At the time, the film was the most expensive film made in Japan. It took a year to shoot and faced many difficulties. It was the second-highest-grossing domestic film in Japan in 1954. Many reviews compared the film towesterns.[5]
Seven Samurai is regarded as one of thegreatest and most influential films in cinema history. Since its release, it has consistently ranked highly in critics' lists of greatest films, such as theBFI'sSight & Sound andRotten Tomatoes polls.[6][7][8][9] It was also voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time in theBBC's 2018 international critics' poll.[10] It is regarded as one of the most "remade, reworked, and referenced" films in cinema.[11]
In 1586, a bandit gang discusses raiding a mountain village, but their chief decides to wait until after the harvest for a better haul. The villagers overhear this and turn to Gisaku, the village elder and miller. Because the local magistrate is useless, Gisaku plans to hiresamurai to protect the village. Since they have no money and can only offer food as payment, Gisaku advises the villagers to findhungry samurai.
Traveling to a nearby town, the villagers find Kambei, an aging but experiencedrōnin, whom they see rescuing a young boy from a thief. A young samurai named Katsushirō asks to become Kambei’s disciple. The villagers ask for Kambei’s help, and he reluctantly agrees. He then recruits his old comrade-in-arms Shichirōji, along with Gorobei, Heihachi, and Kyūzō, a taciturn master swordsman whom Katsushirō regards with awe. Kikuchiyo, a wild and eccentric samurai-poser, is eventually accepted as well after attempts to drive him away fail.
Arriving at the village, the samurai and farmers slowly begin to trust each other. Katsushirō meets Shino, a farmer's daughter disguised as a boy by her father, and begins a relationship with her despite knowing the difference in their social classes prohibits it. 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 angrily retorts that samurai are responsible for much of the suffering farmers endure, revealing he is an orphaned farmer's son. The samurai's anger turns to shame.
Kambei arms the villagers withbamboo spears, organizes them into squads, and trains them. Three bandit scouts are spotted; two are killed, while the last reveals their camp's location before the villagers execute him. The samurai burn down the camp in apre-emptive strike. Rikichi, a troubled villager aiding the samurai, breaks down when he sees his wife, who was kidnapped and made aconcubine during a previous raid. Upon seeing Rikichi, she runs back into a burning hut to her death. Heihachi is killed by a gunshot while trying to stop Rikichi from pursuing her. At Heihachi's funeral, the saddened villagers are inspired by Kikuchiyo, who raises a banner Heihachi made to represent the six samurai, Kikuchiyo, and the village.
When the bandits finally arrive, they are confounded by the new fortifications, which include amoat and high wooden fences. They 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 bandits then besiege the village, but many are killed as the defenders thwart every attack.
The bandits possess threematchlock muskets. Kyūzō ventures out alone and 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 farmers, and Gorobei is slain defending his position. That night, Kambei predicts that the bandits will make one final assault due to their dwindling numbers.
Meanwhile, Katsushirō and Shino's relationship is discovered by her father, who is enraged that her virginity has been taken and beats her. Kambei and the villagers intervene; Shichirōji reasons that such behavior is normal before battle and that the couple should be forgiven.
The next morning, the defenders allow the remaining bandits to enter the village and ambush them. As the battle nears its end, the bandit chief hides in the women's hut and shoots Kyūzō dead with his musket. An enraged Kikuchiyo charges in and is shot as well, but kills the chief before dying. The remaining outlaws are slain.
Afterward, Kambei, Katsushirō and Shichirōji stand in front of the funeral mounds of their comrades, watching the joyful villagers sing while planting their crops. Katsushirō and Shino meet one last time, but Shino walks past him to join in the planting while Katsushiro despondently watches her. Kambei declares to Shichirōji that it is anotherpyrrhic victory for the samurai: "The victory belongs to those peasants. Not to us."
