Director: Kurosawa Akira
Script: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto et Hideo Oguni
Cinematographer: Asakazu Nakai
Editing: Akira Kurosawa
Art Setting: Takashi Matsuyama
Music: Fumio Hayasaka
Cast: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Yoshio, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki, Daisuke Kato, Isao Kimura
Production: Toho
Distribution:
Le Pacte
5 rue Darcet
75 017 Paris
Phone: 0033 1 44 69 59 59
www.le-pacte.com
Year: 1954
35 mm, B & W, 207 min,
O.V. Japanese with French Subtitles
Part of Japonism 2018
The story takes place in 1586 during the Sengoku Period of Japanese history. It follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven ronin (masterless samurai) for a handful of rice to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops. Under supervision of an old wise and strategist samurai, the villagers train to defend their terrorized village from bandits.
The movie is one of the very first box office successes of a Japanese movie in Westernized countries.
Quoted amidst best movies of all times, Seven Samurais has also been remade many times in more or less obvious way, like John Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven or Pixar’s or Pixar’s A Bugs Life. Actor James Coburn and directors such as Sam Peckinpah even think the movie is responsible for US Western’s evolution.
Silver Lion for best direction in the 15th Venice International Film Festival, in 1954, ex aequo with Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff.
