Akira Kurosawa

Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai

One of the most thrilling movie epics of all time, Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous war­riors to protect them from invading bandits. This three-hour-plus ride from Akira Kurosawa—featuring legendary actors Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura—seamlessly weaves philosophy and enter­tainment, delicate human emotions and relentless action, into a rich, evocative, and unforgettable tale of courage and hope.

Film Info

  • Japan
  • 1954
  • 207 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • Japanese
  • Spine #2

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration, with the original uncompressed monaural soundtrack and an optional 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film (in the aspect ratio of 1.37:1) and two Blu-rays with the film (in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1) and special features
  • Two audio commentaries, one featuring film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie, and the other Japanese-film expert Michael Jeck
  • Making-of documentary, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
  • My Life in Cinema (1993), a two-hour conversation between director Akira Kurosawa and filmmaker Nagisa Oshima
  • “Seven Samurai”: Origins and Influences, a documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that helped shape Kurosawa’s masterpiece
  • Trailers and teaser
  • Gallery of rare posters, behind-the-scenes photos, and production stills
  • PLUS: Essays by Kenneth Turan, Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Stuart Galbraith IV, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet, and an interview with actor Toshiro Mifune from 1993

    Cover by Neil Kellerhouse

Purchase Options

Coming soon, available Nov 12, 2024

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa

AK 100: 25 Films by Kurosawa

DVD Box Set

25 Discs

$319.00

Out Of Print

Collector's Set

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

DVD Box Set

50 Discs

$650.00

Out Of Print

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration, with the original uncompressed monaural soundtrack and an optional 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film (in the aspect ratio of 1.37:1) and two Blu-rays with the film (in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1) and special features
  • Two audio commentaries, one featuring film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie, and the other Japanese-film expert Michael Jeck
  • Making-of documentary, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
  • My Life in Cinema (1993), a two-hour conversation between director Akira Kurosawa and filmmaker Nagisa Oshima
  • “Seven Samurai”: Origins and Influences, a documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that helped shape Kurosawa’s masterpiece
  • Trailers and teaser
  • Gallery of rare posters, behind-the-scenes photos, and production stills
  • PLUS: Essays by Kenneth Turan, Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Stuart Galbraith IV, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet, and an interview with actor Toshiro Mifune from 1993

    Cover by Neil Kellerhouse
Seven Samurai
Cast
Toshiro Mifune
Kikuchiyo
Takashi Shimura
Kambei
Keiko Tsushima
Shino
Yukiko Shimazaki
Wife
Kamatari Fujiwara
Farmer Manzo
Daisuke Kato
Shichiroji
Isao Kimura
Katsushiro
Minoru Chiaki
Heihachi
Seiji Miyaguchi
Kyuzo
Yoshio Kosugi
Farmer Mosuke
Bokuzen Hidari
Farmer Yohei
Yoshio Inaba
Gorobei
Credits
Director
Akira Kurosawa
Screenplay
Akira Kurosawa
Producer
Sojiro Motoki
Cinematography
Asakazu Nakai
Screenplay
Hideo Oguni
Screenplay
Shinobu Hashimoto
Music
Fumio Hayasaka
Editing
Hiroshi Nezu

Current

A Time of Honor: Seven Samurai and Sixteenth-Century Japan
A Time of Honor: Seven Samurai and Sixteenth-Century Japan

With Seven Samurai, Akira Kurosawa set out to debunk some of the more inflated myths that had attached themselves to the samurai.

By Philip Kemp

Seven Samurai
Seven Samurai
Breathtaking, fastmoving, and overflowing with a delightfully self-mocking sense of humor, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is one of the most popular and influential Japanese films ever made. Released in 1954, this rip-snorting action-adventure epic…

By David Ehrenstein

Wendell B. Harris Jr.’s Top 10
Wendell B. Harris Jr.’s Top 10

The director of the award-winning indie classic Chameleon Street sings Orson Welles’s praises, pays tribute to Paul Robeson and Lorraine Hansberry, and reflects on his longtime dream of remaking Nightmare Alley.

Rashaad Ernesto Green’s Top 10
Rashaad Ernesto Green’s Top 10

The Independent Spirit Award–winning director of Premature selects ten masterpieces that introduced him to the beauty of cinema.

Who’s That Man? Mifune at 100
Who’s That Man? Mifune at 100

An actor of extraordinary physical presence and kinetic energy, Toshiro Mifune was the most widely recognized and transformative superstar in postwar Japanese cinema.

By Moeko Fujii

Adventures in Moviegoing with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Adventures in Moviegoing with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The leading scorer in NBA history talks with us about how cinema first led him to his basketball career and how he drew inspiration from samurai movies.

Explore

Akira Kurosawa

Writer, Director

Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa

Arguably the most celebrated Japanese filmmaker of all time, Akira Kurosawa had a career that spanned from the Second World War to the early nineties and that stands as a monument of artistic, entertainment, and personal achievement. His best-known films remain his samurai epics Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, but his intimate dramas, such as Ikiru and High and Low, are just as searing. The first serious phase of Kurosawa’s career came during the postwar era, with Drunken Angel and Stray Dog, gritty dramas about people on the margins of society that featured the first notable appearances by Toshiro Mifune, the director’s longtime leading man. Kurosawa would subsequently gain international fame with Rashomon, a breakthrough in nonlinear narrative and sumptuous visuals. Following a personal breakdown in the late sixties, Kurosawa rebounded by expanding his dark brand of humanism into new stylistic territory, with films such as Kagemusha and Ran, visionary, color, epic ruminations on modern man and nature.