podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob Book.

0:50 I'm Brad G. And this week we are continuing our Akira Kurosawa miniseries. With perhaps his most famous film, 1950 Four's 7 Samurai Brad. This is a movie that I became aware of at a very young age when I first started using IMDb and I remember seeing it in like the top ten at that time and thinking to myself, what the heck is A7 Samurai? Because I had heard of all these other movies, and it was probably one of the very first foreign language films I was ever exposed to. Like, I didn't get around to seeing it until I was well into high school, I think. But I I think back on it. And I'm like, this has always been so highly regarded, both by critics and by the general public, that I do wonder if it's one of those movies that, you know, maybe a lot of people haven't seen it, but maybe most people have heard of it by now just because it enjoys such a stellar reputation.

1:48 Yeah, this is one of those films that even I, a novice in the world of film, had heard of like well before we ever recorded this podcast. You know, and Seven Samurai, and it's a famous Japanese movie and there's there's there's Samurai and there's seven of them. And that's what I knew. But I knew something that that's that's saying something. Brad, I'm instantly reminded of last week in our talk about Rashomon. And I know that at that point where I asked you this in the episode, you were just done for the day, like you had already punched the clock and we're on your way out the door. But I'd asked you, like, which movies does this remind you of or where do you see the influence of this film? And you were like, I don't see the influence of this film, I think, right off the bat.

2:34 It's pretty apparent that you can see the branches coming off of Seven Samurai and touching like all of world cinema. This is. It's just from the the fact that it's been directly remade like millions of times just to the way that the like assembling the team motif is done in movies. Like, I I watching this movie and I'm like, oh, I every movie finds its genesis here, it seems. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you even go into the Marvel Universe like Guardians of the Galaxy is a director. Rip off the. I'm pretty sure that the Mandalorian show ripped it off. I did not watch.

3:14 I watched like maybe three or four episodes of it and was done because Disney sucks and just had to get that in here. There you go. But yeah, this is this is a movie where, you know, you can see it all over. I I mean, what Dirty Dozen came out a decade later in the mid 60s, right? Yeah, I mean the direct, the direct rip off, not rip off, but remake of this was The Magnificent 7. So they made it into a Western and The Dirty Dozen definitely has elements of this as well. You're right, especially in the like you know the the most of the samurai in this movie are kind of down on their luck and needing a job. And that's The Dirty dozen, right? I think it's it's not just the team building, but it's like building this ragtag team to right accomplish a job thing. Yeah, I mean, you could even say that something like The Longest Yard, right?

4:03 Ragtag group of prisoners coming together to beat the man. Inglorious Basterds coming together to beat the Nazis. You know them Nazis Gourlo me. All right man, before we get too far off track, which we are want to do on this podcast, I think we should just dive right in with the explainer about this movie in a segment that we call, Brad Explains. Brad's going to give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds ticking on the clock, so let's go ahead and do your take with this little segment that we call. Brad explains. Brad Explains is the part of the podcast where Brad breaks down the plot of the film that he has just seen, often for the first time.

4:44 Brad, was this your first time with Seven Samurai? This was my absolute first time and I watched it on my Criterion Blu-ray Criterion. You should sponsor this episode. You absolutely should Criterion. We are always buyable and that's just a fact. So Brad, you popped in your Criterion Blu-ray, which you bought sight unseen. I'm going to be honest with you, man. After last week with Rashomon I, I had some existential dread about what was going to happen here. Because he like that was a 90 minute movie. This is a 210 minute movie and the Whiskey Nation, just to let you behind the scenes a little bit Before we recorded Bob and I got on. Before we recorded Rashimad, we got on and we were chit chatting and Bob was like bro, I've had the worst week. Like terrible things are happening in my family. I am just like this is just all these things were genuinely like hard things going on in his life and I was like, Bob, we don't have to record tonight because I got to tell you, man, I did not like this movie so.

5:49 So if that episode came off a little funky, just know that it was my fault. It was 100%. You know what? I was going to stick up for you. But no, you're right. It was your fault, friend. You're 100% right there. Oh man. So anyway, this is your first time with Seven Samurai. It's 3 1/2 hours long. I was very concerned. And I won't make you tip your hand yet, Brad, because it's time, first of all for you to break down the movie. You get 60 seconds to explain the plot of a 3 1/2 hour movie. I do not envy this task. You're allowed to spoil the movie, and so Film and Whiskey Nation. If you're out there and you have not seen 7 Samurai, we are going to discuss the ending of the film.

6:29 Every death in the film and there are some considerable ones. So if you want to watch the movie 1st and press pause, come back to this spot when you're done. Brad, you have one minute on the clock and go. This 69 year old movie is about 69 years. Bob, that's like, if you haven't watched this by now and and you're worried about spoilers, you know? That's the cutoff point. You know, I'm just saying yeah, nice, nice Farmers from a small village in feudal Japan are being raided by bandits. The bandits show up and threaten them to come back and take all their barley when it's harvested, and so they travel to the local large city and try to hire some samurai to come protect them. Most samurai are unwilling to do such a thing, to stoop to such a level and work for food only rather than coin and money. But they're able to draw the interest of a older samurai who then helps recruit six other samurai to the cause. The rest of the film is spent building the defenses of the town, flooding fields, building fences, and drawing the bandits into traps in battle after battle, until four of the samurai have died honorably defending this village and three live to tell their tale.

