By Jana Monji
If you haven’t seen Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, here’s an opportunity to see it in theaters in the 4K restoration. Compared to the current streamer on HBO Max, the 4K restoration gives you the full beauty of black-and-white. Even if you have seen it before in a movie house, if you didn’t have an intermission, it’s likely you saw the US version which cut almost an hour of footage.
Kurosawa’s film is 3 hours and 23 minutes and includes allusions to rape and sexual slavery. Compared to the classic Western it inspired, The Magnificent Seven, Seven Samurai gives a more complex view of the friction between people.
Set in 1586, a group of bandits plan an attack on a mountain village. They’ll wait until after the farmers have harvested their crop of barley. One of the villagers overhears their plan and informs his fellow villagers. After despairing, the villages are advised by the elder, Gisaku (Kokuten Kōdō), to hire hungry samurai to defend the village. Going into a nearby town, the villagers witness an older masterless samurai, Kanbei (Takashi Shimura) rescuing a child from a thief. Impressed, they ask for his help. A young samurai, Katsushirō (Isao Kimura) is also impressed and asks to become Kanbei’s disciple. Kanbei quickly recruits an old friend, Shichirōji (Daisuke Katō) and together they assemble a group of five and only reluctantly include the young Katsushirō. They initially reject the fake samurai, the roughly mannered, boastful Kikuchiyo (Toshirō Mifune), but he wins them over by following them.
The seven help prepare the villagers for the attack of the bandits, but the bandits are well armed. Complicating matters are secrets held by the villagers.
Compared to the HBO Max streaming version, the 4K restoration has better contrast, crisper lines and no signs of wear such as a linen-like pattern in the frames. The restoration however isn’t totally without problems. There were moments when a fuzzy reddish outline appeared in certain places, but it wasn’t overly distracting and not on all parts of the screen at the same time.
Seven Samurai has inspired other movies, most notably The Magnificent Seven. In the two, one can see notable cultural differences. The 4K restoration of Seven Samurai began screening in Los Angeles on July 12 and continues. For more information about screenings nationwide, visit the official website.
For my full review on Seven Samurai, including names and numbers, visit, my blog: AgeOfTheGeek.org.
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