Cinema
Seven Samurai
七人の侍
Akira Kurosawa · 1954
Synopsis
Japan, 1586. The peasants of a village learn that bandits will return to take the harvest after the reaping. With no money, the elder advises them to hire hungry samurai, who will fight for rice. In town, they find Kambei, a seasoned old rōnin who accepts and recruits six other men, including Kikuchiyo, a braggart who claims to be a samurai, according to Dennis Schwartz. In the village, the peasants are at first wary of them, then the warriors teach them to fight and prepare the defence.
Context
The screenplay is by the director, Hashimoto Shinobu and Oguni Hideo. Filming began on 27 May 1953, lasted one hundred and forty-eight days and ran over schedule and budget, to the point that the studio suspended funding for a time; Dennis Schwartz calls it the most expensive Japanese film of its time. The village built for the shoot had twenty-three houses, and the final battle was filmed in winter with several cameras. The film was released in Japan on 26 April 1954, in a version of more than three hours with an intermission.
Who it is for
Nearly three and a half hours with an intermission, from the recruitment of the warriors to the preparation of the defence.
Prizes and reception
Silver Lion for direction at Venice in 1954; it was remade in Hollywood as a western in 1960.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.