7:53 Boom, there's seven samurai. Nice job man. Thanks dude. Was that off? I forgot I was off the cuff. I forgot to mention 11 little detail. The young hot samurai has sex with the local villager and gets in trouble. He He sure does. Yeah. But everybody's just kind of like, yeah, you know boys will be boys 6 the night before battle. Let it let it get away before battle. Just, you know. And then they're like, hey, you became a man and all the villagers are like, it's a great, it's a great time. The patriarchy. The patriarchy. Am I right? Oh man. All right, Brad, let's dive into Seven Samurai. And I want to start by talking about the star of this movie. Not Toshiro Mifune, who was first built in this movie, but Takashi Shimura, who we saw last week in Rashomon as the woodcutter.

8:42 And I told you then that Shimura is actually Kurosawa's most frequent collaborator. I believe they made 21 movies together, which is just insane to think about. That's so many movies. This is one of his very best performances of his career, not just in Kurosawa films, but we'll see him again in a couple weeks when we look at Ikiru, which might be his best performance. But this is if I can pinpoint one person that I think he reminds me of in this movie, it's older Denzel Washington. And I say that because Denzel has this ability to be like 65 years old or however old he is now and like, clearly out of shape and a little over the hill physically.

9:29 And yet I can. I can still watch him in Macbeth or in an Equalizer movie and I'm like, yeah, I buy it and he's still absolutely a badass. And I was going to say I literally saw the preview for The Equalizer Three the other day. And I'm like Denzel's got a little bit of a gut going on. You know what? Good for him, man. He's living his life. Yep. But that's kind of what I see here in Takashi Shimura. Like he, I'm not saying he's out of shape, but he's like, he's not built like an action hero. And yet he has all of the acting chops to pull off some really dramatic scenes here and be captivating as hell. And then there's a moment towards the end of the movie, after you've seen him kill dozens of bandits and stuff.

10:11 It's it's pouring rain and he's standing in the middle of this village and he just picks up a bow and arrow and you've never seen him fire at bow and arrow throughout the whole movie. And he just starts shooting guys with arrows and I'm like, this is the coolest person to ever live like it is such an amazing performance. Brad Yeah. And. And he has so many moments where I, I don't know if I've ever seen a a character as written or an actor draw it out of the character, where he knows exactly when to get everybody to laugh. He knows exactly when to be serious, he knows exactly when to move between kind of those two poles.

10:51 And the performance is just outstanding. I think one of the things I like most about this movie is that, again, as an American, as a person who's not super familiar with Japanese history, all I know about samurai is what I've seen in movies and heard in Legends and Tales. And I feel like samurai are built up into this very stoic, you know, like workmen like honorable position, and it is very honorable. But I think this movie really pulls back the curtain and shows, hey, sometimes samurai are like really crappy and they'll cheat you out of money. Sometimes samurai are like really poor and destitute and they're, you know, reduced to cutting wood before they get recruited for this mission. Sometimes samurai just want to tell a dirty joke and laugh. And I think, like seeing these samurai tell a dirty joke and laugh about it, it's, I don't know, man. It's not like demythologizing anything, But it's it's making these people feel so much more real and so much more lived in as opposed to like what you would normally get in a movie, which is this completely fake, almost robotic depiction of a samurai.

12:00 Yeah, I mean, you know, Cuso in the movie is one of the the Seven Samurai. And he is like the traditional samurai, right? Like he's stoic and and calm. He has a few moments where he kind of cracks up. But overall, he's this incredible swordsman that like, even for being a little bit older, he's like incredibly fit. And that's what you think of when you think of samurai. The other six are kind of ridiculous all in their own ways. Like, it wouldn't surprise me if they did like an, A Japanese office spinoff with these seven actors. Like, like, they could have pulled it off, right. Like two or three of them are like, you know, kind of pudgy. Yeah.

12:44 And it and it just works. By the end of it, you don't think about them as, you know, not being quite as good of samurai because of it. You realize that they're just normal people and they're they're just eating what they need to eat, man. I I hate to do this. I hate to. Typecast based on body frame, but you've mentioned the pudgy ones and there are three members of the Samurai who are a little rotund, let's let's call it. You know, they've they've filled out their robes quite well and I want to talk about all Seven Samurai and I think maybe let's just knock the three chubby ones out of the way right now. Brad, that might be the best way to go. The first one I want to talk about, his character name is Hey Hachi. He's played by a guy named Minoru Chiaki, who we just saw again last week in Rashomon.

13:31 He played the priest in that movie. And I actually thought we didn't really talk about him last week. I thought he was excellent in Rashomon and here he is best known as Guy from Rashomon. Like every time I saw him, I was like, it's the guy from Rashomon. I really liked him. He is the first one to die of the seven, which really sucks. But it works really well in the context of the movie because knowing him from Rashomon, I thought he was going to hang around longer than he did. I don't know, Brad, why don't we just give quick thoughts on on each of the seven? What do you remember of Hey Hachi? Do you have any thoughts on him before we move on? Yeah. I mean, Hi Hachi was pretty good. He had a few amusing moments. I think that the few things I dislike about this movie, like came out when he died, where I I think that as as much as I love certain action sequences, there are certain other action sequences in this film that just don't make any logical sense for a world that feels so real and lived in and logical and like. It all all works.

