Arthur Penn on Akira Kurosawa
September 30, 2010
American film legend Arthur Penn, the director of The Miracle Worker, Bonnie and Clyde, and Little Big Man, and other classic movies, died this week at age eighty-eight. When we heard the Read more »
- Japan
- 1954
- 207 minutes
- 1.33:1
- Japanese
- Spine #2
SYNOPSIS: One of the most thrilling movie epics of all time, Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous warriors to protect them from invading bandits. This three-hour ride from Akira Kurosawa—featuring legendary actors Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura—seamlessly weaves philosophy and entertainment, delicate human emotions and relentless action, into a rich, evocative, and unforgettable tale of courage and hope.
Cast & CreditsOpen
Cast
| Kikuchiyo | Toshiro Mifune |
| Kambei | Takashi Shimura |
| Shino | Keiko Tsushima |
| Wife | Yukio Shimazaki |
| Farmer Manzo | Kamatari Fujiwara |
| Shichiroji | Daisuke Kato |
| Katsushiro | Ko Kimura |
| Heihachi | Minoru Chiaki |
| Kyuzo | Seiji Miyaguchi |
| Farmer Mosuke | Yoshio Kosugi |
| Farmer Yohei | Bokuzen Hidari |
| Gorobei | Yoshio Inaba |
Credits
| Director | Akira Kurosawa |
| Screenplay | Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni and Shinobu Hashimoto |
| Producer | Sojiro Motoki |
| Cinematography | Asakazu Nakai |
| Music | Fumio Hayasaka |
| Editing | Hiroshi Nezu |
Disc Features
SPECIAL EDITION THREE-DISC SET:
- All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer (with the original uncompressed monaural soundtrack and an optional DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Two audio commentaries, one featuring film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie, and the other Japanese film expert Michael Jeck
- Fifty-minute documentary on the making of Seven Samurai, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
- My Life in Cinema, a two-hour video conversation from 1993 between directors Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima
- Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences, a documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that helped shape Kurosawa’s masterpiece
- Theatrical trailers and teaser
- Gallery of rare posters, behind-the scenes photos, and production stills
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by Kenneth Turan, Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Stuart Galbraith, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet and an interview with Toshiro Mifune from 1993
From the CurrentView the Current »
Film Essays
The Hours and Times: Kurosawa and the Art of Epic Storytelling
By September 04, 2006
The great German composer Richard Strauss was conducting his three-hour-plus Der Rosenkavalier when—or so the story goes—he turned to his concertmaster Read more »
A Time of Honor: Seven Samurai and Sixteenth-Century Japan
By September 04, 2006
There’s an old Chinese curse that runs, “May you live in interesting times.” And sixteenth-century Japan was certainly an interesting time from a dramatic point Read more »
Kurosawa’s Early Influences
By September 04, 2006
The themes, symbolism, and aesthetic forms of Akira Kurosawa’s films owe their origins to the ideas and sensibilities that captured his imagination as a young man. These include Marxism, which Read more »
Seven Samurai
By November 22, 1999
Breathtaking, fastmoving, and overflowing with a delightfully self-mocking sense of humor, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is one of the most popular and influential Japanese films ever made. Released in 1954 Read more »
Videos
Features
Remembering Kurosawa
By December 09, 2009
Not that he himself wanted to be remembered. Rather, he wanted his work to be remembered. He once wrote: “Take ‘myself,’ subtract ‘movies,’ and the result is ‘zero.’” It was as though he thought Read more »
Interviews
Impressions of a Career: Peter Cowie on Kurosawa
March 12, 2010
The monthlong Akira Kurosawa centennial celebrations continue with the release this week of Rizzoli’s gorgeously illustrated hardcover book Akira Kurosawa: Master of Cinema Read more »