Takashi Shimura as Kambei Shimada (島田勘兵衛,Shimada Kambei), a war-weary but honorable and strategicrōnin, and the leader of the seven
Yoshio Inaba as Gorōbei Katayama (片山五郎兵衛,Katayama Gorōbei), a skilled archer, who acts as Kambei's second-in-command and helps create the master-plan for the village's defense
Daisuke Katō as Shichirōji (七郎次), Kambei's old friend and former lieutenant
Seiji Miyaguchi as Kyūzō (久蔵), a serious, stone-faced and supremely skilled swordsman
Minoru Chiaki as Heihachi Hayashida (林田平八,Hayashida Heihachi), an amiable though less-skilled fighter, whose charm and wit maintain his comrades' morale in the face of adversity
Isao Kimura as Katsushirō Okamoto (岡本勝四郎,Okamoto Katsushirō), the untested son of a wealthy, land-owning samurai, whom Kambei reluctantly takes in as a disciple[12]
Toshiro Mifune as Kikuchiyo (菊千代), a humorous, mercurial and temperamental rogue who lies about being a samurai, but eventually proves his worth, bravery and resourcefulness
Akira Kurosawa had originally wanted to direct a film about a single day in the life of a samurai. Later, in the course of his research, he discovered a story about samurai defending farmers. According to actor Toshiro Mifune, the film was originally going to be calledSix Samurai, with Mifune playing the role of Kyūzō. During the six-week scriptwriting process, Kurosawa and his screenwriters realized that "six sober samurai were a bore—they needed a character that was more off-the-wall".[14] Kurosawa recast Mifune as Kikuchiyo and gave him creative license to improvise in his performance.[15][16] During the six-week scriptwriting process, the screenwriters were not allowed visitors or phone calls.[17]
Kurosawa and the writers were innovative in refining the theme of the assembly of heroic characters to perform a mission. According to Michael Jeck'sDVD 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 asThe Guns of Navarone,Sholay, the western remakeThe Magnificent Seven, and Pixar's animated filmA Bug's Life.[18] Film criticRoger Ebert speculates in his review that the sequence introducing the leader Kambei (in which the samurai shaves off his topknot, a sign of honor among samurai, in order to pose as a monk 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.[19]
Other plot devices such as the reluctant hero, romance between a local woman and the youngest hero, and the nervousness of the common citizenry, had appeared in other films before this, but were combined in this film.[citation needed]
Kurosawa refused to shoot the peasant village atToho Studios and had a complete set constructed atTagata on theIzu Peninsula,Shizuoka. Although the studio protested against the increased production costs, Kurosawa was adamant that "the quality of the set influences the quality of the actors' performances... For this reason, I have the sets made exactly like the real thing. It restricts the shooting but encourages that feeling of authenticity."[20]He also spoke of the "intense labour" of making the film: "It rained all the time; we didn't have enough horses. It was just the kind of picture that is impossible to make in this country."[21]
Akira Kurosawa directing Seiji Miyaguchi (far right side)
Long before it was released, the film had already become a topic of wide discussion.[21] After three months of pre-production, it had 148 shooting days spread out over a year—four times the span covered in the original budget, which eventually came to almost half a million dollars. Toho Studios closed down production at least twice. Each time, Kurosawa calmly went fishing, reasoning that the studio had already heavily invested in the production and would allow him to complete the picture. The film's final battle scene, originally scheduled to be shot at the end of summer, was shot in February in near-freezing temperatures. Mifune later recalled that he had never been so cold in his life.[20]
During filming for the scene where the samurai arrive at the village, Kurosawa set up a shot at the top of the mountain from which the village could be seen in the valley. In order for this to work as an evening shot, the crew spent the entire day setting up for the single shot, but camerman Asakazu Nakai and Kurosawa ended up debating when to start shooting the scene by looking at the light through the camera's viewfinder. Despite spending the entire day preparing, Nakai's hesitation to start shooting caused the sun to set and the scene wasn't shot.[22]
Through the creative freedom provided by the studio, Kurosawa made use oftelephoto lenses, which were rare in 1954, as well asmultiple cameras which allowed the action to fill the screen and place the audience right in the middle of it.[21] "If I had filmed it in the traditional shot-by-shot method, there was no guarantee that any action could be repeated in exactly the same way twice." He found it to be very effective and he later used it in movies that were less action-oriented. His method was to put one camera in the most orthodox shooting position, another camera for quick shots and a third camera "as a kind ofguerrilla unit". This method made for very complicated shoots, for which Kurosawa choreographed the movement of all three cameras by using diagrams.[20]
The martial arts choreography for the film was led byYoshio Sugino of theTenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū. Initially Junzo Sasamori of theOno-ha Itto-ryu worked with Sugino, but he was asked by the Ministry of Education to teach in Europe during production.