14:38 When Hey Hachi dies, he's just kind of tumbling into a mud pit and, like, it almost feels like a slapstick comedy. And then he kind of, like falls on a sword, I think, But none of it really makes any sense. And I like that. That was the like, one of the very few things of this movie. I'm going to like nitpick about, But hey, Hachi's death felt like it made zero sense, other than the story demanded that he died, but like what you actually saw on camera made it feel like he had to die more than he actually died. It kind of reminded me of in The Great Escape.

15:18 It was like right before the intermission you got to have an incident that pulls this all together and focuses us on how serious the stakes actually are. And in The Great Escape, it's when the little Scottish guy like cracks up and tries to escape and then he gets machine gunned. On the barbed wire and like it's it's more established in that movie that you you kind of see it coming with that guy. But it also if you really want to nitpick the Great Escape, it kind of feels like, oh we needed an incident to put here before intermission. And that's kind of what happens with hey Hachi. It is really affecting because you don't expect any of these guys to die based on what you've seen so far and then he just gets shot in the gut and you're like why didn't know people could get shot in the gut. This sucks like. These guys seemed invincible, so it's really effective. But I'm with you that some of the geography of that scene could have been a little bit better done. Let's move on to the other two, Portly Samurai, I said porkly for a second.

16:15 I want to talk about the character named Chichi Roji, who is one of the three that survive at the end of the movie. The problem with that is Brad. I think he's the one I knew the least about. Like in the lore of the movie, he he knows Takashi Shimura's character from way back in the day, but he doesn't get recruited until like 4th or 5th down the list of samurai. And he kind of just hangs out in the background for most of the movie. And so when he survived at the end of the movie, I was, I thought he was actually the third character we're going to talk about for a hot 2nd. Yep, same here. And I got really mad because I liked the third character so much and the third character dies off screen.

16:57 And it's like kind of the crappiest way that he could have gone out, because that was actually the most affecting death for me. And it it goes a long way to tell you how little I have to say about the second character, that in talking about him, I'm just talking about the third character instead. Yeah, Of of the seven Samurai, Shuchiroji definitely falls by the wayside the most. You know and you you know it's 3 1/2 hours Bob. It's not enough screen time to really share among Seven Plus. You can only flesh so many characters out, you know? And so yeah, I think Shuchiroji definitely falls victim to the fact that he looks a lot like Garobe at who is just has a better smile if I'm being on. He's just such a nice guy.

17:41 I just love Gorebay so much and then he gets, he gets shot off screen, they have him on a stretcher and I I understood what was happening in the moment. But you really never get a chance to mourn that character. And if if I can keep drawing comparisons to other movies he reminds me of, like Brendan Gleeson's character in Braveheart. Where he's just like the big bearded guy that you're just really, really like, and you got to send that guy off with a little bit more, you know, audience attachment. I hated that he was dispatched of offscreen. Yeah, no, 100%. And I I love the way that he, like joined the group.

18:22 Like he literally just joins in is like, hey, like, I'm just curious to see if this will work. Like let's just let's just see what happens, man. Talk about a A way of being endearing to the audience of like, you know, in that way he's almost a standin for us. Like, yeah, let's just see if what Combe's plan is going to work, because it sounds kind of crazy. And who knows if seven people can defeat 40 bandits. But why not? Let's just see what happens. All right. So at this point we've talked about five of the seven, because you've also talked about CUSO, who is the master swordsman of the group. So that leaves us with Tashiro, Mifune's character and also the one that Brad has dubbed the Hot 1.

19:07 So let's talk about the hot one for a minute. Man. Katsushiro. He is the young samurai of the group who's like, almost, not really a samurai. Like they still treat him like the Padawan, You know what I mean? Yeah, 100%. And he has that young baby faced eagerness about him that honestly, I really liked his performance a lot. He's played by Isa Kimura and I think he turns in a really great performance because he just gives that youthful energy that's needed where everybody else kind of has a world weariness about them. Even the Fune's character is, you know, crazy.

19:48 But he's also pretty bitter about the world, and we need somebody who's just, like, brighteyed and bushytailed and ready to, like, seize the day. There is no better trope, or I should say there's no trope, that I love more in like war movies than the idealistic kid whose journey is learning about how harrowing the world actually is. And, like, that's this guy. Because at the end of the movie, when his mentor is or you know, the guy he idolizes is killed on the battlefield. He just throws himself down in the mud and starts wailing and it is like the most emotionally affecting moment of the whole film for me.

20:28 Yeah, well, and if I can get into the the movie itself, more than just the characters. Like that moment of the film was just incredible. Like the writing in that scene and the. The way it illustrates the futility of war is is beautiful that you know at the end of the day he wants to bring revenge for this man he idolized and and his other comrades who have passed and and you know Combe is just like hey, sorry man they're they're already all dead like like there's nothing to do. All the enemies are dead. There's nobody else to kill. We just kind of have to live with the results and and it's just like.

21:11 Beautifully sad illustration of how terrible war is. So you have that scene and then you have it fades out, it fades back in and the townspeople are rebuilding. They're replanting and they're singing and the samurai are just looking on. And you have this very sad commentary framed against the four dead samurais graves where the three of them are just saying, like, in the end, this is not our victory either. This is their victory. And like, what did we even gain from this? Right? And I remember kind of clicking. I had to watch the end of this movie on my phone, which is not ideal circumstances. But I remember when it faded out from the battle, it had like 2 minutes and five seconds left or something. And I was like, how are they going to end this movie, like so quickly?

