Seven Samurai

"Unmatched for suspense and spectacle!"

1954 3h 27m JA

🤯

8.5

MASTERPIECE

🔥

100%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

8.6

IMDB

★8.5TMDB · 4,399🍅100%Rotten Tomatoes●98Metacritic★8.6IMDB · 397,770

ActionDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

“Unmatched for suspense and spectacle!”

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Cast

Toshirō Mifune
Kikuchiyo
Takashi Shimura
Kambei Shimada
Yoshio Inaba
Gorobei Katayama
Seiji Miyaguchi
Kyuzo
Minoru Chiaki
Heihachi Hayashida
Daisuke Katō
Shichiroji
Isao Kimura
Katsushiro Okamoto
Keiko Tsushima
Shino

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writers: Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto, Akira Kurosawa
Languages: Japanese
Countries: Japan

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

At 207 minutes, this is a three-hour-plus commitment — longer than 95% of films ever made.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $105M — a 52.5× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

72 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Akira Kurosawa, shot by Asakazu Nakai. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Fumio Hayasaka. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Akira Kurosawa shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Toshirō Mifune and Takashi Shimura and Yoshio Inaba carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Akira Kurosawa directs. Asakazu Nakai behind the camera. Fumio Hayasaka scores. Akira Kurosawa cuts. A long sit — settle in. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Japan. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1At 207 minutes, this is a three-hour-plus commitment — longer than 95% of films ever made.
2Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Grossed $105M — a 52.5× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
472 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
5Directed by Akira Kurosawa, shot by Asakazu Nakai. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Fumio Hayasaka. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Akira Kurosawa shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Toshirō Mifune and Takashi Shimura and Yoshio Inaba carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Unmatched for suspense and spectacle!".
10IMDB entry: tt0047478 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 32 themes, including "martial arts", "japan", "samurai", "sword".
12Released under 25 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Asakazu Nakai
Original score: Fumio Hayasaka
Editing: Akira Kurosawa
Costume design: Mieko Yamaguchi
Makeup / hair: Midori Nakajô
Runtime: 207 min · 3h 27m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $2,000,000
Box office: $105,000,000
Return: 5250% of budget
Original language: JA
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Seven Samurai (1954)
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 98/100
IMDB rating: 8.6/10 · 397,770 votes
MPAA: Not Rated

Awards

Nominated for 2 Oscars. 5 wins & 9 nominations total

Also by

Akira Kurosawa

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Andres Gomez2013-10-23
★ 10/10
Fantastic movie with a great touch of reality.
Kenneth Blais2022-11-18
★ 10/10
At the top of my favorite films ever. Every time I watch it is see something new. Bandits steal peasants rice. Peasants hire ronin samurai to defend them. Great plot, pace and acting. Akira Kurasawa's best...perhaps.
Filipe Manuel Neto2022-11-25
★ 6/10
Maybe a little overrated, but there's no doubt that it's good. Well, I have to start this text with a note that I believe is relevant to understand what I'm going to write: this was the first Japanese film that I remember seeing. I might even be forgetting something I've seen before, but I don't think so. Therefore, I'm not a good connoisseur of Japanese cinema, so I don't want my opinion to be taken with any authority that I don't crave. I know there are people who want that. I do not. I speak, as in any of my reviews, only through my mouth, from the height of my meager wisdom, without pretensions. I may be right about some things, wrong about others, but that's the most normal thing in the world. I decided to see this film because it was highly recommended and well regarded… everyone said it was a very good film, so I decided to see it for myself. I just finished it, and read a little about the film and its director, the famous Akira Kurosawa. The film is really a work that is above average, but it is not the kind of film that pleases everyone, and it seems to me to be a little overvalued, which results in damage. I say this because I felt, at various times, that the film failed to meet my expectations, as I am quite neutral, that is, I neither love this type of film nor feel repugnance in watching it. The script takes place, roughly, in the mid-16th century, when Japan was divided into feuds and kingdoms, and there were frequent internecine wars in which the samurai took part. Of course, in such an environment, it is the common people who sacrifice themselves, and the humblest have always been the most susceptible to abuse by the powerful. That's what we have here, with a rural village that is regularly looted and devastated by an armed band until it decides to hire a small group of wandering samurai to help defend it. They achieve this objective, and we are invited to see all the labors that occur in the preparation of the defense, and in the martial training of those peasants. I'm going to do it differently, and start by saying the aspects that seemed most positive to me. First, it seems to me that Kurosawa is really meticulous in the work he has done and has great affection and respect for his country's traditions and history. Otherwise, one would not understand the effort and money that were tied up in a film with such a historical and cultural load. To what extent did his taste for realism influence European cinema, or vice versa? I'm sure there are film students who have discussed this. What I can guarantee is the commitment to realism, visible, for example, in the extraordinary design of the sets and costumes, and in the static cinematography, very elegant and sharp. The script is quite solid, and gives us an extraordinarily credible story and very well-built and striking characters. I don't know the actors well, but I think Toshiro Mifune deserves applause for the commitment and work he has done here. He is an actor who naturally captures our attention and has a charisma that comes through effortlessly. On the negative side, however, we also have several aspects to point out, starting with the length of the film, with more than three and a half hours. I'm sorry to say, but I feel that the script didn't justify that much time, and that Kurosawa didn't work the pace well. With a more restricted edition, he would have managed to reduce the film, without much loss, to two hours, and make it less heavy and exhausting. We don't need to see every village debate or every military training shenanigans. I also didn't like the attempts at humor introduced in the film. They just weren't funny at all. The excessive predictability of the story told also turns out to be a defect. I also didn't like the virtual absence of a soundtrack. I've seen that in other films, and I've never been particularly fond of that stylistic device.