Seven Samurai

An epic in the true sense of the word, Kurosawa’s 1954 SEVEN SAMURAI has been hailed as a masterpiece and as one of the most influential movies of all time, having served as – among others – the inspiration for the 1960 Western ‘The Magnificent Seven’. Now, the Seven Samurai has just been unleashed as a 2-Disc Limited Edition UHD and Blu-ray Set with as many Extras as trees in a bamboo forest.

Initially, the premise of the film appears to be a relatively simple one though of course, in true Kurosawa style the scenario gets more complex as the story unfolds. Set during Japan’s Sengoku period in the latter half of the 16th century, the story concerns poor farmers carving out a meagre existence in a mountain village. Exposed to all sorts of danger, the villagers live in constant fear of being raided by marauding bandits, meaning they would end up having even less to eat if the rice is stolen. Worse still, they may end up dead. Indeed, when a gang of bandits appear on the horizon, the villagers expect the worst but then the raiders unexpectedly retreat. If the villagers thought they were miraculously let of the hook they thought wrong, because some of them working in the fields at the time, catch fragments of a conversation between the bandit chief (Shinpei Takagi) and his posse. It is decided that the bandits should wait a little longer before they proceed in raiding the village, to be more precise, they want to wait until after the barley harvest. That way, their booty would not only contain rice but precious barley too, while the villagers would be left quite literally with nothing and would starve to death.

In their despair, they turn to village elder Gisaku (Kokuten Kodo), whose plan to hire samurai for protection is hampered by the fact that they don’t have the financial means to pay them. However, Gisaku – ever the wise old man that he is – comes up with Plan B: why not hire hungry samurai who are willing to fight in exchange for a few rice balls and hot broth? And so some villagers embark on a quest to gather suitable samurai. They won’t have to wait long, as in a little town an elderly but seasoned ‘ronin’ named Kambai (Takashi Shimura) disguises himself as a monk and by doing so, saves the life of a little boy held hostage by a thug. Clearly, recruiting this Kambai is the first step in the right direction and better still, he listens to the villagers and agrees to help, provided some more willing samurai can be found. One young but rather inexperienced chap, Katsushiro (Isao Kimura) is more than eager to join but for the moment at least, he is bottom of the list due to being relatively green behind the ears. Eventually, a motley crew of six samurais (including Kambei) is gathered – each and every one of them with their own set of skills: Shichiroji (Daisuke Kato) is an old friend of Kambei and has military experience. Gorobei (Yoshio Inaba) is not only a talented archer but he ends up becoming Kambei’s second-in-command. Kyuzo (Minoru Chiaki) is one of the best swordsman around though when it comes to personality, he appears to be extremely serious and rarely smiles. Heihachi (Minoru Chiaki), although not the best fighter, is accepted due to his morale-boosting personality. By chance, they stumble across Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), a bit of a jester and a likable rogue with a temper that usually gets the better of him. At first, he lies about being a samurai and it’s not until a later incident, when he rescues a little baby boy from a burning mill, that he breaks down sobbing and admits that the same fate had befallen him when he was a toddler – thus admitting that he is in fact the son of a humble farmer. However, at that point he has proven that he’s worth his salt and the remaining samurai never mention his background again. Finally, the group accepts young Katsushiro (who looks up to Kyuzo’s skills in admiration) and the seven samurai are ready for action.

This is the first half of the film, which is divided by a bizarre 10-minute or so on-screen intermission (literally nothing but the word ‘Intermission’ appears, accompanied by music) before the second half of the film concerns itself with the samurais’ preparations and plans of action, in particular the creation of a master-plan which is supposed to help fight off the bandits once they’re ready to attack. Of course, it’s not all down just to our seven heroes but the villagers are expected to do their bit as well. That said, Kambei and Co. can expect very little from Yohei (Bokuzen Hidari) – an old man whose main skill lies in looking frightened and displaying a cowardly demeanour at the best of times. In contrast is Rikichi ((Yoshio Tsuchiya), whose temper is eclipsed only by loose cannon Kikuchiyo. There’s human tragedy as well, namely when Manzo (Kamatari Fujiwara) chops off the hair of his daughter Shino (Keiko Tsushima) as a precaution before the arrival of the seven samurai… Manzo is certain that the samurai are little less than raping and pilfering thugs and by making his daughter look like a boy he hopes to save her from possibly getting raped. His well-meant plan spectacularly backfires when our seven samurai not only turn out to be rather honourable but young samurai Katsushiro sees through Shino’s disguise and the two fall in love… That said, there is no happy ending in store once Manzo gets wind of the liaison due to his and his daughter’s low social status. A samurai should not get involved with someone below his station!

Soon, the first round of the bandit’s attack commences and it goes without saying that director Kurosawa staged this first, as well as the ensuing battle, in epic fashion. Admittedly, the movie, which took an entire year to shoot and was the most expensive film made in Japan at the time, could easily have been reduced to a shorter running time but clearly, Kurosawa was a stickler for details who not only sat in the director’s chair but also edited Seven Samurai. The hard work paid off as it won several awards and was nominated numerous times. Toshiro Mifune’s energetic performance is almost exhausting to watch and he injects his madcap character with plenty of humour too, whereas Takashi Shimura delivers a much more controlled performance as a strategic samurai Kambai, who has grown war-weary over the years. Of course, two years prior Shimura displayed his formidable acting talent as the terminally ill bureaucrat Kanji Watanabe in Kurosawa’s ‘Ikiru’ (also available via BFI).

The Bonus material is just as exhausting as Toshiro Mifune’s ace performance and apart from audio commentaries, trailers and image gallery, we are treated to multiple documentaries revolving around Kurosawa (who else), clocking in over 230 minutes in total! The 2-disc set furthermore contains 4 postcards depicting iconic images from the film and a 80-page book with new essays. So better get your order of sushi and sake ready, because you’re in for a marathon!