WHAT: Seven Samurai (1954, 207 min. w/ 5 min. intermission)
WHEN: January 22, 2025 1 PM & 7 PM
WHERE: Pickwick Theatre, Park Ridge, IL
HOW MUCH: $12/$10 advance or $10 for the 1 PM matinee
Advance Tickets: Click Here and select date and time!
“‘There is one person I feel I would like to resemble as I grow old: the late American film director John Ford,’ wrote Kurosawa in his memoirs, and it may not be too glib to classify Seven Samurai as a John Ford Western with a feudal theme. Beyond the superficial affinities– the will to survive any and all dangers, solidarity, nonheroic celebration of heroism and traditional values– certain crucial features remind one of Ford: the vigor and clarity of the narrative, the picaresque comedy, and the humanity of the characters. Shinobu Hashimoto, screenwriter on Rashomon, acknowledged that his favorite film was John Ford’s Stagecoach.” ~ Peter Cowie, Akira Kurosawa, Master of Cinema (2010)
Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) is an epic tale about samurai warriors coming to the aid of farmers in their defense against bandits. It is one of the greatest of all Japanese films– one of the essentials of world cinema and arguably Kurosawa’s best-known work. And for audiences less familiar with foreign titles, Seven Samurai serves as a bridge to Hollywood with its similarities to the American Western genre. We are honored and excited to be presenting this 4K DCP restoration courtesy of Janus Films. For those who have asked over the years why we haven’t shown more foreign films at the Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series, here is an opportunity to come out and support that endeavor. Seven Samurai is a master class in storytelling and technique.
The film stars the great Toshiro Mifune as Kikuchiyo, the comic and unorthodox samurai wannabe. But Mifune is only one of an extraordinary ensemble cast that includes Takashi Shimura as Kambei Shimada, the Zen-like elder leader of the group, Yoshio Inaba as Gorobei Katayama, Daisuke Kato as Shichiroji, Seiji Miyaguchi as Kyuzo, Minoru Chiaki as Heihachi Hayashida, and Isao Kimura as Katsushiro Okamoto. All of whom play ronin samurai– wandering warriors with no feudal lord to serve. They are the equivalent to the Western genre’s gunslinger-for-hire.
The seven depicted in the film are not typical of their class. In history, the samurai were an aristocratic and sometimes brutal group capable of pillaging and worse, not unlike the bandits depicted in the film. However, Kurosawa’s seven represented the samurai as they were first conceived– adherents of the bushido moral code and representations of selfless integrity and honor.
The story is based on 16th century Japanese history during the time of the Civil Wars. It was an age of shoguns, warlords, and rebelling peasants. This period of chaos and social upheaval attracted Kurosawa because he was drawn to rebels. The film looks at what makes a samurai, but it also touches upon what separates him from society; the film is about class distinctions and bridging that class divide.
Seven Samurai was written by Kurosawa with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni. The writing took place over the course of six weeks. Originally, the story dealt with just six samurai, but an oddball character, Kikuchiyo (played by Mifune) was invented for more comedy relief and to serve as a link between the samurai and the farmers. Mifune would largely improvise this role, giving himself an opportunity to reveal a comic side not previously seen in a Kurosawa film.
The samurai were drawn from characters out of Japan’s colorful past. Kambei, the leader of the seven, was based on an actual character who, as depicted in the film, disguised himself as a monk in order to rescue a captured child. Seven Samurai is a story about groups– one group aiding another– with solidarity at the forefront. Both an action film and a philosophical film, Seven Samurai is a meditation on history that reflects on the role of the samurai in Japanese society.
Akira Kurosawa (center)
The film was produced by Toho Studios which, that same year, released the first Godzilla film. After a period of three months of pre-production, Seven Samurai began a shoot that spanned 148 days over the course of a year. The budget escalated to nearly $500,000. Some of the costs were attributable to Kurosawa’s desire for authenticity, such as his recreation of a peasant village instead of simply shooting on a set at Toho Studios.
One of the film’s most memorable scenes is the climactic battle in the rain between the samurai and the raiding bandits. It was photographed in freezing weather and proved to be a great physical hardship for the actors given the fact they wore straw sandals. Snow had covered the village set prior to filming, and the filmmakers thus had to water down the snow. This in turn created the effect of the deep, muddy conditions that make the scene so unforgettable.
Adding to the narrative drive is Kurosawa’s use of the telephoto lens which condenses space between characters and puts the viewer closer to the action. During the aforementioned battle in the rain, the viewer is seemingly brought nearer to the mud and horses. Throughout the film, Kurosawa makes use of a multi-camera set-up, using three cameras to record the action simultaneously. This technique allowed for greater variety of shots in the editing process; Kurosawa was universally recognized as a genius editor. From these multiple angles, he broke up a scene whereas other filmmakers might have used just one shot to convey meaning.
Kurosawa was a master of composition, be it with a wide angle or telephoto lens. Few directors captured movement onscreen as dynamically as Kurosawa, particularly in the way he conveyed the flow of action from one shot to the next, such as characters running across the frame. Additionally, slow motion effects, used sparingly in the film, later influenced filmmakers like Sam Peckinpah and helped shape the modern action film.
A rare behind-the-scenes production photo with Takashi Shimura.
The musical score was composed by Fumio Hayasaka, a frequent Kurosawa collaborator whose professional association with the director began with 1948’s Drunken Angel. Sadly, by 1954, Hayasaka was dying of tuberculosis despite only being 40 years old. Seven Samurai would be his seventh collaboration with Kurosawa and his last completed score for the director before his death in 1955.
Seven Samurai is part of a genre of films in Japan called Jidaigeki, or period drama. Though the film depicted a remote time in history, Kurosawa offered a portrait of his present in the past. Questions of whether equality was even possible are part of the subtext of the film, as well as elements of democratization and community. All this affected the populace in post-Occupation Japan. Seventy years later, the film’s larger themes remain universal: that those in power should come to the aid of the less fortunate. Community should stand together and help neighbors in need.
A viewer can also see a story about maintaining a moral code in a time of chaos. In some ways, given our political climate in 2025, this idea is not as remote as one might think. Even the encroachment of gun violence– the musket representing modern technology in the film– anticipates the demise of the samurai in an age without ethics and reminds us of the ongoing issue in our “civilized” society. Of note, it is the gun, not the sword, that cuts down the heroic samurai in the film.
Akira Kurosawa has influenced many directors, and with this film, inspired many remakes and reinterpretations. In recent years, we presented the American remake, The Magnificent Seven (1960). Whereas the John Sturges film is a great Western, the Kurosawa original is a great work of art. In this new age of corporate entertainments with name actors, packaged streaming content and AI-generated creativity, Seven Samurai stands as tall as a mountaintop– a 70 year old reminder of the heights cinema could achieve at the hands of a genuine auteur who knew how to tell a compelling story in a systematic and thoughtful way.
~MCH
Toshiro Mifune with director Akira Kurosawa
Here is what Seven Samurai would have looked like in 1954 at the Pickwick Theatre versus what it will look like on January 22 on the MEGA-Screen.