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Seven Samurai

Original title: Shichinin no samurai
  • 1954
  • Not Rated
  • 3h 27m
IMDb RATING
8.6/10
353K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,483
25
Seven Samurai (1954)
A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.
Play trailer3:59
1 Video
99+ Photos
ActionDrama

Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.

  • Director
    • Akira Kurosawa
  • Writers
    • Akira Kurosawa
    • Shinobu Hashimoto
    • Hideo Oguni
  • Stars
    • Toshirô Mifune
    • Takashi Shimura
    • Keiko Tsushima
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    8.6/10
    353K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,483
    25
    • Director
      • Akira Kurosawa
    • Writers
      • Akira Kurosawa
      • Shinobu Hashimoto
      • Hideo Oguni
    • Stars
      • Toshirô Mifune
      • Takashi Shimura
      • Keiko Tsushima
    • 830User reviews
    • 135Critic reviews
    • 98Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Top rated movie #22
    • Nominated for 2 Oscars
      • 5 wins & 8 nominations total

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 3:59
    Watch Trailer

    Photos123

    Toshirô Mifune and Keiko Tsushima in Rashomon (1950)
    Toshirô Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Yoshio Inaba, Daisuke Katô, Isao Kimura, Seiji Miyaguchi, and Takashi Shimura in Seven Samurai (1954)
    Toshirô Mifune and Seiji Miyaguchi in Seven Samurai (1954)
    Toshirô Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Seiji Miyaguchi, and Takashi Shimura in Seven Samurai (1954)
    Toshirô Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Yoshio Inaba, Daisuke Katô, Isao Kimura, Seiji Miyaguchi, and Takashi Shimura in Seven Samurai (1954)
    Toshirô Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Daisuke Katô, Isao Kimura, Seiji Miyaguchi, and Takashi Shimura in Seven Samurai (1954)
    Toshirô Mifune in Seven Samurai (1954)
    Toshirô Mifune, Daisuke Katô, and Takashi Shimura in Seven Samurai (1954)
    Toshirô Mifune and Takashi Shimura in Seven Samurai (1954)
    Toshirô Mifune, Daisuke Katô, and Takashi Shimura in Seven Samurai (1954)
    Toshirô Mifune in Seven Samurai (1954)
    Toshirô Mifune in Seven Samurai (1954)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Toshirô Mifune
    Toshirô Mifune
    • Kikuchiyo
    • (as Toshiro Mifune)
    Takashi Shimura
    Takashi Shimura
    • Kambei Shimada
    Keiko Tsushima
    Keiko Tsushima
    • Shino
    Yukiko Shimazaki
    • Wife
    • (as Yukio Shimazaki)
    Kamatari Fujiwara
    Kamatari Fujiwara
    • Farmer Manzo
    Daisuke Katô
    Daisuke Katô
    • Shichiroji
    Isao Kimura
    • Katsushiro
    • (as Ko Kimura)
    Minoru Chiaki
    Minoru Chiaki
    • Heihachi
    Seiji Miyaguchi
    Seiji Miyaguchi
    • Kyuzo
    Yoshio Kosugi
    • Farmer Mosuke
    Bokuzen Hidari
    Bokuzen Hidari
    • Farmer Yohei
    Yoshio Inaba
    Yoshio Inaba
    • Gorobei Katayama
    Yoshio Tsuchiya
    Yoshio Tsuchiya
    • Farmer Rikichi
    Kokuten Kôdô
    Kokuten Kôdô
    • Old Man Gisaku
    • (as Kuninori Todo)
    Eijirô Tôno
    Eijirô Tôno
    • Thief
    Kichijirô Ueda
    Kichijirô Ueda
    • Bandit Scout
    Jun Tatara
    • Coolie A
    Atsushi Watanabe
    • Bun Seller
    • Director
      • Akira Kurosawa
    • Writers
      • Akira Kurosawa
      • Shinobu Hashimoto
      • Hideo Oguni
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • 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, eat breakfast, go to his master's castle and ending with him making some mistake that required him to go home and 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. He then pitched the idea of a film that would cover a series of five samurai battles, based on the lives of famous Japanese swordsmen. Hashimoto went off to write that script, but Kurosawa ultimately scrapped that idea as well, worrying that a film that was just "a series of climaxes" wouldn't work. Then, producer Sôjirô Motoki found, through historical research, that samurai in the "Warring States" period of Japanese history would often volunteer to stand guard at peasant villages overnight in exchange for food and lodging. Kurosawa then 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 favourite foods, their past history, their speaking habits, their reaction to battle and every other detail he could think of about them. No other Japanese director had ever done this before.
    • 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.
    • Quotes

