How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from the Japanese to English translated subtitles of Seven Samurai.
Quote #4
KIKUCHIYO: Now who would have thought that this village held so many pretty girls!
A lapse of morals here from Kikuchiyo. Not that he's going to rape anyone or anything, but he's embodying the very fears that the peasants are so worried about. It's poor form and something a real samurai would never do; another thing he needs to stop if he wants to truly become a samurai.
Quote #5
KAMBEI: He gave himself up. He's confessed. He is begging for mercy. We must not kill him!
As a samurai, Kambei understands that you have to treat prisoners fairly. The peasants disagree. The movie certainly puts Kambei on a much higher level because of that, but it also wants to show us how useless lofty ideals can be sometimes. The peasants are gonna kill the prisoner, and nothing Kambei says can change that.
Quote #6
RIKICHI: You manage to kill all the samurai you catch, all right, but you can't kill the bandits?!
For Rikichi, morality is a matter of consistency. If the peasants are fine with killing individual samurai, why aren't they fine fighting a bunch of bandits? The rightness or wrongness of either half of the equation doesn't occur to him. He just wants them to apply it in all situations.