Action · Drama
Japanese (Shichinin no Samurai)
1954 · Directed by Akira Kurosawa · 207 min
In sixteenth-century Japan, a farming village learns that bandits will return after the harvest. The farmers set out to hire masterless samurai who will fight for little more than food. It is an epic of more than three hours that mixes tension, humour and close attention to its characters.
Why it matters in cinema history
A defining film of the Japanese golden age and of the jidaigeki, the period drama, it showed that a samurai film could combine popular entertainment with serious social observation and reach audiences worldwide.
Watch with intention
Watch it as a story about preparation and community, in which how people organise matters as much as how they fight.
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