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Seven Samurai
Directed by	Akira Kurosawa
Produced by	Sojiro Motoki
Written by	Akira Kurosawa Shinobu Hashimoto Hideo Oguni
Starring	Takashi Shimura Toshiro Mifune
Music by	Fumio Hayasaka
Cinematography	Asakaru Nakai
Distributed by	Toho
Release date(s)	Apr 26, 1954 Nov 19, 1956 (US)
Running time	207 Min
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	US$500 000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Seven Samurai (七人の侍, Shichinin no samurai^?) is a 1954 Japanese film co-written, edited and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film takes place in warring states period Japan (the late 16th century, around 1587/1588). It follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven masterless samurai (rōnin) to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops.

Seven Samurai is frequently described as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, and is one of a select few Japanese films to become widely known in the West for an extended period of time. It is the subject of both popular and critical acclaim; it was voted onto Sight & Sound's list of the ten greatest films of all time in 1982 and 1992, and remains on the director's top ten films in the 2002 poll.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast of characters 2.1 The Seven Samurai 2.2 The villagers 2.3 The bandits 2.4 Structural innovations 3 Legacy 4 Edited versions and DVD releases 5 Trivia 6 Academy Awards 7 External links

At the start of the film, a village of Japanese farmers are under threat of attack by a gang of 'forty' marauding bandits. Desperate to rid themselves of the threat, they hold a meeting to think of a solution, and a young villager named Rikichi proposes they fight back. In turmoil, they go to the village elder, who tells them to fight, and to go find samurai to help defend the village, but some are skeptical, knowing that samurai are expensive to enlist and are known to lust after young farm women. Recognizing the practical impossibility of finding samurai who would help them despite their poverty, but of the opinion that they must still be sought, the village elder tells them to therefore find "hungry samurai". The men go into the city but initially are unsuccessful, being turned away by every samurai they ask — sometimes very rudely — because they cannot offer any pay other than three meals a day. However, they are eventually able to convince Kambei, an aging and wise warrior, to help them. Kambei goes around the city and eventually finds five other masterless samurai (ronin) to fight with him, plus a sixth tag-along, Kikuchiyo, a pseudo-samurai looking for excitement.

The village farmers are initially wary of the samurai, partly because they fear for the safety of their daughters, but possibly also because the samurai are, regardless of their good intentions, still warriors and thus something to fear. When the samurai first enter the village, they are slightly insulted that the villagers cower away in their homes and do not greet them as one would expect. Kikuchiyo, still an outsider to the other samurai, breaks the villager's timidity by, unknown to everybody else, raising a false alarm on the bandit's return, and then rebuking the panicking villagers, who had left their hiding places in their terror. It is here that Kikuchiyo demonstrates that there exists a certain intelligence behind his boorish demeanour and the other other six samurai symbolically accept him as belonging with them, truly completing the group of wanderers as the "seven samurai". As they prepare for the siege, the villagers and their hired warriors slowly come to trust each other. However, when the samurai discover that the villagers have murdered and robbed fleeing samurai in the past, they are shocked and angry, and one even comments that he would like to kill everyone in the village. The always clownish 'samurai' Kikuchiyo again demonstrates an intelligence beyond what his loutish behaviour would suggest by passionately castigating the other samurai for ignoring the hardships that the farmers face in order to survive and make a living despite the intimidation and harassment from the warrior class (and in the process, also reveals his own roots as a farmer's son himself). The anger of the samurai makes way for shame, and when the village elder, alerted by the clamour that this revelation instigates, asks if anything is the matter, Kambei humbly responds that there is not. The samurai continue their preparations without any animosity, and soon afterwards, when learning that they are getting all the best food while the peasants are subsisting on inferior fare, share their food with the more needy of their employers.

The middle of the film follows preparations for the defense of the village. Fortifications are built, and a raid is made on the bandit stronghold (resulting in the death of Heihachi by gunfire), villagers are trained in basic fighting techniques, and Katsushirō, the youngest samurai, begins a love affair with the daughter of one of the villagers who had been forced to masquerade as a boy. The film has an intermission at this point.

The second half of the film chronicles the battle between the samurai-led village militia and the bandits. The bandits are confounded by the fortifications put in place by the samurai, and several are killed attempting to scale the defenses or cross moats. However, in addition to having a superior number of trained fighters, the attackers possess three muskets, and are thus able to hold their own. In fact, all four samurai who die in the film are killed by distant gunfire, rather than in single combat. Many of the subplots of the battle revolve around capturing or disabling the guns.

During the night of siege, Katsushirō's affair is revealed, and after an initial uproar, his amorous adventures provide comic relief to the embattled militia.