21:58 And there's a part of me that thinks when you have a three and a half hour movie, like you have to have a good, you know, Denumont, like you got to put some Return of the King endings on this thing to pad the runtime. I love that not only did Kurosawa have the balls to end this movie in 2 minutes, but that it is so staggeringly, emotionally gut punching that that's all he needed. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. No, 100%. Also, I just wanted you to know. There's this company called Criterion, and they make Blu rays so that you don't have to watch a movie on your phone. There you go, man. The the way Kurosawa would be so excited for you to finish his, his, his grand epic.

22:45 All right, before we go to break, let's round out the Seven Samurai and let's talk about Toshiro Mifune, who again, I must reiterate the greatest star in the history of Japanese cinema that Brad absolutely dumped on last week. OK, so here's the thing. I had an epiphany brought to me by my good friend Brandon. So he and I are talking to church today. And now at the time of this recording and when I was at church, our Rashomon episode has not come out yet. And so he said that he knew it was coming up. So he sat down to watch Rashomon. But then it was way too late and he fell asleep. And I was like, yeah, Rashomon's not the movie to watch, like at 11:00, o'clock at night.

23:27 He's like I was sitting there and they started the first story and the lumberjack was walking through the woods and and I was out. I was like, yeah, dude. But he he, we were talking about Toshira Mufune and how much better I liked him in Seven Samurai. And Brandon said something brilliant that I never would have thought of because I'm a terrible movie critic. He was like, oh, because in Rashomon his acting is all like like acting choices, like he is making capital C choices. Whereas in Seven Samurai his his character's back story are making those choices for him. And I was like, yes, that is why I liked him in this movie. That's why I hated him in Rashomon, because in this movie. His role is that of the crazy drunk, like super Bitter, has seen the dark side of the world and barely copes with it type of role.

24:29 And in that place, his quirks and oddities and the scratching, his leg and the random jumping and the ridiculousness totally makes sense and it works for me. And I'm here for Toshira Mufuna now. I was not here last week. It it also helps that they give him two really powerhouse emotional scenes. And the first is the one where it's revealed that his, you know, they all know that he's lying about being a samurai. But like about midway through the movie he reveals that he wants to protect these farmers because he was one or he was the son of 1 and the same thing happened to his family. And that is like, man, what a great scene. But then it all pays off again at the end of the movie when one of the villagers houses is getting burned down and he rescues a baby out of this burning house. And then like halfway out of the house he just stops and Takashi Shimura turns around.

25:25 He's like, what are you doing man? We got to keep going And he just screams like this is what happened to me. Like he's reliving his most traumatic moment. And man, oh man, if that isn't just some powerful acting in that scene. Yeah, no, both of those scenes are incredible. Like, methune gives a hell of a performance in bringing the emotional core to this movie. And I I think that's what I appreciate about him here, is that he has this ability to put the ridiculousness to the side when he needs to and truly just become the best actor on on stage, on screen at the at that moment. Dude, I'm so happy that we have nothing but positive things to say about this movie so far.

26:12 I think that I should not press my luck any further. We need to just hit pause here. Let's try this Amroot fusion. What do you say? Yeah, let's get to it, man. All right. So today we are trying. I'm root fusion. I keep saying am root. I am sure that it's probably pronounced I'm root. I am root, right? This is a bit like a real first on the film and Whiskey podcast because this is a whiskey that is made in India of all places. Yeah, I'm very excited, man. I am as well. This one is made with barley grown in India. But then it's uses peted barley from Scotland as well, which is where it gets its fusion name right. Talk about assembling A ragtag team. Man, this is this is the whiskey for that. I I don't know if Scotland is like ragtag when it comes to Pete.

27:07 I I could be wrong on that, but I think I just had like Braveheart on the brain when I was watching 7 Samurai and I was like, that is those are ragtags. You know. So we're drinking this Amrut fusion. This is like Brad said it's it is a fusion of different kinds of barley to make this malt whiskey. It is 100 proof, which is something we don't typically get in our malted whiskeys. I'm really, really excited to dive in man. I don't want to say too much more about it because I don't know what Indian whiskey is going to taste like. And I'm going to be really, go ahead, sorry, and I'm going to be really interested to see if I can parse out the Scottish influence and also what makes it unique from the Indian barley or if it's really going to be so blended together, so fused that it will be indistinguishable.

27:58 So quick aside, can we have a sidebar Bob, please? Quick aside on Scotch being 100 proof or higher, as you know we've had one or two like barrel proof scotches, you know peeded whiskeys before. Do you want to know The Dirty little secrets of the Scotch industry, Bob? Oh, tell it to me. They don't ship it to America. So one of my best friends went out to Scotland for like a 10 to 14 day father son trip and he and his dad just two word like all of the best, you know, places in the world I ever want to go to. They went to log of woolen and you know all all the incredible places, Orkney Isles.

28:44 And he said, and I'm quoting him, everything we drank over there was barrel proof. All they have in their shops or sorry, over there, they call it cask strength. All they have is cask strength. He's like, it is wild how high the proof is on the Scotch over there and they just don't ship it to America. So that's kind of. There is cask string Scotch. They just keep it all for themselves. That's really funny. Thank you for that informative sidebar, Brad. Yeah. Yep. I thought you would appreciate that. Now let's return to India. Let's try this en route. Fusion. You've already tasted it.