During filming, Kurosawa quickly earned a reputation with his crew as the "world's greatest editor" because of his practice of editing late at night throughout the shooting. He described this as a practical necessity that is incomprehensible to most directors, who on major productions spent at least several months with their editors assembling and cutting the film after shooting is completed.[23]: 89
Kurosawa had a heightened interest in the soundtracks of his films. ForSeven Samurai, he collaborated for the seventh and penultimate time with friend and composerFumio Hayasaka. Hayasaka was already seriously ill when Kurosawa visited him during the filming ofSeven Samurai and he died of tuberculosis on October 15, 1955, at the age of 41, while Kurosawa was filmingI Live in Fear, his next film, which Hayasaka was unable to complete.[24]
In analyzing the film's accuracy to sixteenth century Japan, Philip Kemp discusses the similarities between the samurai and the bandits.[25]
Kenneth Turan notes that the long runtime "reflects the entirety of the agricultural year, from planting to gorgeous blossoming to harvesting."[17] Historian David Conrad notes that at the time of the movie's release, nearly half of the Japanese population was still employed in agriculture. Although farm incomes were already rising as part of theJapanese economic miracle that would transform rural and urban lives in the 1950s and 60s, many of the village conditions depicted in the movie were still familiar to audiences in 1954.[26]
At 207 minutes, including a five-minute intermission with music,Seven Samurai was the longest film of Kurosawa's career. Fearing that international audiences would be unwilling to sit through the entire picture, Toho Studios, alongside Kurosawa himself, originally removed 50 minutes from the film for international distribution & reshowing in Japan.[17] This "General Release" cut distributed around the world until the 1990s; since then, the complete version is usually seen.
The film was released in the United States in 1955, initially under the titleThe Magnificent Seven.[27][28][29] Following the 1960 release of the American remakeThe Magnificent Seven, the Japanese film's title reverted to its originalSeven Samurai in the United States.[5]
Prior to the advent of DVD, various edited versions were distributed on video, but most DVDs and Blu-rays contain Kurosawa's complete original version, including its five-minute intermission. Since 2006, theCriterion Collection's US releases have featured their own exclusive 2K restoration, whereas most others, including all non-US Blu-rays, have an older HD transfer fromToho in Japan.[30][31]
Seven Samurai was well received by Japanese audiences, earning adistribution rental income of¥268 million,[4] within the first twelve months of its release.[3] It was Japan's third-highest-grossing film of 1954, out-grossingGodzilla,[38] which had sold9.7 million tickets[39] and grossed an inflation-adjusted equivalent of¥13.7 billion or$105,000,000 (equivalent to $203,000,000 in 2024) by 1998.[40]
Overseas, the box-office income for the film's 1956 North American release is currently unknown.[41] The film's 2002 re-release grossed $271,841 in the United States and $4,124 in France.[42] At the 2002 Kurosawa & Mifune Festival in the United States, the film grossed $561,692.[43] This adds up to at least $833,533 grossed in the United States. Other European re-releases between 1997-2018 sold 27,627 tickets.[44]
Seven Samurai was released to broadly positive reviews in the west, but film scholarStuart Galbraith IV has noted it received "praise from American critics, but praise tainted by cultural condescension" for its perceived similarities to the American Western; nevertheless, it is now considered one of the greatest films in history.[45] On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film holdsa perfect approval rating of 100% based on 95 reviews, with an average rating of 9.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Arguably Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece,The Seven Samurai is an epic adventure classic with an engrossing story, memorable characters, and stunning action sequences that make it one of the most influential films ever made".[46] It currently ranks 18th on theiraction/adventure voting list,[47] and third on their top 100 art house and international films.[48] On Metacritic, it received a 98 out of 100 based on 7 critic reviews.[49] On Sensacine, the film received a 4.3 out of 5 based on 3 critic reviews.[50]
Upon its initial US release asThe Magnificent Seven, film critic Wanda Hale reviewed the film inNew York Daily News and rated it four stars. She noted it was very different from Kurosawa's previous filmRashomon (1950) in that it was "an action picture" but Kurosawa "has exceeded himself". She praised Kurosawa's storytelling for "his deep perception of human nature" and "awareness that no two people are alike," his "sensitive, knowing direction" that "never lets audiences lose interest" in the plot, his talent for making the battle scenes and violent action "terrifically exciting to audiences" and his ability to naturally weave humor and romance between the serious action. She praised the "inspired performances" of the cast, including Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune, among other actors.[28]
Many critics outside of Japan have compared the film towesterns.Bosley Crowther, writing forThe New York Times, compared it toHigh Noon[5] Film historianPeter Cowie quoted Kurosawa as saying, "Good westerns are liked by everyone. Since humans are weak, they want to see good people and great heroes. Westerns have been done over and over again, and in the process, a kind of grammar has evolved. I have learned from this grammar of the western." Cowie continues this thought by saying, "ThatSeven Samurai can be so seamlessly transposed to an American setting underlines how carefully Kurosawa had assimilated this grammar."[51]
In 1982, it was voted third in theSight & Sound critics' poll ofgreatest films. In the 2002Sight & Sound critics' poll the film was ranked 11th.[52] In theSight & Sound directors' poll, it was voted 10th in 1992[53] and number nine in 2002.[54] It ranked 17th on the 2012Sight & Soundcritics' poll,[55] in both cases being tied with Kurosawa's ownRashomon (1950). It ranked 17th in 2012Sight & Sound directors' poll.
