is a 1954 Japanese epic film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay co-written with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni. Starring Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima and Yukiko Shimazaki, it tells the story of a village of peasants who hire seven samurai to help defend their village from bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops. Influential in world cinema, Seven Samurai is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made.
Kurosawa and Hashimoto researched the Edo period for stories to adapt and came across an account of samurai defending peasants from bandits. Together with Oguni, the screenwriters spent over six weeks writing the script and creating detailed plans for each of the film's characters. Produced by Toho, the film spent three months in pre-production casting and location scouting. Filming began on May 27, 1953 and took place on set at Toho Studios, and on location in Shizuoka and Kanagawa Prefectures. Mid-way through production, the film ran out of money. Toho eventually funded Samurai to a total of , making it the most expensive Japanese film made at the time. For the film's final battle, Kurosawa innovated the use of a multi-camera setup and telephoto lenses to adjust audience perception. Filming wrapped in 1954 after 148 working days.
Seven Samurai was released in Japan on April 26, 1954, with a runtime of 207 minutes. The film was recut before entering the Venice Film Festival. At Venice, Kurosawa won the Silver Lion for direction, and the film was distributed in the United States by Columbia Pictures in November 1956, where it was recut again. The film grossed in ticket sales in Japan making it the highest-grossing film of that year, though due to its large production cost, it was not highly profitable. In the United States, the film grossed $145,800 in 1956 and 1957. The film received a mixed critical response in Japan, but a generally positive response in the US. Reviewers praised the story and acting but criticized the film's length and attitude towards the peasants. American reviews compared the film to Western movies. Samurai was nominated for two Academy Awards and three BAFTAs, but won none.
In the decades since its release, scholars and reviewers have praised the film as a masterpiece. Seven Samurai has been influential among Western filmmakers, with its story and approach to action remade and reiterated numerous times, most notably in the 1960 film The Magnificent Seven. Seven Samurai also influenced other media, including anime and video games. Scholarly analysis of the film has looked at it through a humanistic and formalistic lens. Discussions focus on the morality and heroism of the samurai, showing their relationship to class and the environment. In addition to allegorical readings, scholars have also looked at the film's cinematography, use of music, and Seven Samurais place within the genre.
Plot
In 1586, a bandit gang discusses raiding a mountain village, but their chief decides to wait until after the harvest for a better haul. Overhearing this, the peasants consult the village elder Gisaku, who advises them to hire samurai willing to fight only in exchange for food. Traveling to a nearby town, the villagers find Kambei, an aging but experienced rōnin, whom they see rescue a boy from a thief. A young samurai named Katsushirō asks to become Kambei's disciple. The villagers ask for Kambei's help, and he agrees after recognizing their suffering. He then recruits Gorobei as his second-in-command, along with Kambei's old comrade-in-arms Shichirōji, Heihachi—a samurai without much skill but an amiable temperament—and Kyūzō, a master swordsman. Kikuchiyo, a wild, self-proclaimed samurai, is accepted too after attempts to drive him away fail.
Following an initially cold response from the villagers, the samurai and peasants start to trust each other; the samurai survey the village's surroundings and begin training the peasants. In a nearby mountain meadow, Katsushirō meets Shino, who was disguised as a boy by her father Manzō. Katsushirō chastises her for not joining the men for training before realizing she is a woman. Later, the samurai are angered when Kikuchiyo brings them armor and weapons, which the villagers acquired by killing other samurai injured or fleeing from battle. Kikuchiyo retorts that samurai are responsible for much of the suffering peasants endure, revealing that he was born a peasant himself. The samurai's anger turns to shame. Later, Heihachi makes a flag that represents both the seven samurai and the village. Katsushirō secretly shares his rice with Shino and the two form a relationship, though they recognize that they cannot be together due to their difference in social class.
As the barley ripens, Kambei organizes the peasants into squads. He tells the villagers that those who live in outlying houses must evacuate. When they dissent, he chastises them for thinking only of themselves and not the village as a whole. Three bandit scouts are spotted around the village; two are killed, while the last reveals their camp's location before the villagers execute him. The samurai burn down the camp in a pre-emptive strike. Rikichi, a troubled villager aiding the samurai, breaks down when he sees his wife, who was taken by the bandits during a previous raid. Upon seeing Rikichi, she runs back into the burning barracks to her death. Heihachi is killed by a gunshot while trying to stop Rikichi from pursuing her. At Heihachi's funeral, Kikuchiyo raises the banner Heihachi had made over the village.
