Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writers: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Isao Kimura
You want Samurai? We’ve got seven of them and they’re all
recognisable and nuanced in their own memorable way. As a side-note, I
literally just looked up what the plural of the word Samurai was because I just
wasn’t sure. The embarrassing thing is that I really should have been sure
considering I spent three and a half hours watching a film whose title has the
pluralised form of Samurai displayed for the world to see. Clearly, I am not an
observant person.
I am not opposed to films being long as long as all the scenes within them at least seem necessary to the plot and characters. When your film has a black screen that says, ‘INTERMISSION’ on it, it’s safe to say that you are pushing it a little. With a run time of 206 minutes Kurosawa’s epic lives up to that weighty noun. While I could criticise it for being over-bloated, almost all the scenes were necessary to making the film what it is.
The film has three long phases. The first phase is the formation of the titular Samurai boy band of death in their quest to protect a village of farmers from a barrage of bandits. Each of the characters has ample screentime devoted to them (which considering the amount of time available to assign). They are all full to brim with character; an important trait when considering the film is pre-colour. With the power to use colour to immediately recognise the characters stolen from the film, it is forced to use physical mannerisms to show which character is which at a glance… that and silly hairstyles.
I have never really understood Japan to its full extent and hopefully never will. Throughout the film, the statuses, jobs and relationships of farmers and Samurai are given. It was made very clear exactly the context of these historical occupations and how they interact with one another. I always thought that Samurai were the knights of feudal Japan. It seems, however, that they are more akin to today’s mercenaries. The way that the contextual statuses are woven within the film adds to how believable the film is. I was taken by how little these characters seemed like actors playing roles and rather actual Samurai.
It is important to mention the runtime once more. I know I may be lingering slightly but so did the movie so take it up with Akira Kurosawa. I you were using this review as a recommendation and weren’t expecting a gargantuan epic; I honestly couldn’t recommend this film to you. While it was an enjoyable story, it is not a film that I will ever willingly return to. There are huge pacing issues making the film often drag a black and white cinematic parachute.
I am not opposed to films being long as long as all the scenes within them at least seem necessary to the plot and characters. When your film has a black screen that says, ‘INTERMISSION’ on it, it’s safe to say that you are pushing it a little. With a run time of 206 minutes Kurosawa’s epic lives up to that weighty noun. While I could criticise it for being over-bloated, almost all the scenes were necessary to making the film what it is.
The film has three long phases. The first phase is the formation of the titular Samurai boy band of death in their quest to protect a village of farmers from a barrage of bandits. Each of the characters has ample screentime devoted to them (which considering the amount of time available to assign). They are all full to brim with character; an important trait when considering the film is pre-colour. With the power to use colour to immediately recognise the characters stolen from the film, it is forced to use physical mannerisms to show which character is which at a glance… that and silly hairstyles.
I have never really understood Japan to its full extent and hopefully never will. Throughout the film, the statuses, jobs and relationships of farmers and Samurai are given. It was made very clear exactly the context of these historical occupations and how they interact with one another. I always thought that Samurai were the knights of feudal Japan. It seems, however, that they are more akin to today’s mercenaries. The way that the contextual statuses are woven within the film adds to how believable the film is. I was taken by how little these characters seemed like actors playing roles and rather actual Samurai.
It is important to mention the runtime once more. I know I may be lingering slightly but so did the movie so take it up with Akira Kurosawa. I you were using this review as a recommendation and weren’t expecting a gargantuan epic; I honestly couldn’t recommend this film to you. While it was an enjoyable story, it is not a film that I will ever willingly return to. There are huge pacing issues making the film often drag a black and white cinematic parachute.
I would recommend you watch this film once. Mainly so that
you can show off that you watched a 3+ hour film that isn’t any of the Hobbit
films (this is a much better film than any of those). The characters are some
of the best put on film in history and the story is dense with plot. However,
it did very well to deter me from a second viewing.
Seven Samurai receives a: 7/10
Seven Samurai receives a: 7/10
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