How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from the Japanese to English translated subtitles of Seven Samurai.
Quote #7
KAMBEI: Danger always strikes when everything seems fine.
This is a good time to remind the other characters that defeat is often self-enabled: and that the vanquished always have at least a small hand in their own undoing. So stay frosty boys! This isn't an environment where mistakes are tolerated.
Quote #8
SHINO: We're going to die, aren't we? All of us, going to die tomorrow, aren't we?
KATSUSHIRO: Maybe not.
SHINO: But we probably will, won't we? Won't we?
Way to stay positive, you guys! Shino and the rest of the peasants have been defeated so many times they've begun to expect it as a matter of course.
Quote #9
WIFE: He's over there. He always said he wanted to die there. Hearing the sound of the mill wheel.
The old man chooses to die in his home rather than fighting to live. Is that a defeat or a victory? Or perhaps something of both? The film never really answers that question, letting us decide the larger moral meaning for ourselves.