moy1moy1

We often watch slasher movies for entertainment, particularly anything that portrays wielding swords and roaring battle cries. Sometimes we love to watch skull splits and blood splatters; piercing arrows and penetrating spears.
Gruesome as it seems, people tend to focus on the thrill they get when someone is killed brutally and not on the essence of why the film is shot in the first place. But we all have individual misgivings, I guess.

This thought of mine comes from my love of samurai films and the bushido code. The term samurai originally meant "those who serve in close attendance to nobility", while the bushido code means "the way of the warrior".
(wikipedia) The samurai, per se, refers to a specific military class tracing from the pre-industrial period of Japan.

What urged me to admire these people is that of their undaunted discipline towards everything they do or the craft have passion to. For instance, a religious samurai would spent his entire day chanting the mantra of Buddha; while a sword master would make his early exercises of sword and skill daily, in order not to dull his techniques. It is also evident in samurai families to practice this kind of discipline; entering an abode requires a bow of respect for its inhabitant's ancestors and a simple brew of tea requires intricate skill of preparation.

Coal hard discipline, honorable defeat,mastery of craft and preservation of lore. These are the things I lack, for I am driven with fear and despair. Warriors empty their mind to deliver swift blows to the enemy as well as to think of verses to write to their haiku. These things I wish to absorb as I watch these movies and admire their craft. Hopefully, my generation would become the modern Samurai of today, if only these principles and codes are seeded in our brains.

One thing I learned in watching these films is that their codes are followed religiously; principles defended with an iron grip; honor conveyed, but in the end of the day, in the eyes of the enemy, in the eyes of every problems we encounter, it is best to follow the way of the sword.

Thrust forward, or perish in dishonor.