Snow White and the Seven Samurai – 2024

Snow White and the Seven Samurai is a 2024 movie from the Asylum studio. Movies from the Asymum studios often have something to hope for. Let’s say that they don’t always deliver on their mark. But I’ve heard good about this from Voices From the Balcony, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m rather anxious when I see Eric Roberts in the early scenes of the movie. I usually don’t connect his name with quality movies that’s for sure. He was good once, or at least ok, but that was a long time ago. We’re talking about the Best of the Best era here. Nowadays his name doesn’t validate any kind of cinematic quality.

Luckily he’s mostly just in the teaser or what you should call it. Then the setup becomes somewhat classic. Rich gangster dies and people dispute the last will and testament. It doesn’t have to be a gangster for that matter. If someone rich dies, people want to get a hold of their money and they will do almost everything to get it. To me, the will seems pretty fair but let’s not have any fairness shall we? In Snow White and the Seven Samurai, there is the evil stepmother. There must be one, or else it would be Show White now, would it? She of course, what all the heritage for herself and will stop at nothing to get it. As I said, classic last will and testament story so far.

Seven Samurai

When we get introduced to the Seven Samurai, they are all female. I think that’s a pretty cool touch. Why should there always be men in the fighting roles anyway? They’re all part of some ancient collective of female Samurai. We learn that they were once in the hundred but now there are only seven left. Anyway, when the daughter of the wealthy gangster is attacked by the evil stepmother assassin she gets taken in to heal and to live with these assassins. You immediately understand that she will become one of them and soon enough she starts to train as one of them. It seems like all of the Samurai have one expert battle skill each, and she needs to learn them all. One is a matter with a sword, another with a stick, some is a master marksman with a gun, and so on.

I can see this similarity between the classic saga of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in some ways. There is the evil stepmother of course. She may not have a mirror on the wall and may not claim to be The most beautiful creature in the universe. But she sure has ambitions in life. She wants to take over her late husband’s business – the cooperation of the Four Pillars. There are these four powerful individuals who control the entire city. They make their money from drugs more or less. That’s how I see it anyway. But they work together as a board so they don’t really seem to be crime lords in that aspect. It’s not really believable but as it goes along more and more violence comes into play.

Schism

There is soon a schism between the remaining three and the widow of the late husband. A war starts and at the same time, Snow White and the Seven Samurai plan to end the Four Pillars once and for all. So there’s a war going on not just between the ‘heroes’ and the villains, there’s also war going on within the villain group. There will be a lot of violence and death. It’s more a question of who will die first. We understand that Snow White and the Seven Samurai will win this battle in the end. But to what cost? We also learn eventually that everything is not as simple as it seems. The “good” might not always be so good and the “bad” might not always be so bad.

I like the training part. Of course, it goes far too easy to train this Snow White (something, she hates being called) to be a full-fledged Samurai. She was even mortally wounded when she was taken in and seems to master the arts in only a few days. But this is a film and not reality, she must get her revenge. It’s not that kind of mysterious learning process as in those Far East fighting movies. It’s pretty straightforward.

A ridiculous but charming movie

Snow White and the Seven Samurai is a ridiculous movie but it’s very entertaining and the action scenes are well made. Some of the choreography could have been better but for the most part it looked pretty good. The guards guarding the evil Stepmom have cool masks. It looks great but I don’t know if there were of any benefit to them. But they make it look more mysterious and more entertaining for sure.

There are a few surprises storywise during the way to the end, not many, but some. The main value for me is the action scenes though. Actually, I think it should have been Seven Ninjas, not Samurai but that’s beside the point. The title is cool, and even if it’s just remotely connected to the classic saga it’s a cool film.