While the village is in mourning, the bandits arrive and burn the village's outlying houses, including Gisaku's mill. Gisaku's family tries to save him when he refuses to abandon it, but all perish except a baby rescued by Kikuchiyo. The village is besieged; many are killed while the defenders thwart the attacks. The bandits possess three matchlock muskets. Kyūzō captures one; an envious Kikuchiyo abandons his squad to bring back another. However, Kikuchiyo's absence allows a handful of bandits to infiltrate his post and kill several peasants. Following gunfire, Gorobei is found dead. That night, Kambei predicts that the bandits will make one final assault.
Meanwhile, Manzō sees Katsushirō and Shino emerging together from a hut. He beats her when he finds out that his daughter's virginity has been taken. Kambei and the villagers intervene and attempt to persuade him that the couple should be forgiven. The next morning, during heavy rainfall, the defenders allow the remaining bandits to enter the village and ambush them. As the battle nears its end, the bandit chief kills Kyūzō with his musket. An enraged Kikuchiyo charges in and is shot as well, but kills the chief before dying. The remaining bandits are slain. Afterward, Kambei, Katsushirō and Shichirōji stand in front of the funeral mounds of their comrades, watching the villagers sing while planting their crops. Katsushirō and Shino encounter each other, but Shino walks past him to join the others while Katsushirō watches her. Kambei declares to Shichirōji that it is a Pyrrhic victory for the samurai and that the real victors are the peasants.
Cast The seven samurai
Toshirō Mifune as , a humorous and temperamental man who lies about being a samurai but joins the others in defense of the village Takashi Shimura as , a war-weary rōnin and the leader of the seven Isao Kimura as , the youngest samurai, whom Kambei takes as a disciple Daisuke Katō as , Kambei's old friend and former lieutenant Seiji Miyaguchi as , a serious and skilled swordsman Yoshio Inaba as , Kambei's second-in-command Minoru Chiaki as , an amiable though less-skilled fighter
Villagers Yoshio Tsuchiya as , a proactive but rash villager Bokuzen Hidari as , a timid villager Yukiko Shimazaki as Rikichi's wife Kamatari Fujiwara as , a villager who disguises his daughter as a boy to try to protect her from the samurai Keiko Tsushima as , Manzō's daughter Kuninori Kōdō as , the village elder Yoshio Kosugi as Mosuke, one of the villagers sent to town to hire the samurai
Others Shinpei Takagi as the bandit chief as the bandit second-in-command (with an eye patch) Haruo Nakajima as a bandit scout killed by Kyūzō Eijirō Tōno as a thief Atsushi Watanabe as a bun seller Shuno Takahara as the bandit with a gun Jun Tatara as a laborer Sachio Sakai as a laborer Takeshi Seki as a laborer Sōjin Kamiyama as the blind minstrel priest Tatsuya Nakadai (uncredited) as a samurai wandering through town
Production Development and pre-production
During the occupation of Japan, authorities had deliberately suppressed the production of samurai films as they were seen to embody the anti-democratic, feudal values of Japan's wartime government. When the occupation forces left in the early 1950s, the Japanese public still held an interest in stories about the samurai. Kurosawa himself wanted to re-examine and make a new type of , or period drama, film. After the completion of Ikiru (1952), director Akira Kurosawa and his collaborator Shinobu Hashimoto planned to write a script following the daily routine of a single samurai, who at the end of the film would have to commit seppuku for a mistake made during the day. The project stalled as no records could be found concerning the samurai's everyday activities (for example, what and where he might eat). Kurosawa next proposed a project adapting the , a collection of stories based on the biography of the Edo period martial artist Hinatsu Shigetaka. Hashimoto wrote a draft script, but Kurosawa abandoned the idea. Continuing to research the period, Kurosawa found an article that detailed the story of a group of samurai who were hired by peasants to protect them from bandits. In November 1952, Hashimoto wrote an informal script that came to 500 pages in length. The individual characters were based on real martial arts masters.
In December, Kurosawa, Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni went to a inn in Atami to write a full screenplay. Kurosawa made detailed notes on the characteristics of each individual samurai, including the way they would talk and how they tied their shoes. Additionally, he created family trees for the residents of the village and instructed the actors to live together as if they were real families during the shoot. Kurosawa described his and Hashimoto's role as "technical" screenwriters, while Oguni was the humanist "soul". The three screenwriters had developed six samurai, but decided to include the character of Kikuchiyo as they considered the other characters too serious to be entertaining. The script was written over a period of more than six weeks. They wrote the same scene by themselves and would then present their work to the others, whereupon the best ideas would be compiled. Oguni was the screenwriter who had the ultimate decision over a script's readiness; this led to complete rejections that required everybody to re-write their version of a scene. During the writing process Kurosawa suffered from back pain from prolonged sitting on the tatami mats, and became sick with roundworms.