In 1998, the film was ranked 5th inTime Out magazine's Top 100 Films (Centenary).[56]Entertainment Weekly voted it the 12th greatest film of all time in 1999.[57] In 2000, the film was ranked at No.23 inThe Village Voice's 100 Greatest Films list.[58] In January 2002, the film was voted at No. 81 on the list of the "Top 100 Essential Films of All Time" by theNational Society of Film Critics.[59][60]
In 2007, the film was ranked at No. 3 byThe Guardian's readers' poll on its list of "40 greatest foreign films of all time".[61] The film was voted at No. 57 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazineCahiers du cinéma in 2008.[62] In 2009 the film was voted at No. 2 on the list ofThe Greatest Japanese Films of All Time by Japanese film magazineKinema Junpo.[63]Seven Samurai was ranked number one onEmpire magazine's list of "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.[64]
Film criticRoger Ebert added it to his list of Great Movies in 2001.[65]Martin Scorsese included it on a list of "39 Essential Foreign Films for a Young Filmmaker."[66] It was also listed by Russian filmmakerAndrei Tarkovsky as one of his top ten favorite films.[67]
Kurosawa both directed and edited many of his films, includingSeven Samurai. In 2012, theMotion Picture Editors Guild listedSeven Samurai as the 33rd-best-edited film of all time based on a survey of its members.[68] It was voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time inBBC's2018 poll of 209 critics in 43 countries.[10] In 2019, whenTime Out polled film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors,Seven Samurai was voted the second-bestaction film of all time.[69] In 2021, the film was ranked at number 7 onTime Out magazine's list of "The 100 Best Movies of All Time".[70]
Seven Samurai was a technical and creative watershed that became Japan's highest-grossing movie and set a new standard for the industry. It has remained highly influential, often seen as one of the most "remade, reworked, referenced" films in cinema.[11]
There have beenpachinko machines based onSeven Samurai in Japan.Seven Samurai pachinko machines have sold 94,000 units in Japan as of March 2018[update],[72] equivalent to an estimated$470 million in gross revenue.[72][73]
Its influence can be most strongly felt in the WesternThe Magnificent Seven (1960), a film specifically adapted fromSeven Samurai. DirectorJohn Sturges tookSeven Samurai and adapted it to the Old West, with the samurai replaced bygunslingers. Many ofThe Magnificent Seven's scenes mirror those ofSeven Samurai.[74] The film's title itself comes from the US localized title ofSeven Samurai, which was initially released under the titleThe Magnificent Seven in the United States in 1955.[27] However, in an interview with R. B. Gadi, Kurosawa expressed how "the American copy ofThe Magnificent Seven is a disappointment, although entertaining. It is not a version ofSeven Samurai".[23]: 42 Stephen Prince argues that considering samurai films and Westerns respond to different cultures and contexts, what Kurosawa found useful was not their content but rather he was inspired by their levels of syntactic movement, framing, form and grammar.[75]
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) is an Americanscience fiction film directed byJimmy T. Murakami and produced byRoger Corman. The film, intended as a "Magnificent Seven in outer space",[77][78] is based on the plots ofThe Magnificent Seven andSeven Samurai. The movie acknowledges its debt toSeven Samurai by calling the protagonist's homeworldAkir and its inhabitants theAkira.
Some film critics have noted similarities between Pixar'sA Bug's Life (1998) andSeven Samurai.[79][80]
DirectorZack Snyder creditedSeven Samurai as being an inspiration for his 2023space opera filmRebel Moon, which shares the plot element of villagers assembling a team of warriors to defend their farming settlement.[84] Snyder has described the movie as "Seven Samurai in space."[85]
DirectorDenis Villeneuve citedSeven Samurai as one of his favorite films of all time and as an influence on his 2015 filmSicario.[86]
"Marauders", the sixth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television seriesStar Trek: Enterprise (2002), is based onSeven Samurai.