29:24 I have not. Give us your nosing notes. Brad bro. This nose was incredible. It was super fruity, but like really dark fruit. I got Plum and Raspberry and Cherry. And it was like really nice and creamy almost like a I I think I mentioned this before do you remember the the creamsicle or or dreamsicle hard candies. Yeah, yeah, they're they're like were there's but they're kind of creamy. Yeah, you. I remember the lifesavers, but they were called creamsavers. Yes, there's a. They have like a Raspberry one that this reminds me of. It's an incredible nose Bob. I gave it an 8 1/2 out of 10.

30:06 It's really interesting, Brad. There's like some floral notes on this too that are just underlying everything. It's not quite rose petal, but it has like a almost like a wildflowers kind of smell to it. But then there's a ton of caramel, which I wasn't expecting. There's a lot of vanilla. And then there's that great peed, you know, Scotch malt in this as well, like really complex and you don't typically get this much fruit or floral on a peated Scotch whiskey. So I have to imagine that some of the Indian influence coming out on this. I really, really like this. I'm going to give it an 8.5 out of 10. Yeah, when we got into the palette, it came down just a tiny bit from the nose, but it's still an incredible, really complex palette for me.

30:50 I got some really nice coffee notes the plum stuck around. There was some dark chocolate like almost cacao bitterness there. And underlying all of it was like a really nice soft honey that you come to expect from barley products. Bob, this is an incredible whiskey. I I came down a tiny bit but I'm still sticking at an 8 out of 10 on the on the pallet. This has a lot of orange on it for me, maybe and maybe not even like a navel orange but like a blood orange. Really, really good man. I'm having this interesting sensation though, where all the flavor is concentrated in the front half of my mouth. Like, I don't know, like I went to swallow and there's just like not much on the back end of the palate here. It doesn't mean that the flavor doesn't hang around, like I think the finish is actually really long lasting, but it's almost like it's skipped over a whole zone of my tongue. It's like a it's a sensation I'm not used to having. I really, really love the flavor though. I'm getting like orange, I'm getting cherry. The Pete is not overwhelming at all, and I feel like it's actually one of the more complimentary uses of Pete. Like, it's just a nice little bit of smokiness underscoring everything.

31:59 I'm going to give this an 8 1/2 again, man. I really like this a lot. Yeah, and the the finish for me was in the same same vein as the as the nose and the taste. It got a little oaky. At the end there was almost a dry red wine. Like all the fruitiness kind of dried out a little bit and left my mouth. A little bit tingly and then there it almost got into some herbaceousness like it. It got a little bit minty at the end. But I I think this is an incredible whiskey. I I went back up to an 8 1/2 on the finish. My second sip kind of filled in the missing zone. Brad, I'm. I'm pleasant pleasantly reporting that now. Yeah, man, I feel like because I had that weird missing zone of flavor, it's like getting filled in with a lot of subtleties.

32:43 Now I'm finally picking up on some of that coffee you were talking about. Those herbal notes are coming out and some of that great honeyed kind of flavor as well. This is a more complex whiskey than I would have given it credit for after just one sip, and I'm going to give it. I want to give it a nine out of 10 on the finish, kind of just to make up for my nose and taste score, because I think they're all pretty equal. But I'll bump it up to a nine just so I can help improve my final score here. Yeah, yeah, dude. When we come to balance, Bob, I think that this whiskey has incredible depth and complexity. I gave it a 9 1/2 out of 10. On balance, yeah. I don't really know if I can argue with that, man.

33:24 Like. Yeah, it's not good whiskey to whiskey, but everything about it is incredible. I think I'm going to go ahead and do the same. Like, it takes a lot to get a 9 1/2 or A10 for me. And I don't quite know if I like if I just looked at this whiskey after drinking it, I don't know if I would say that's a nine and a half out of 10W, but on this particular category it's really hard to argue with that. So I'm with you. I'll give it a nine and a half on balance. Yeah. And when we get to value, this is an interesting one. It's not sold in the state of Ohio as far as I can tell. In general online I'm seeing it anywhere from 67 to like $95. So I just called it 80 bucks and you know, you'll probably find it for about $80.00 online.

34:13 Honestly, Bob, at 80 bucks, I still think this is not just a good value. I think this is a really, really great value. Like the fact that this is from India, a region, you know, not typically known for its whiskey production, and it's, you know, taking stuff from Scotland, adding it to stuff from India and shipping it to the US. For less than $100, I think this is a nine out of 10 value man, I'm with you. I I got this on the last call racks in Ohio. They stopped carrying it. Which okay? We've we've talked to the last few weeks about last call whiskeys and all of them. I'm like, yeah, sure. You know it's Okay that's not here. What the hell, Ohio?

34:56 What What are you doing? You're you're getting rid of this. People aren't buying. I mean, that's unacceptable. I'm that's what I'm saying. They need to listen to our show and we need to rally the troops in Ohio. We need to form A7 Samurai band to raid the OHLQ headquarters and tell them to reinstate this because it is damn good. I think I got it somewhere between 70 and 80. Like it really wasn't discounted. They were just like we need to get rid of it and it's definitely worth every penny of that. I'm also going to give it a nine out of 10 and Brad that brings me out to a 44.5 out of 50. Yeah, I'm right there with you, Bob. I'm a 43.5 out of 50. Well that brings us to an average of a 44, which is really high for this podcast guys.

