Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film Seven Samurai represents an ideal, gendered form of morality. Throughout the novel, Sibylla screens the film for Ludo in the hopes of providing him with suitable male role models. Sibylla believes that the film will impart lessons to Ludo that she, as a single mother, cannot teach. Seven Samurai, then, becomes a clear stand-in father figure for Ludo. The film appears to encapsulate a form of morality that emphasizes honor, loyalty, and a certain ““terrible perfectionism” (175). Ludo forms such a deep connection to the film that he recreates its central narrative action in his pursuit of an array of paternal candidates.

Real Swords and Bamboo Poles

Drawing from Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, Ludo conceptualizes real swords and bamboo poles as symbols of, respectively, truth and falsehood. In the film, two samurai fight with bamboo poles; after the fight, one samurai reminds...