The seven samurai

The Seven Samurai (七人の侍 Shichinin no samurai) is a 1954 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. He won the Silver Lion at the Venice Mostra and two Oscar nominations.

The Seven Samurai is considered one of the greatest and most influential films in history, and is one of the few Japanese films that gained fame and popularity in the West for many years. It has been acclaimed by both critics and the public; in 1982 she was chosen in the list of Sight & Sound of the ten greatest films of all time, and among the ten favorite films of the directors in the voting of 1992 and 2002. The Association of Cinema, Radio and Theater Chroniclers of Peru included in the Shortlisted for the Inka Awards in 1957 as best non-Iberian film. It is also the top 07 of the 100 best action films of all time by GQ.

The film influenced subsequent Western productions, such as the well-known western The Magnificent Seven, including a 2016 remake.

Synopsis

The action takes place in Japan in the 16th century. The inhabitants of a peasant village, fed up with being periodically assaulted by a horde of bandits, decide to do something about it. The oldest member of the village suggests hiring samurai to defend them. After several failed attempts to find samurai willing to fight just for food, they find one named Kanbei who decides to help them. Thanks to Kanbei, they manage to gather a group of seven samurai who will defend the town more for their courage and ethics than for the two handfuls of rice that they are offered a day.

Cast

Samurai

• Toshirō Mifune: Kikuchiyo, a young man of peasant origin who tries to become known as a true samurai, of an angry character and fun detachments.
• Takashi Shimura: Kanbei, a born soldier whose ability to direct and skill as a strategist make him the natural leader. He feels he's never won a battle.
• Daisuke Kato: Shichiroji, an old friend of Kanbei, in addition to an excellent and experienced warrior. Apparent Taoist knowledge.
• Ko Kimura: Katsushiro, the youngest in the group. Try to learn to be a good samurai, although he still lacks experience.
• Minuro Chiaki: Heihachi, the most joyful member of the group, and perhaps the only one to whom the wars have not removed the good mood. He didn't have much experience, he was dedicated to cutting wood.
• Seiji Miyaguchi: Kyuzu, the master in the art of killing with the sword. His only goal in life is to perfect his fighting style and samurai skills.
• Yoshio Inaba: Gorobei, an experienced samurai and a good person. He could come out almost of any trouble thanks to his wit.

Civilians

• Yoshio Tsuchiya: Rikichi
• Yukiko Shimazaki: The woman of Rikichi
• Keiko Tsushima: Shino
• Kamatari Fujiwara: Manzo, the father of Shino
• Yoshio Kosugi: Mosuke
• Bokuzen Hidari: Yohei
• Kokuten Kōdō: Gisaku, the old
• Jirō Kumagai: the son of Gisaku
• Haruko Toyama: the daughter of Gisaku
• Junpei Natsuki
• Toku Ihara

Awards

Awards

Candidacies

Production

Filming The seven samurai in Tōhō Studies.

The film was the first about samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa. He originally wanted to direct a film about a single day in the life of a samurai, but he discovered a story about samurai defending farmers during his research. According to actor Toshirō Mifune, the film was initially going to be called Six Samurai (The Six Samurai), with Mifune in the role of Kyuzo. During the six-week script development process, Kurosawa and his writers realized that six composed samurai would be boring, they needed a character that was more quirky. Kurosawa switched Mifune to the role of Kikuchiyo and gave him creative freedom. to improvise your performance.

The film was slow to complete and became a topic of discussion before it was even released. After three months of pre-production, the film had 148 days of shooting over nearly a year. The budget eventually reached almost half a million dollars. Tōhō studios shut down production at least twice. Each time, Kurosawa went fishing, reasoning that the studio had already invested heavily in the production and would allow him to complete the film. The final battle scene, initially scheduled to be shot in late summer, was shot in February in very low temperatures. Mifune would later remember that it had never been so cold before.

Kurosawa refused to shoot the peasant village at the Tōhō studios and had an entire set built in Tagata, on the Izu peninsula on the Japanese island of Honshū. Although the studio protested the increase in production costs, Kurosawa was adamant that "the quality of the set influences the quality of the actors' performances. For this reason, I have the sets exactly like the real thing. It limits filming but fosters that feeling of authenticity." He also spoke of the intense work of shooting the film: “It rained all the time, we didn't have enough horses. It was the kind of movie that's impossible to make in this country."

The film's choreography was directed by Yoshio Sugino of the Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū school. Initially Junzo Sasamori, from the Ono-ha Itto-ryu school, was working with Sugino, but was required by the Ministry of Education to teach in Europe during production.

Accommodations

Akira Kurosawa's film has had several adaptations, some better received than others.

• The Magnificent Seven, reboot rolled in 1960 and starred at Yul Brynner, in which the action took place in the far west and the seven samurai were replaced by seven gunmen. In 1998, a version of this film was filmed in television series format with the same title, The seven magnificent consisting of 23 episodes of 60 minutes each. Again in 2016 a new version of this was made in film format starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Vincent D'Onofrio and Ethan Hawke among others.

• Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) (The 7 Magnificent Space) Seven mercenaries from different worlds help the inhabitants of a peaceful planet to confront an army of invaders commanded by a cruel tyrant.

• Bichos: A miniature adventure Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios in 1998, in which an ants colony is occupied every year by a grasshopper band to demand their share of the harvest as a tribute. A villager named Flik is sent to seek warriors to help them drive out the grasshoppers. Flik meets seven circus artists who take them by warriors and hire them.

• Seven Samurai 20XX, video game programmed by Dimps in collaboration with Sammy for the PlayStation 2 console in 2004, which was inspired by the original film, but placing it in an alternative future. A city is under the constant attack of a breed of mutants called Humanoids, which are rooted with everything in its path. In this city is Natoe, the protagonist samurái rōnin, a well-trained young woman in kenjutsu (Japanese martial art of the sword). After saving a small group of citizens, they ask you to help them protect the city, but it rejects at first. However, in the face of the insistence of the inhabitants of the city, he ends up accessing and immediately a part in search of a group of seven samurai to organize the defense of the city.

• Samurai 7, a series of Japanese animation (anime) for television of 26 chapters produced by the studies Gonzo in 2004, which tells the same story of the original film but situating it at a time between the futuristic and the traditional Japanese.
• Cazarrecompensas: in Episode 17 of the second season of the Star Wars series: The Clone Wars, premiered on March 27, 2010 in the United Kingdom and April 2 in the United States; the story of the farmer's people is discussed Casiss, on the planet Felucia who are subjected to paying tribute (in kind, through the medicinal herb Nysillin) to a group of space pirates commanded by Captain Hondo Ohnaka (a Weequay that makes constant appearances throughout the series and the universe of Star Wars). The villagers, desperate for help, resort to a group of four bounty hunters (of seemingly oriental aesthetics, emulating a samurai appearance), supported by the Knights Jedi Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, as well as the apprentice Padawan Ahsoka Tano (giving a total of seven warriors) who are in charge of setting up a defensive piratesive. This episode is explicitly dedicated to the Akira Kurosawa Memory during the initial titles.