35:42 An 88 out of 100 is insanely high. We've only ever had a few get over the 90 mark and this is right there with it. One of the best whiskey we've had all season so far. Yeah, And I think, honestly, one of the things I love about it is that it's not, like, perfect. It's just really, really good. Like, it doesn't have a standard to to to set itself up to. Like whenever I drink Barrel Seagrass now, I'm always, there's always that little voice in the back of my head that's like is this really the best whiskey you've ever drank? And like Amber Fusion doesn't have to live up to that. It just has to be a damn good whiskey. And I I think it'll continue to do that. We've got a really interesting pattern going. So a few weeks ago we did Rabbit Hole Bourbon and that got a 41 and then we had Quarter Horse, which was awful, and then we had the shit.

36:32 Fall, Bob, it is. Then we had the Shivas Regal Mizunarra, which got a 43. And then last week we tried that Glenn Rose, which we didn't like and now we're back up in the 44 range again. So like, yeah, it's, you know, it's very much like a one for them, one for me. It's a it's a real roller coaster of a year. All right, man. Well, I am very happy to report that we seem to like both this movie and this whiskey, and those are the best episodes to record. So what do you say we carry this goodwill back into Seven Samurai? Dude, I am so ready. Let's get back to it. All right, everybody. That was AM Root Fusion and I said it the way Bob does, I'm sure it's AM Root as he said, but I'm going to say whatever I want. AM Root Fusion is an incredible whiskey that you should purchase if at all possible.

37:21 You know what? I think they're fine. I at least I would be fine with having the name of my whiskey mispronounced when the praise is as effusive as what we just gave it. You know what I mean? If if somebody's talking about the Fireman, the Fireman Weiske podcast, they call us the movies and Vodka podcast is like as like as long as you say good things about us, I don't care. Oh man. Well, I cannot say enough good things about our next segment, and neither can Canada. So let's get to Canada's favorite segment, 2 Facts and a Falsehood. Brad is gonna try to stumpy ball to all right and what is wrong? 2 Facts and A Falsehood 2 Facts and A Falsehood is the part of the podcast where Brad presents three items to me as fact about the making of this movie, one of which is a complete lie, and I have to figure out which one Brad has made-up. Brad.

38:19 I am. I'm under 500 on the year. I promised our listeners last week that I would count it up. And you did it. I can't bring myself to know how bad I'm doing at this point. It's not good. Oh man, I also just have to think that at some point, some random Canadian. I started listening to our show and been like, wait, this is my favorite segment? How come I didn't know? Why wasn't I included? I do just love that you you just started one like because we call, Brad explains America's favorite segment. And then one day we came back from break and Brad said this is Canada's favorite segment and now we say it every week with no explanation. Yep, Like, like most things in the world. And American said, it's true.

39:01 So here we are. There we go. All right, man, hit me with your two facts and a falsehood. Fact #1 Kurosawa designed a registry of all 101 residents of the village, creating a family tree to help his extras build their characters and relationships to one another. Fact #2. In the spirit of the samurais journey towards unity, Kurosawa had the seven actors spend a week traveling together to various cultural landmarks in Jet in Japan. Fact #3. This was the first film on which Kurosawa used multiple cameras so that he wouldn't interrupt the flow of the scenes and could edit the film as he pleased. In post production, he used this multiple camera setup, as most directors did on every subsequent film. I'm not buying that he never used multiple camera setups before this.

39:52 Like I totally he definitely did on this movie. But even like in Rashomon, it doesn't make sense that he would only use one camera. Like, why would you do that? Kurosawa? Oh man, that one is tricky. I'm going to leave three aside for a minute. One and two sound kind of similar, you know what I mean? Like it's the it's the like insane level of prep kind of thing. And #2 reminds me of like. Saving Private Ryan, where they all had to do boot camp for a while, #1 sounds like the kind of back story that like Kubrick or Christopher Nolan would give to his movies that are unnecessary. You know, Bob, one of my favorite parts of two facts in a falsehood is as you, like, talk through all the options, I just get to sit back and agree with you. Yeah.

40:39 Like, yeah, you're right. It does sound like something. Yeah. Kubrick. Sure. I hate you so much, Brad. I have, dude. Well done. I have no idea which ones. They all sound false. I'm going to say that. I think you can think IMDb for that. At the very least, I think one or two is the falsehood. But three sounds the most ridiculous to me. So I'm going to say three's the falsehood, knowing I'm probably wrong, yeah. You're wrong, but. You were hoping, you were hoping that that I am like flailing around during this segment at this point. You you have.

41:20 I've got the yips, man. Yeah, well, honestly, I'm like, I was really worried about doing it for Charlie Chaplin and for Kurosawa because those are like. So far outside of my wheelhouse in terms of movies, that I was like, oh, Bob knows everything about these people compared to me. And so he's going to see right through my 2 facts and a faucet. And here I am, champion of the world, so I talk all the time about how many books I get out of the library to prep for these episodes. And don't read, so I usually do. I usually at least read the books, like the parts of the books that are about the movies. We're doing. Kurosawa. I have like 9 books on right now and between and my family had some medical emergencies a couple weeks ago and then I got really sick and then after I got better I just spent a week on the road for work.

42:08 I have 9 Kurosawa books just taunting me from across the room right now. Like you idiot if you had read. Only opened me. So that's kids. This is your reminder for all the kids listening to my whiskey podcast. Read books. Read books. Stop watching so many movies. Read a book. Reading Rainbow. All right, well, I am really below 500 now on the season. And Brad, yeah, I mean, you've earned it. Go ahead and gloat, man. Yeah, I'm I'm very much so enjoying it. I don't need to gloat or anything. I I just have that private satisfaction deep within my soul. All right, man, where should we go from here? Let's talk a little bit more about this movie.