      Kikuchiyo: What do you think of farmers? You think they're saints? Hah! They're foxy beasts! They say, "We've got no rice, we've no wheat. We've got nothing!" But they have! They have everything! Dig under the floors! Or search the barns! You'll find plenty! Beans, salt, rice, sake! Look in the valleys, they've got hidden warehouses! They pose as saints but are full of lies! If they smell a battle, they hunt the defeated! They're nothing but stingy, greedy, blubbering, foxy, and mean! God damn it all!

      [He hurls a handful of arrows into the wall]

      Kikuchiyo: But then who made them such beasts? You did! You samurai did it! You burn their villages! Destroy their farms! Steal their food! Force them to labour! Take their women! And kill them if they resist! So what should farmers do?

      [Kikuchiyo sinks to his knees, and begins to sob uncontrollably]

      Kikuchiyo: Damn... damn... damn... damn...

      [Kambei unfolds his arms and looks down at the palms of his hands]

      Kambei Shimada: [Quietly, after a long pause] You were the son of a farmer, weren't you?

    • Alternate versions
      The film's original Japanese release version runs 207 minutes, plus intermission, which includes 4 minutes of entr'acte music against a blank screen. This is the version that has been generally shown worldwide since the 1980s, though sometimes it is shown without the intermission and entr'acte, resulting in a listed running time of 203 minutes. The initial U.S.A. release was re-titled 'The Magnificent Seven' and released November, 1956, with English subtitles, and ran 158 minutes. Some European releases were even further shortened to 141 minutes. Landmark Films re-released the film in the U.S. in December 1982, the first time outside Japan the film saw a major release with its running time intact (although the intermission and entr'acte were removed). Later U.S.A. releases by Avco-Embassy Pictures, Janus Films, and Films Incorporated, and by BFI in the UK, are also the full original version of the film.
    • Connections
      Featured in Objective 500 Million (1966)

    User reviews830

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    Arguably, the best samurai film ever made
    Though its biblical connotation is not the happiest one ("Seven Deadly Sins") number seven, omnipresent in our (7 days a) weekly cycles, seems to have been a lucky number in the world of cinema. Several very solid and some great movies have this number in their title, starting with gag-wise incredibly inventive Seven Chances (1925) from genius of silent era Buster Keaton, Frank Borzage's silent version of classic melodrama 7th Heaven (1927), Walt Disney's first feature-length animated movie, Snowhite and Seven Dwarfs (1940), recognized as an instant classic and remained so ever after, Stanley Donen's ear-pleasing, eye-riveting musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), staged in western milieu, with the breathtaking barn-raising dance sequence, Ingmar Bergman's literally Death-defying, answers-to-reasons-for-human-misfortune-seeking masterpiece, Det sjunde inseglet ("The Seventh Seal") (1957), Billy Wilder's Seven Year Itch (1957), a clever and amusing first collaboration with incomparable Marilyn Monroe (a worm-up for their second, bigger if not decisive step in taboos-of-the-motion-picture-production-code-breaking, brilliant comedy Some Like It Hot (1959)), up to newer examples like David Fincher's disturbing drama Se7en (1995), one of the finest Hollywood movies of the 90's, as well as Tsui Hark's Chat Gim ("Seven Swords") (2005), a stunner in the department of action sequences from the often under-appreciated genre Wuxia, originating from Chinese literature.