Apart from defense, the initial strategy of the samurai is to allow the bandits to enter a gap in the fortifications one at a time through the use of a closing "wall" of spears, and to then kill the lone enemy. This is repeated several times with success, although more than one bandit manages to enter the village several times. Eventually the samurai decide that the villagers will soon become too exhausted to fight and instruct them to allow the last 13 bandits in at once while the defenders are still battle-ready. In the ensuing confrontation, Kyūzō is killed by musket fire from the bandit chief. Enraged, Kikuchiyo bravely pursues revenge, only to be shot in the belly himself. Despite this wound Kikuchiyo pursues and kills the bandit chief, finally proving his worth as a samurai and dying honorably. Dazed and exhausted, Kambei and Shichirōji sadly observe "we've survived once again", while Katsushirō wails over his fallen comrades. The battle is ultimately won for the villagers.

The three surviving samurai, Kambei, Katsushirō, and Shichirōji are left to observe the villagers happily planting the next rice crop. The farmers now ignore the samurai, as they no longer have any use for them. The samurai reflect on the relationship between the warrior and farming classes: though they have won the battle for the farmers, they have lost their friends with little to show for it. This melancholic observation sheds new light on Kambei's statement at the beginning of the film, that he had "never won a battle". This contrasts with the singing and joy of the villagers, whose figuratively life-sustaining work has prevailed over war and left all warriors as the defeated party.

Kambei Shimada 島田勘兵衛 (Takashi Shimura) — The leader of the group and the first "recruited" by the villagers, he is a wise but war-weary samurai.

Shichirōji 七郎次 (Daisuke Katō) — The third samurai. A skilled archer who was once Kambei's deputy. Kambei meets him by chance in the town and he resumes this role.

Gorōbei Katayama 片山五郎兵衛 (Yoshio Inaba) — The second samurai, recruited by Kambei. He acts as the second in command and helps create the master plan for the village's defense.

Heihachi Hayashida 林田平八 (Minoru Chiaki) — The fourth samurai, recruited by Gorōbei. An amiable though less-skilled samurai whose charm and wit maintain his comrades' good cheer in the face of adversity.

Katsushirō Okamoto 岡本勝四郎 (Isao Kimura) — The fifth samurai. A young unblooded samurai from an aristocratic family who wants to be Kambei's disciple.

Kyūzō 久蔵 (Seiji Miyaguchi) — The sixth samurai, who initially declined an offer by Kambei to join the group, though he later changes his mind. A serious, stone-faced samurai and a supremely skilled swordsman; Katsushirō is in awe of him.

Kikuchiyo 菊千代 (Toshirō Mifune) — The seventh samurai, though he is never officially invited to join the group. A would-be samurai (right down to the false noble birth certificate) who eventually proves his worth. He is mercurial and temperamental. Of all the samurai, he most closely identifies with the villagers and their plight. Always the show-off, his sword is considerably larger than everyone else's.

Gisaku 儀作 (Kuninori Takadō) — The village patriarch, who tells the villagers to hire samurai to protect themselves.

Yohei 与平 (Bokuzen Hidari) — An awkward, rubish old villager who shares some memorable comic scenes with Kikuchiyo.

Manzō 万造 (Kamatari Fujiwara) — He fears for his daughter's safety with all these attractive samurai around.

Shino 志乃 (Keiko Tsushima) — Manzō's daughter, who falls in love with Katsushirō.

Rikichi 利吉 (Yoshio Tsuchiya) — Hotheaded and relatively young, he has a painful secret concerning his wife.

Rikichi's Wife (Yukiko Shimazaki) - Unseen in the early part of the film, the secret of her whereabouts will lead to tragedy.

Mosuke 茂助 (Yoshio Osugi) — His house is one of the four outlying buildings that will have to be abandoned in order to save the twenty in the main hamlet.

• The Bandit Chief (Shinpei Takagi) The leader of the 40 bandits.
• Bandit Second-In-Command (Shin Ōtomo)
• Musket Bandit (Toshio Takahara)
• Roof Bandit (Masanobu Ōkubo)

According to Michael Jeck's DVD commentary, Seven Samurai was among the first films to use the now-common plot element of the recruiting and gathering of heroes into a team to accomplish a specific goal, a device used in later films such as The 13th Warrior, Ocean's Eleven and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and also a common plot device in role-playing game adventures). Film critic Roger Ebert wonders in his review that the sequence introducing the leader Kambei (in which the samurai shaves off his symbolic hairstyle in order to pose as a priest to rescue a boy from a kidnapper) could be the origin of the practice, now common in action movies, of introducing the main hero with an undertaking unrelated to the main plot.[1] Other plot devices such as the reluctant hero, romance between a local girl and the youngest hero, and the nervousness of the common citizenry had appeared in other films before this but were combined together in this film.

