Film Forum

Japan, 1954
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Starring Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Daisuke Katō, Isao Kimura, Minoru Chiaki, Seiji Miyaguchi, Yoshio Inaba
Approx. 207 min. 4K DCP.

In 16th century Japan, as proud samurai end up as masterless, wandering ronin and farmers prostrate under the heel of marauding bandits, a village patriarch counsels resistance. How? Hire samurai, “hungry samurai.” Under the calm leadership of Takashi Shimura (Kurosawa regular and IKIRU and GODZILLA star), that magic number enlist for a war against 40 mounted bandits, winding up at the most hair-raising battle ever filmed. One of the most influential films of all time, but nothing can top the original: Kurosawa's orchestration of swords, spears, arrows, men, horses, rain, wind, and mud; blazing tracking shots; giant close ups; chiaroscuro lighting; telephoto lenses that put us underfoot as horses crash amid struggling men; deep focus shots that render the tip of a sword poking into the lens equally clear with scurrying figures fifty feet away, transitions that effortlessly whip us from scene to scene; and ensemble performances that give three dimensionality to every character, topped by Toshirō Mifune's eventual transition from manic goofball to tortured, self-hating tragic hero. Voted in the 1979 Kinema Junpo critics poll as the Best Japanese Film ever.

Reviews

“THE FINEST JAPANESE FILM EVER MADE.”
– Donald Richie

“No one has come near it.”
 – Pauline Kael