Seven Samurai (1954)
"Shichinin no samurai" (original title)

A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Akira Kurosawa (screenplay), Shinobu Hashimoto (screenplay),

Stars:

Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima

Top 250 #17 | Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Toshirô Mifune	...	Kikuchiyo (as Toshiro Mifune)
Takashi Shimura	...	Kambei Shimada
Keiko Tsushima	...	Shino
Yukiko Shimazaki	...	Wife (as Yukio Shimazaki)
Kamatari Fujiwara	...	Farmer Manzo
Daisuke Katô	...	Shichiroji (as Daisake Kato)
Isao Kimura	...	Katsushiro (as Ko Kimura)
Minoru Chiaki	...	Heihachi
Seiji Miyaguchi	...	Kyuzo
Yoshio Kosugi	...	Farmer Mosuke
Bokuzen Hidari	...	Farmer Yohei
Yoshio Inaba	...	Gorobei Katayama
Yoshio Tsuchiya	...	Farmer Rikichi
Kokuten Kôdô	...	Old Man Gisaku (as Kuninori Todo)
Eijirô Tôno	...	Thief (as Eijiro Tono)

Storyline

A veteran samurai, who has fallen on hard times, answers a village's request for protection from bandits. He gathers 6 other samurai to help him, and they teach the townspeople how to defend themselves, and they supply the samurai with three small meals a day. The film culminates in a giant battle when 40 bandits attack the village.

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Plot Keywords:

samurai | bandit | farmer | japan | rice | 

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Taglines:

The Mighty Warriors Who Became the Seven National Heroes of a Small Town

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Genres:

Action | Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

19 November 1956 (USA)

Also Known As:

Seven Samurai

Filming Locations:

Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$21,830 (USA) (30 August 2002)

Gross:

$269,061 (USA) (29 August 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

207 min 160 min (international) 202 min (2002 re-release) 150 min (original) 190 min (1991 re-release) 203 min (re-release) 207 min (restored) 202 min (DVD edition)

Sound Mix:

Mono Stereo (re-release prints)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Akira Kurosawa's original idea for the film was to make it about a day in the life of a samurai, beginning with him rising from bed and ending with him making some mistake that required him to kill himself to save face. Despite a good deal of research, he did not feel he had enough solid factual information to make the movie, but came across an anecdote about a village hiring samurai to protect them and decided to use that idea. Kurosawa wrote a complete dossier for each character with a speaking role. In it were details about what they wore, their favorite foods, their past history, their speaking habits and every other detail he could think of about them. No other Japanese director had ever done this before.

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Goofs

In the closing moments of the final battle, the bandits fire two musket shots only seconds apart. It is clear from the plot that at that point they possess only one musket. The black powder muskets of the age required much more time to reload. This error was pointed out in the commentary of the deluxe DVD edition.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Bandit second-in-command: We'll take this place next.
Bandit Chief: We took it last autumn. They haven't got anything worth taking yet. Let's wait.

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Connections

Referenced in Second Sight (1989)

User Reviews

Kurosawa is the greatest director that ever lived

Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece... The Japanese equivalent to Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.. I say it's just as good, if not even better. Not only Kurosawa's most well known film, but the most widely recognized Japanese film ever made. This movie will forever be known as a milestone in motion picture history.

The story revolves around a village that has become a group of bandits' common looting and pillaging ground. The villagers cannot take this any longer and go to town to hire warriors to defend the village from the bandits. A wandering ronin, Kambei (Takashi Shimura) agrees to help them and with his help, they recruit six others that agree to take the job. The seven samurai teach the villagers how to stand up to the bandits and defend themselves. Finally, when the time comes, they engage in a fierce battle with the attacking bandits.

About once in every 20 years or so we are gifted with a film that has the meaning, power, richness, and technique that The Seven Samurai has. I cannot urge anyone enough to see this film, the images are true cinematic poetry rich with so much emotion that I cannot even describe them in words. If you have never seen any of Kurosawa's works, then please see Seven Samurai... you will witness the true beauty, excellence and magic that the art form known as film is capable of.