42:49 I'm glad we got through all Seven Samurai and their performances, but what in particular do you want to talk about for the rest of our time here? I think for 20 minutes we need to talk about their kick ass flag. They have a great flag. It's such a good flag and when when Mfune grabs it and sprints like through the village, for some reason he can't plant it like on the closest house. He has to Sprint all the way to the other side of the village. But it's awesome. It's so cool. It's such a great moment. Talk to me about the cinematography here. Because I, like you, talked about it last week in Rashomon and I'm with you. It was a great film, especially considering that he only shot it on one camera, which you know if you had opened the book you would have known this is true.

43:39 But you know, the multiple camera setup gave us some really beautiful scenes. And, you know, you talked last week about his cinematography. I was kind of with you this week, though. I think he outdid himself. Here's the interesting thing about the cinematography in this movie is like, I think, hey, I don't know if like the the quality of this movie had just deteriorated more before they restored it. This movie looks a little rougher still than Rashomon did. Like Rashomon, the picture was so much crisper, I think, but even just the compositions. You weren't watching it on your on my phone. It's weird how that works. I think even just like the compositions in Rashomon were so much more interesting than they are, like this movie is just much more efficient and tactical. I would say with the camera, like there's, I mean, it's certainly really artfully composed. There's some really beautiful shots in this movie. But like, the cool thing about the way this movie is shot is that he spends so much time in the script setting up the geography of this town.

44:43 Like they literally walk around the town mapping it, and you watch them map it, and you watch them build the barricades and they shout directions at each other all the time, and the camera follows the directions they're shouting. It's just such a brilliant like the editing goes with the cinematography so well that by the time you get to the last battle it starts pouring down rain and it is like, incomprehensible almost, except for the fact that you know exactly where you are at every moment. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's not as it's not as beautiful to look at, but it works maybe as well as it did in Rashaman for a completely different reason. And I think that's that's like partially what I wanted to talk about when I was I was thinking about this film is like this film feels like every teenage boys like ideal just.

45:38 It's every. It's what you always wanted to do, right? Like build a Fort around a town, protect it from invading bandits. Like it just captures the imagination of any guy watching it, you know? And I I just feel like the way he takes you to each area of the village and the way they talk about the outlying homes, like there's so much emotional investment in the geography of this film. That by the time you hit the battle, you really care about this village, it's inhabitants, and the samurai who are defending it. And I think it's because he takes his time setting up each and every area of, you know, this little remote village. One thing that's really struck me over the last two weeks, and I mentioned it last week, because Rashomon comes out, what, five years after the end of World War Two? And Japan is obviously still reeling and rebuilding and dealing with like catastrophic trauma, right. And I'm really struck by how poverty is like such a huge, huge part of both of these movies. And like it's it's always in Kurosawa's movies, even pre war and during the war.

46:54 But it it carries such a deeper meaning after the war because so many people are, like literally rebuilding from rubble in Japan. It adds such a weight to both of these movies. Like these movies work, even if you're completely divorcing them from the historical context, because, like, he really does lean into the emotion of these people's plight. But I think that linking the poverty of the characters on screen and the hardships they're facing with the hardships that the people of Japan have been struggling with for a decade prior to this, I don't know. I think that there's a way to make this movie, even though this is very much like a guys being dudes movie. There's a way to make this movie that is even more macho and less emotional, but the emotions of this movie are what make it a great movie.

47:46 Yeah, no, I'm, I'm 100% with you. The way that the characters interact with one another, and more importantly, the way. That the emotions hit at just the right times. Like I know this might sound crazy for 3 1/2 hour movie, but it might flow better than almost any two hour movie we've ever watched. Like the ups and downs of the movie hit at just the right points. The editing of the film is just what we need to keep us moving along. I I just. I just think that for of the two Curosolid movies I've seen. I'm starting to piece together why people have such respect for him.

48:27 Yeah, man, I will say. And we haven't really said a negative word about this movie so far. This is not my favorite Kurosawa movie. And if I'm being honest, I do think I like Rashomon better than this movie. But it's kind of, it's one of those movies that's kind of impossible to deny, you know what I mean? Like. Yeah, even more so. I think about other epic movies. I think this is a better movie than Lawrence of Arabia. And Lawrence of Arabia is kind of impossible to deny on like pure filmmaking. This is impossible to deny on the level of like pure filmmaking and also entertainment value. Like it's just a really wellmade movie. Do I think it's the most artistic movie he's ever made? Not by a longshot, but it's also a 3 1/2 hour movie. And the sheer scope and scale of this thing and the fact that like this goes without saying.

49:17 Obviously Brad, but like, you can feel how real and how tactile everything is. Like when stuff gets set on fire in this movie, it's like, oh, there's a legit burning building 5 feet from these people. Or or even like some of my favorite shots were the insert shots of of the the main samurai kambe Combe of of Combe painting. The X's on the circles he's made next to the map of the village, that's gorgeous. And he's just painting these X's to mark off each bandit that they've killed. And there's something that, like you said, it's so tactile and real and I don't know, it just the world feels so beautiful and lived in. And I just, I'm just a really big fan of it. You know, when we watched Bridge on the River Kwai, we kind of talked about and again it, it sounds so simplistic to say, but in a world where everything is CGI now, like seeing a real bridge get blown up is just like, Oh my gosh, that bridge just got blown up.

