Seven Samurai (1954)

Unmatched for suspense and spectacle!

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

Written by: Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni, Akira Kurosawa

Music by: Fumio Hayasaka

Starring: Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki, Daisuke Katō, Isao Kimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki, Kamatari Fujiwara

Genre: Action, Drama

Released: 1954-04-26

Runtime: 207 minutes

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Seven Samurai (1954): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• Toho had originally given the film a production budget of around $150,000–$200,000, and slated production to finish on August 18 in order to open in October.
• The main "Samurai Theme" was originally rejected by Hayasaka, but he rediscovered it after the director turned down all of the composer's prior suggestions.
• Keiko Tsushima was cast as the female love interest for the character Katsushiro without a formal interview.
• The crew spent the entire day setting up for a single shot to be filmed just before sunset, but cameraman Asakazu Nakai and Kurosawa ended up debating when to start shooting the scene by looking at the light through the camera's viewfinder.
• According to film journalist Masaaki Tsuzuki writing in 1998, following its initial release in Japan, the film earned over seven times its ¥210 million budget; accruing a distribution revenue of ¥1.5 billion.
• Filming began on May 27, 1953 and took place on set at Toho Studios, and on location in Shizuoka and Kanagawa Prefectures.
• Samurai was the highest grossing film of that year, but it was not massively profitable due to its high budget.
• The film's runtime came to 207 minutes, which at the time was the longest Japanese film ever produced.
• Prior to a wider release, the picture premiered in America at the Linda Lea theater in July 1956 to meet the requirements for Academy Award consideration.
• The film grossed ¥290 million in ticket sales in Japan making it the highest-grossing film of that year, though due to its large production cost, it was not highly profitable.
• To appeal to a female audience, Keiko Tsushima and Yukiko Shimazaki were given third and fourth billing in advertisements.
• Co-screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto later considered that the studio should have produced a version dubbed into English rather than the subtitled version.
• When the original 207 minute cut was re-issued in Japan in 1975, the film grossed $160,000.
• In the film's initial 1956 run at the Guild Theatre in New York, it grossed $68,000 in total.
• Seven Samurai was released in Japan on April 26, 1954, with a runtime of 207 minutes.

Source: Wikipedia

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