Shichinin no Samurai
Seven Samurai
1954

directed by
Akira Kurosawa


Saul Bass poster
for USA remake The Magnificent Seven
(a direct quote from Seven Samurai)

By now, this must be Kurosawa's best known movie. And it is very good. A perfect bland of action and what the Japanese unashamedly call melodrama. Has even been turned in a computer game with the help of Kurosawa's son. But like I say, Rashomon might make a better game. This production, at a time when Japan was still suffering the after-effects of World War II, must have been a very ambitious undertaking for Toho and Japan. It shows.

If you don't know the movie is about a poor village engaging seven out of work samurai to defend them from robber bands, buy this movie ASAP. To quote the gay persons' line, you don't know what you're missing. Maybe the strongest point it makes is, you may be forced to kill off brigands like so many rats; but unless you can find somebody like Shane to do that nasty job for you, you are the loser — even if you come out on top.



Too many favorite scenes to even start to list, but what comes to mind right away:
— the villagers watching all samurai walking by
— the youngster getting ready to knock out applicants with a 3 by 4
— the hoary cliché of sticking out a hat behind a bush to attract gunfire
— the burning robbers' hang-out
— the way everybody starts running when the real action starts
— the guy trying to catch a girl, running after her through richly flowering meadows




rain machine making overtime


Produced by Toho
Japan 1954

207 minutes, B/W, Academy screen

Credits:		Cast:
producer screenplay photographed lighting art director art consultation fencing direction archery direction sound recording music by assistant director	Shojiro Motoki Shinobu Hashimoto Hideo Oguni Akira Kurosawa Asakazu Nakai Shigero Mori So Matsuyama Seison Maeda Kohei Ezaki Ienori Kaneko Shigeru Endo Fumio Yanoguchi Fumio Hayasaka Hiromichi Horikawa	Kambei, samurai leader Kikuchiyo Gorobei Kyuzo Heihachi Shichiroji Katsushiro Manzo Gisaku Yohei Mosuke Rikichi Gosaku Peasants Shino, Manzo's daughter Grandfather Husband Wife Masterless Samurai Coolie Vendor Minstrel Bandits	Takashi Shimura Toshiro Mifune Yoshio Inaba Seiji Miyaguchi Minoru Chiaki Daisuke Kato Ko Kirnura Kamatari Fujiwara Kuninori Kodo Bokuzen Hidari Yoshio Kosugi Yoshio Tsuchiya Keiji Sakakida Jiro Kumagai Hariiko Toyama Tsuneo Katagiri Yasuhisa Tsutsumi Keiko Tsushima Toranosuke Ogawa Yu Akitsu Noriko Sengoku Gen Shimizu Jun Tatari Atsushi Watanabe Sojin Kamiyama Kichijiro Ueda Shimpei Takagi Akira Tani Haruo Nakajima Takashi Narita Senkichi Omura Shuno Takahara Masanobu Okubo

Rubbers
I must apologize, but can't help myself (it's stronger than weakling me):
Those are robber, not rubber bands and its robbers, not rubbers hanging out
(getting slightly obscene here, even; but both do stink when burning)

Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece is one of the greatest epics ever filmed. It's set in 16th-century Japan and deals with Japanese villagers who hire professional warriors to defeat bandits. Spectacular motion picture teems with fabulous battle scenes and characters filled with emotion and humanity.

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