The single largest undertaking by a Japanese filmmaker at the time, Seven Samurai was a technical and creative watershed that became Japan's highest-grossing movie and set a new standard for the industry. Its influence can be most strongly felt in the western The Magnificent Seven, a film specifically adapted from Seven Samurai. Director John Sturges took Seven Samurai and updated it to the Old West, with the Samurai replaced by cowboys. Many of The Magnificent Seven's scenes mirror those of Seven Samurai in most details, and the final line of dialogue is nearly identical: "The old man was right. Only the farmers won. We lost. We always lose." There was also a short-lived 1998 television series based on Sturges' film.

The Indian film Sholay borrowed its basic premise from Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven. The film was declared BBC India's "Film of the Millennium" and is the highest-grossing Indian film of all time.

George Lucas states in the DVD commentary for Star Wars Episode III, that Yoda's running his hand over his head (like Kambei) is a nod to Kurosawa and this movie. Also the line about the farmers lot in life is to suffer is quoted in Star Wars (New Hope) but as droids.

In 2004, Kurosawa's estate approved the production of an anime remake of the film, called Samurai 7, produced by GONZO, which provided an alternate steampunk-themed retelling of the classic story. The movie Star Trek: Insurrection puts a new spin on the tale, with an "away team" of seven crewmates defending the village of "The Baku" against the villainous "Sona," and a sixth season episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine entitled "The Magnificent Ferengi" also spoofs the film. Even the 1986 comedy ¡Three Amigos! borrows several themes from Kurosawa and the idea of non-heroes who are mistaken for warriors is also used in the comedy space adventure Galaxy Quest. The game Throne of Darkness gives you control of seven samurai(four at a time) who all closely resemble Akira's characters in role, style of combat and appearance.

While the initial Japanese release of the film ran 207 minutes long, edited versions were shown in international markets. An edited version of 160 minutes was shown in many countries except the UK and U.S. which originally showed 150 minute and 141 minute versions respectively. A re-release version of 190 minutes was shown in the UK in 1991 and a near-complete 203 minute version was re-released in the U.S. in 2002. A Criterion DVD version of the film is currently available containing the complete original version of the film (207 minutes) on one disc, and a second, more expansive Criterion DVD released in 2006 also contains the digitally-remastered, complete film on two discs, as well as an additional disc of extra material.

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The actors playing the three surviving Samurai were the first to die in real life: Daisuke Katō (Shichirōji) died in 1975, Isao Kimura (Katsushirō) died in 1981 and Takashi Shimura (Kambei) died in 1982.^{[citation needed]}
• Minoru Chiaki (Heihachi Hayashida), whose samurai character was the first to die, was the last surviving star (he died in 1999).^{[citation needed]}
• This is Haruo Nakajima's first role. Nakajima would later go on to be the primary stuntman for Toho's Tokusatsu movies.^{[citation needed]}
• The Toshirō Mifune character was an inspiration for a Danish film called Mifune's Last Song, about a successful and fashionable business man who tries to hide his farming background from his friends.^{[citation needed]}
• Tatsuya Nakadai, an actor who would become a feature player in Kurosawa's later films, has a brief, uncredited, appearance as one of the samurai the villagers see when they arrive at the city.^{[citation needed]}
• Seiji Miyaguchi, whose character was a master swordsman, had never handled a sword before this picture.^{[citation needed]}
• Toshirō Mifune said that his role as Kikuchiyo was his favorite and that he remembered every one of the character's lines.^{[citation needed]}
• The film was shot in the old 1.33:1 aspect ratio: Akira Kurosawa didn't change to a widescreen format until later in 1950s.^{[citation needed]}

Award	Person
Nominated:
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White	So Matsuyama
Best Costume Design, Black-and-White	Kôhei Ezaki

• Roger Ebert on Seven Samurai
• Criterion Collection essay by Philip Kemp
• Criterion Collection essay by Kenneth Turan
• Criterion Collection essay by Peggy Chiao
• Seven Samurai at Rotten Tomatoes
• Seven Samurai at All Movie Guide
• Seven Samurai at the Internet Movie Database
• Seven Samurai (Japanese) at the Japanese Movie Database

v • d • e Films directed by Akira Kurosawa
1940s	Sanshiro Sugata · The Most Beautiful · Sanshiro Sugata Part II · The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail · Those Who Make Tomorrow · No Regrets for Our Youth · One Wonderful Sunday · Drunken Angel · The Quiet Duel · Stray Dog
1950s	Scandal · Rashomon · The Idiot · Ikiru · Seven Samurai · I Live in Fear · Throne of Blood · The Lower Depths · The Hidden Fortress
1960s	The Bad Sleep Well · Yojimbo · Sanjuro · High and Low · Red Beard
1970s	Dodesukaden · Dersu Uzala
1980s	Kagemusha · Ran
1990s	Dreams · Rhapsody in August · Madadayo