Seven Samurai [3 Discs] [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Akira Kurosawa's epic tale concerns honor and duty during a time when the old traditional order is breaking down. The film opens with master samurai Kambei (Takashi Shimura) posing as a monk to save a kidnapped farmer's child. Impressed by his selflessness and bravery, a group of farmers begs him to defend their terrorized village from bandits. Kambei agrees, although there is no material gain or honor to be had in the endeavor. Soon he attracts a pair of followers: a young samurai named Katsushiro (Isao Kimura), who quickly becomes Kambei's disciple, and boisterous Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), who poses as a samurai but is later revealed to be the son of a farmer. Kambei assembles four other samurais, including Kyuzo (Seiji Miyaguchi), a master swordsman, to round out the group. Together they consolidate the village's defenses and shape the villagers into a militia, while the bandits loom menacingly nearby. Soon raids and counter-raids build to a final bloody heart-wrenching battle. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 3
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital 3.0
• Screen: Black and White
• Subtitle: English
• Features:
  • All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer, with an optional Dolby surround soundtrack
  • Two audio commentaries: one by the film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie; and one by Japanese film expert Michael Jeck
  • Theatrical trailers and teaser
  • Gallery of rare posters and behind-the-scenes and production stills
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • A 50-minute documentary on the making of Seven Samurai created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
  • My Life in Cinema, a two-hour video conversation between Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima from 1993, produced by the Directors Guild of Japan
  • "Seven Samurai": Origins and Influences, a new documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that impacted Kurosawa's masterpiece
  • Plus: a booklet featuring essays by Kenneth Turan, Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, and Stuart Galbraith IV; tributes from Arthur Penn and Sidney Lumet; and a reminiscence by Toshiro Mifune

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Black and White Art Direction - 1956 (Takashi Matsuyama)
•     Nominated Best Black and White Costume Design - 1956 (Kohei Ezaki)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Nominated Best Film - Any Source - 1955 (Akira Kurosawa)

• Venice International Film Festival

•     Won Silver Lion - 1954 (Akira Kurosawa)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Takashi Shimura - Kambei, leader of samurai
       Toshiro Mifune - Kikuchiyo, would-be samurai
       Yoshio Inaba - Gorobei, wise warrior
       Seiji Miyaguchi - Kyuzo, swordsman
       Minoru Chiaki - Heihachi, amiable samurai
       Daisuke Kato - Shichiroji, Kambei's friend
       Ko (Isao) Kimura - Katsushiro, young samurai

• Director:

  Akira Kurosawa

• Producer:

  Shojiro Motoki

• Screenwriter:

  Shinobu Hashimoto, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni

• Cinematographer:

  Asakazu Nakai

• Composer (Music Score):

  Fumio Hayasaka

• Editor:

  Akira Kurosawa

• Production Designer:

  Takashi Matsuyama, Shinobu Muraki, Yoshiro Muraki

• Art Director:

  So Matsuyama

REVIEW:

• Widely considered one of the greatest films ever made, Seven Samurai was both the apex of Akira Kurosawa's long career and the high-water mark of the Japanese period drama. The film's action rivets the viewer in spite of the three-hour-plus running time: the battle sequences, among the best ever filmed, are immediate and visceral; and the characters are complex and so well-rendered that the viewer grieves when one dies. Like few other historical films, it captures not only the physical look of the time but also its essence. Like Jean Renoir's masterpieces Grand Illusion (1937) and Rules of the Game (1939), Seven Samurai illustrates the collapse of social distinctions and the growing irrelevance of old traditions in dangerous and chaotic times. Kambei shaves his much-prized topknot--the symbol of a samurai--to save the kidnapped child, while master swordsman Kyuzo is gunned down by an anonymous bandit with a musket. Kurosawa questions the division between samurai and bandit, between good and evil. In one scene, peasant-born Kikuchiyo heatedly argues that the samurai have been abusing and exploiting the peasants for centuries. In this framework, the samurais' acts of bravery, selflessness, and honor seem absurd, if not pointless. The peasants' choice of the samurai over the bandits is merely one of a lesser evil. Once the bandits are gone, the samurai will no longer be needed. This is underscored in the film's poignant end, when the surviving three samurai leave the village, receiving neither acclaim nor reward, as the villagers plant rice. American audiences were so impressed with Kurosawa's epic masterpiece that it was remade into John Sturges's Magnificent Seven (1960). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

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