There’s a quote that stays rent-free in my mind. There is a scene in The Last Samurai where Katsumoto is talking with Captain Nathan Algren. Captain Algren was just captured by the samurai and held as their captive. Katsumoto as the leader of the samurai called him to have a discussion after losing a fight to Ujio. Foreign to Japanese customs, Captain Algren lost his patience and yelled at Katsumoto about this captivity. This is shortened version of their conversation:
Captain Algren in anger: “What do you want from me?”
Katsumoto undeterred: “What do you want for yourself?”
Captain Algren still angry: “What the hell am I doing here?”
Katsumoto still calm: “In Spring the snow will melt, and the passes will open. Until that time, you are here. Good day, Captain.”
From the whole movie, that’s probably my favourite dialogue given the wisdom in it. Captain Algren was confused and frustrated to be trapped in the samurai’s village. He was not treated like a prisoner of war like in the Western world he was from. Instead, he was cared for and made to feel comfortable even though he felt like a stray dog in the village. Even in his manner of communicating with Katsumoto, he was rude and disrespectful as he was annoyed to be captured aimlessly.
This is where we see the wisdom and intelligence of Katsumoto. He was also an advisor to the Emperor. Instead of him losing his cool and asserting his rank to Captain Algren, Katsumoto gently tells Captain Algren of the situation that he is in. By telling the Captain that the snow will melt (meaning that it has not melted, metaphorically referring to the Captain’s frustration) he should understand that he is trapped in the village. And until that time when the snow melts, he was there. So even if he managed to escape the village, he would still be trapped by the snow. Metaphorically referring to his own frustrations towards the situation.
In the same breath, Captain Algren wondered why he was there by asking Katsumoto what he wants from him. Katsumoto, displaying his superior intelligence and wisdom, responds by asking him what he wants for himself. For what he wants has led him to be at the village where the snow has locked him in.
The identification of the snow represents the mental blockage that Captain Algren found himself. The snow will melt only in the Spring. The Spring is when things are rebirthed into existence. This tells the viewer that what Katsumoto is telling Captain Algren is that until he spends time melting the mental snows that block his mind, he will always be trapped by his own thoughts. These thoughts in the movie, Captain Algren is haunted by the massacre he was part of in America. Continuous flashbacks visit him in the night which he pacifies with alcohol. So much so that he was conflicted with his own perception of self.
Being in the village, for the Captain, was an opportunity for him to melt the heavy snow that clogged his mind. When he yelled at Katsumoto asking him what he wants from him, Katsumoto understood that the question was directed at the Captain himself. Through the conversations he had with him, Katsumoto understood that the Captain was seeking something; something known by the Captain himself. He was searching for it externally failing to realise that it was in him to find.
Interestingly, when Spring came and the snow had melted, Captain Algren had taken a different look at his life. His time in captivity gave him the time to visit the nightmares that haunted him and seek ways to free himself from them. Which, when he returned to his old world, he was a new man with a new mindset. The snow had melted in the Spring, allowing the new passes of his mind to be birthed.
I always think of this section of the movie whenever I find myself asking myself whether I am where I am supposed to be in life. There is a great level of pain when people look at you as a failure. There is a great level of defeat when people whom you look up to look at you as a disappointment. There is a great level of anguish when you look at the mirror and wonder whether indeed this is the best you’ve become.
One wonders whether they would have been further in life if they took a different career path, dated different women, or had a different set of friends. I am one of those people who find it extremely difficult to celebrate achievements. Because at the back of my mind, I always know that there is more. I bought myself a brand new, straight-from-the-box 2022 Picanto but I know there’s a BMW 330i waiting for me. I stay in a pretty safe and comfortable place for a man living alone but I know there is a house on an estate waiting for me. In this economy we live in, I am grateful to be receiving a steady income but I know that true financial freedom is when one no longer trades time for an income.
Like Captain Algren, I find myself blocked by my own mental snow and I yell at the world asking it what it wants from me. In doing so, I miss the fact that what I seek is not what the world wants from me but what I want for myself. A change in these perceptions leads one to ask himself a different set of questions that produce a different set of answers. This different set of answers leads to a different outlook on life which ultimately is what one truly seeks.
And until the snow melts, until I find those answers, I will be here. Here in this state of besetting search for purpose. This search, like snow, will take time to melt and clear for new passes to follow. When these passes are open, they will allow the mind to give birth to new realities and new perceptions.
But, “until that time, you are here.”
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