Seven Samurai

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Seven Samurai ★★★★ Shichinin No Samurai; The Magnificent Seven 1954

Kurosawa's masterpiece, set in 16thcentury Japan. A small farming village, beset by marauding bandits, hires seven professional soldiers to rid itself of the scourge. Wanna watch a samaurai movie? This is the one. Sweeping, complex human drama with all the ingredients: action, suspense, comedy. Available in several versions of varying length, all long—and all too short. Splendid acting. In Japanese with English subtitles. 204m/B VHS, DVD . JP Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba, Kuninori Kodo, Isao (Ko) Kimura, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki, Daisuke Kato, Bokuzen Hidari, Kamatari (Keita) Fujiwara, Yoshio Kosugi, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Jun Tatara, Sojin, Kichijiro Ueda, Jun Tazaki, Keiji Sakakida, Keiko Tsushima, Gen Shimizu; D: Akira Kurosawa; W: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni; C: Asakazu Nakai; M: Fumio Hayasaka. Venice Film Fest. '54: Silver Prize.