50:19 And and watching this village that was clearly all built like they built a whole village just to burn the village down, you know what I mean? Like. Dude, I mean like some of the burning down shots reminded me of like a Gone With the Wind Warehouse burning down because it just felt so real. All right, man, I don't really know how much more I have to say about this movie, even though it's not my favorite Kurosawa movie. Again, it's undeniable. And I think the only thing we have left to do at this point, Brad, is find a movie to pair it up with. And that's what we're going to do in our last segment, which we call, let's make it a double. Near the end of the episode. So thanks for listening to the film and whiskey show. Let's pair another film with this one. Even if it's struggle, it's a final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double.

51:04 Like I said, let's make it a double is where we pair this movie up with another one to make the perfect double feature. Brad, I have not given one second of thought to this, so I'm going to let you go first while I desperately try to find a connection here. Alright. I have not either. I like 100% forgot that we even do this. The first movie that popped in my head, I'm going to go with my brain, said, oh crap, I have to come up with a movie. What are movies about ragtag bands? Sandlot. I'm going to pair this with Sandlot, baby. You know I can't even make fun of you because I still haven't thought of anything. So like.

51:45 That's right. At least I came up with something, Bob. I hate to do this, but the first thing that came to my mind is Braveheart, because I've been thinking about the Scotsman. Oh, there it is. Honestly. You know, do you know what really did it for me? It's the it's one of my favorite moments with Tashiro Mifune when they're trying to figure out which segment of the bandits have the guns. And so he like, runs past the barricade and just like shows his ass to them and spanks himself and then they and then they shoot right next to him and he's like just runs away real fast. I'm like, oh, that's Braveheart. Like that's them showing their butts in Braveheart. And so if you are a fan of both War and Moon and mooning, yeah, yeah, this is the pair for you. That's so funny.

52:34 Yeah, dude, Mufune is a little bit of an exhibitionist. I will say he's running around in the thong 84 most of this movie, yeah. Yeah, most of the film. It is a good thing that he was such a good looking man. Like, yeah, because you would not excuse that from a, you know, one of the more rotunds, Yeah. Yeah. You notice that he has like, like trousers on that like kind of hide the sagginess. All right, man, let's give this movie some final scores. I I came into this episode thinking like 9 out of 10. I was in an 8 1/2 for most of the movie.

53:15 And then the ending was so good that I was like, yeah, this is an undeniable 9. The more I talk about it, the more I kind of want to give it a nine and a half. I know, dude. Before you give your score, I was kind of in a similar boat, but I was in like the 8:00 to 8:00 to maybe 8 1/2 range. And then the ending solidified it as like an 8 1/2, maybe a nine. And I think I'll, I'll give my final score. I think I've talked myself into a nine out of 10. Like, this movie's not perfect. There are certain parts of it that just haven't aged super well, like the the way he films action in combat is good and engaging, but. There's definitely better techniques that have come along.

53:56 So it's it's not a perfect movie, but man oh man is it not just an incredible film, I think I'm also at a nine, and that's mostly because I still think that at the end of the day, this is like at least 2025 minutes too long. It's so weird to say a 3 1/2 hour movie could trim 20 minutes because they're just still talking about a three hour and 10 minute movie. But I do think there is a slightly tighter cut of this movie that works just a little bit better and coupled with the fact that it's just not my favorite Kurosawa film, but to hear two guys talk about a 70 year old Japanese movie and agree that it is. For nine years, 69 years and agree that it's a nine out of 10. I think really says something about the enduring legacy of this movie.

54:43 Also, I want you all to hear that I just appreciated this movie as it was, but director Bob book over here. Thinks that he can do a better job editing than Akira Kurosawa, so I'm just going to leave that out there for everybody to see. Bob thinks he's better than Kurosawa. Brad, we're coming out to an average of a nine on this movie. Before we give our little spiel at the end, here I have a proposition for. You good math there Sherlock. So we have 3 movies left in our Kurosawa retrospective here, right? One of them is samurai related. It's his 1980s film Ron. The other two are from the 1950s and the 1960s respectively, and they're set in modern day.

55:29 Do you think we should, like, just keep going chronologically, or should we kind of round out the samurai part and then do a completely separate evaluation of, like his modern day stuff? You know, if you had asked me this after Rashman. I would have said no, I I need a break from all the samurai. But here we are after Seven Samurai and I could use at least one more. So let's let's do Ran. I'm really excited to kind of see the evolution of 1950s Samurai Kurosawa into 1980s Samurai Kurosawa.

56:12 All right, So there you have it. Next week we're watching Ron, but I want to know what you all think of Seven Samurai. Like I said, I have a sneaking suspicion that most of our listeners have at least heard of this movie, if not watched it. So reach out to us and let us know. Did you ever get around to watching this movie? What even is your level of awareness of it? You can find us on all of our social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok at Film Whiskey. Or you can jump onto our Discord. We are on Discord every single day talking to you guys, the fans of the Film and Whiskey Podcast. So if you want to join the conversation, you can find a link to our Discord at the end of every single one of our show notes. Like we said, we'll be back next week, jumping way forward into the 1980s to watch Kurosawa's final masterpiece, Ron. But until then, I'm Bob Book.

57:03 I'm Brad G and we'll see you next time.