Seven Samurai – BFI

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Seiji Miyaguchi, Daisuke Katō, Isao Kimura, Yoshio Inaba, Minoru Chiaki, Keiko Tsushima
Producer: Sôjirô Motoki
Country: Japan
Running Time: 207 min
Year: 1954
BBFC Certificate: PG

When the BFI announced recently that they’d be re-releasing Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai on UHD and Blu-ray I initially wasn’t that interested. Despite adoring the film, I don’t have a 4K setup, already own their previous Blu-ray and have reviewed it here. However, on reading that this latest release came from a new restoration and looking at the substantial special features being packed with it, I figured the upgrade might be worth checking out.

Well, I’m certainly glad I did, as the BFI’s new disc certainly is a substantial upgrade. You can see my thoughts on the restoration and extras further down the page but, first, let me briefly recap my thoughts on the film itself.

I’m just going to reprint my previous review here, without the initial personal background and with a few tweaks, so please forgive my laziness and any shortcomings in the quality of my writing.

Seven Samurai is set in the 1600’s, in a Japanese farming village that has previously been attacked by a group of bandits that raided their crops and abused and murdered many of their residents. After hearing that the bandits will return once the next harvest is in, the villagers decide to hire some samurai to defend their land. Unfortunately, they have little to offer other than their own share of rice and meagre hospitality, and most samurai will not fight for payment in such a way.

Through much persuasion however, they manage to group together a rag-tag bunch of six ronin (masterless samurai) and one unkempt wannabe samurai nicknamed Kikuchiyo (Toshirô Mifune). The seven warriors do their best to drum the villagers into shape and work as a team to bring down the villainous thieves once and for all.

Or, a shorter way of explaining it is to say it’s The Magnificent Seven but with samurai instead of cowboys. The hugely popular John Sturges film was famously an (uncredited) American remake of the story.

Well, what can I say about Seven Samurai that hasn’t already been said? The biggest thing that hit me, due to my original worries about the length of the film, is how tightly written and edited it is. It’s a staggering three and a half hours long, yet I couldn’t spot a single wasted frame or unnecessary side-story. It doesn’t sound possible considering the running time, but I’d actually call it a fast-paced film. This is apparent from the offset as no time is wasted in setting up the story. The bandits ride straight in, view the village and tell us their plan and we cut to the villagers discussing what they’re going to do about it. No frills, straight to the point.

What aids the pace of the narrative is the sheer vitality of the film. I’ve seen few films so full of life and I mean that in a number of ways. Not only does the film have a naturalism rare to the chanbara/jidaigeki (samurai/period drama) genre, especially from the time of production, but it’s also full of humour, drama and passion. Each beautifully framed shot is packed with life too, often utilising multiple layers of moving visuals and rarely containing any empty space.

The film also makes great use of the natural elements. On top of the famous climax in the rain and mud, Kurosawa uses dust blowing in the wind, flowing rivers and waterfalls, mist, forests, fields of flowers and raging flames, all to enhance the drama and create a living, breathing experience which is exhilarating to watch.

Adding to this visceral nature is the presentation of the action scenes. Kurosawa doesn’t have stagey one-on-one duels (other than in one early brief scene), he has characters getting down and dirty, stabbing wildly and violently, often rolling around in the dirt. Hordes of desperate villagers get in on a lot of the action too, furiously skewering their victims with bamboo spears. This, mixed with the kinetic camerawork and editing, makes for action set pieces which more than stand up to this day. It might not have the elaborate choreography of the Asian action films that would develop from the ’60s onwards, but it still has the required impact.

On top of all of the critical praise you can give the film and the wanky reasons you could come up with for why it’s so loved, it’s also a wonderfully well-rounded piece of entertainment. As well as being action-packed (at least in the final act), it’s very funny at times (aided by Toshirô Mifune’s lively performance), rousing, occasionally quite moving and there’s even a bit of romance thrown in for good measure. So, like some of the other cinematic greats (Casablanca springs to mind), here is a film that doesn’t require chin-stroking to appreciate. Just sit back and enjoy three and a half wonderful hours of pleasure.

When I first reviewed Seven Samurai back in 2014, I beat myself up for not having watched it earlier. I’m pleased to say, after watching it a couple of times, it now nestles comfortably among my very favourite films of all time.

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Where to watch Seven Samurai