SEVEN SAMURAI
Set during the 16th-century Sengoku period of Japan, SEVEN SAMURAI opens with the unfortunate news that a large group of bandits plans to raid a defenseless farming village after the harvest. The poor villagers immediately seek out desperate ronin willing to risk their lives for handfuls of rice and promises of honor. Though most, like team leader Shimada (Takashi Shimura), come with sterling résumés, hot-headed loner Kikuchiyo (Toshirô Mifune) may have fudged a couple of past work experiences. None of it will matter when the bandits arrive! Without Seven Samurai and a number of other Kurosawa classics, the cinema landscape would surely look and feel vastly different today. This epic was arguably one of the first to capture the drama and inherent humor that naturally emerge when a ragtag group of strangers are united for a higher purpose (or maybe just a flashy casino heist). The variety of character personalities and an infamously ample runtime allowed Kurosawa to craft a remarkable film filled with action and heart that remains endlessly entertaining to this day.
CAST: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki
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