Watch the trailer for Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai
Japan, 1954
206 mins
Cert PG
Dir Akira Kurosawa
With Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Yoshio Inaba, Keiko Tsushima
When 16th-century farmers whose village is repeatedly attacked by merciless bandits ask an elderly, masterless samurai (Takashi Shimura) for help, offering nothing but food in return, he hesitantly agrees and assembles a band of warriors to defend and train the villagers.
Boasting terrific performances (with Shimura and Toshiro Mifune – as a peasant masquerading as a samurai – particularly memorable), superb camerawork, and expertly mounted battle sequences, Seven Samurai is undoubtedly one of the greatest action movies ever made.