    However, even among such illustrious examples of movie-making par excellence, one movie holds a special place, Shichinin no samurai ("Seven Samurai") (1954) from the legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. This movie doesn't seem to lack anything that an avid movie consumer, in particular samurai genre admirer, might be wishing for.

    It is not easy to say anything new about the one of the most analyzed and scrutinized movies of the film history. Nevertheless, and despite being eventually only repeated, it shall be mentioned that movie has a simple but very engaging story - a group of peasants, representing a village, periodically stormed by gang of bandits, looting their crops and other possessions, hires several wandering ronins (masterless samurai) to help them protect the village - not without lucid observations on the possibility of social interaction between members of different classes during the almost seven centuries long feudal history (1185-1868) of Japan.

    Characterization is excellent, and though having clear stand-outs in samurai's true leader, Kambei (Takashi Shimura), a wise tactician of the exceptional valor, as well as in the exuberantly uncontrollable Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), messy in its appearance and blustering in its manner, yet, a peasant descendant himself, making for a perfect link between the samurai and their employers, all other samurai are memorable, as well, sporting wide variety of personality traits. In joining the village protection campaign, hired for nothing more than a regular meal for as long as providing a service, thus primarily hoping to finally fill their starving stomachs, each one of them was driven by different additional motives, whether they were challenged to test their bravery, fighting skills and tactics, seeking for excitement and recognition, trying to regain pride and glory of the past days, just reaching out for that human touch (cross-class communication, even mere courtship promising relationship) they have been deprived of, or simply interested in its noble cause.

    Together with true highlights in realistically choreographed battle scenes, showing all the pain and misery of excessive violence on the reverse of heroism, that even defenders cannot avoid resorting to, sadly announcing inevitable decline of the samurai and their ways exposed to new artless technology, unbecomingly dying ambushed by distant shots from the muskets, while ingloriously stuck in the village muds... it all makes for a compelling narrative.

    Though triumphant in their common task to protect the village, unlikely alliance between samurai and peasants is ultimately doomed to fail. In the short run, it gives expected results, but in the long run, does not stand the chance. That is so loudly, although in fact silently, expressed at the end, when peasants don't even care to join the surviving samurai in their mourning over the fallen ones, not even giving the last well deserved respect to those who have helped them withstand fierce attacks, prevail and ultimately defeat bandits, and, in doing so, most of them given their lives. Peasants simply continue with their daily chores, while surviving samurai have to leave the village, like they have never existed, sadly symbolizing their ultimate destiny: slowly but surely stepping off the future pages of the history books.

    Seven Samurai, the movie, is rightfully considered as the one that has redefined samurai film in its contemporary perception, and dawned almost two decades long string of successes, instantly becoming the brightest example of thus revived, uniquely provocative and entertaining sub-genre, unknown as such in the country of its origin, classified there within a broader genre, jidaigeki (a period drama, often describing events from pre-modern era of the Edo period, marking the governance of Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), relatively peaceful times for Japan's long history of civil wars, as opposed to gendaigeki, films treating contemporary matters), and by IMDb standards, as an action drama, occasionally historical, when based on real events.

    Originating in the Edo-era Far East, it has inspired equally successful, star-studded (Y. Brynner, S. McQueen, C. Bronson, J. Coburn, E. Wallach, R. Vaughn, H. Buchholz, B. Dexter) Hollywood remake, The Magnificent Seven (1960), conveniently situated in the U.S. West of 19th century, as well as three lesser sequels, Return of... (1966), Guns of... (1969), and ...Ride! (1972).
    helpful•184
    30
    • Davor_Blazevic_1959
    • May 25, 2010

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    FAQ7

    • Was this film not favorably received by Japanese critics?
    • Is 'Seven Samurai' based on a book?
    • Why is everyone shocked that Kambei is shaving his head?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 19, 1956 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • Japan
    • Language
      • Japanese
    • Also known as
      • The Magnificent Seven
    • Filming locations
      • Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka, Japan
    • Production company
      • Toho Company
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • ¥125,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $318,649
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $15,942
      • Jul 28, 2002
    • Gross worldwide
      • $346,258
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      3 hours 27 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1
      • 1.33 : 1

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