Seven Samurai is largely touted as what made the "assembling the team" trope popular in movies and other media. This has since become a common trope in manyaction movies andheist films.[82]Seven Samurai spawned its own subgenre of "men-on-a-mission" films,[87] also known as the "Seven Samurai formula" where "a team of disparate characters are grouped to undertake a specific mission." The formula has been widely adopted by many films and other media.[5][83] Along with remakes already listed above, other examples of the "Seven Samurai formula" can be seen in films such asSaving Private Ryan (1998),[83]The Dirty Dozen (1967),Star Wars (1977),[5]The Savage Seven (1968),[88]The 13th Warrior (1999),The Expendables, andAvengers,[89] as well as television series such asThe A-Team andThe Walking Dead.[83]
According to Stephen Prince, the film's "racing, powerful narrative engine, breathtaking pacing, and sense-assaulting visual style" (what he calls a "kinesthetic cinema" approach to "action filmmaking and exciting visual design") was "the clearest precursor" and became "the model for" theHollywood blockbuster "brand of moviemaking" that emerged in the 1970s.[90] The visuals, plot, dialogue and film techniques ofSeven Samurai inspired a wide range of filmmakers, ranging fromSteven Spielberg andGeorge Lucas toMartin Scorsese andQuentin Tarantino.[90][91] According to Prince, Kurosawa was "a mentor figure" to an emerging generation of American filmmakers, such as Spielberg and Lucas, who went on to develop the Hollywood blockbuster format in the 1970s.[90]
Elements fromSeven Samurai have been borrowed by many films. Examples include plot elements in films such asThree Amigos (1986) byJohn Landis, borrowed scenes inGeorge Miller'sMad Max: Fury Road (2015), and various elements (including visual elements and the way the action, suspense and movement are presented) in the large-scale battle scenes of films such asThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002),The Matrix Revolutions (2003) and numerousMarvel Studios films.[91][83] The opening action scene (where the hero is introduced in an action scenario unrelated to the rest of the plot) later seen in many action films (such as thepre-title scenes inJames Bond films) has origins inSeven Samurai, whose first action scene has Kambei posing as a monk to save a boy from a kidnapper.[83] A visual element fromSeven Samurai that has inspired a number of films is the use ofrain to set the tone for action scenes; examples of this includeBlade Runner (1982),The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, andThe Matrix Revolutions.[92]Seven Samurai'sfilm editing technique ofcutting on motion and the mentor–student dynamics in the plot (also seen in other Kurosawa films) have also been widely adopted by Hollywood blockbusters (such as Marvel films).[83]
American authorHelen DeWitt's debut novelThe Last Samurai heavily featuresSeven Samurai as the title is a reference to the movie and characters within the novel watch and respond to the movie throughout the book.
^"Kikuchiyo" has a genealogy which shows he was "born the 17th of the 2nd month of Tenshô 2 (1574), a wood-dog year". Kambei's comment is "o-nushi 13 sai niwa mienu ga" (You don't look 13...). Since the traditional way of counting ages in Japan is by the number of calendar years one has lived in, this means the story takes place in 1586.
^Nogami, Teruyo (2001).Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa. Translated by Carpenter, Juliet Winters. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press (published 2006). pp. 112–114.ISBN9781933330099.
^Forrest, Jennifer (August 12, 2008).The Legend Returns and Dies Harder Another Day: Essays on Film Series.McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 214.ISBN978-0-7864-3943-0.Archived from the original on August 7, 2023. RetrievedApril 21, 2022.Gojira opened on November 3, 1954 and receipts were strong: the film recorded the best opening-day ticket sales ever in Tokyo and eventually grossed¥152 million on9.69 million paid admissions, though it was only the twelfth largest grossing film in Japan that year (well behind the leading Japanese film, the final installment of the sentimentalKimi no na wa? trilogy, and the leading import,Roman Holiday).
^Takarada, Akira (August 10, 1998).Nippon Godzilla Golden Legend (in Japanese).Fusosha Publishing.ISBN978-4-594-02535-9.Archived from the original on August 7, 2023. RetrievedApril 21, 2022.「ゴジラ」の観客動員数、960万人。現在の入場料に換算すれば、興行収入は137億円となる。 [The number of spectators of "Godzilla" is9.6 million. When converted to the current admission fee, the box office revenue would be¥13.7 billion.]
^Prince, Stephen (1999).The warrior's camera : the cinema of Akira Kurosawa (Rev. and expanded ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 18.ISBN978-0691010465.
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