Editing Seven Samurai (section)

{{Short description|1954 Japanese film by Akira Kurosawa}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Seven Samurai
| image          = Seven Samurai poster.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| native_name    = {{Infobox Japanese| kanji=七人の侍 | revhep=Shichinin no Samurai}}
| director       = [[Akira Kurosawa]]
| producer       = [[Sōjirō Motoki]]
| writer     = {{Plain list|
* Akira Kurosawa
* [[Shinobu Hashimoto]]
* [[Hideo Oguni]]
}}
| starring       = {{Plain list|
<!-- Per poster -->
* [[Toshiro Mifune]]
* [[Takashi Shimura]]
* [[Keiko Tsushima]]
* [[Isao Kimura]]
* [[Daisuke Katō]]
* [[Seiji Miyaguchi]]
* [[Yoshio Inaba]]
* [[Minoru Chiaki]]
* [[Kamatari Fujiwara]]
* [[Kokuten Kōdō]]
* [[Yoshio Tsuchiya]]
* [[Eijiro Tono]]
* {{ill|Jun Tatara|ja|多々良純}}
* [[Atsushi Watanabe (actor, born 1898)|Atsushi Watanabe]]
* [[Yoshio Kosugi]]
* [[Bokuzen Hidari]]
* [[Yukiko Shimazaki]]
}}
| music          = [[Fumio Hayasaka]]
| cinematography = [[Asakazu Nakai]]
| editing        = Akira Kurosawa
| studio         = [[Toho]]
| distributor    = Toho
| released       = {{Film date|1954|04|26}}<!-- Do not add the US release date here, please; see WP:FILMRELEASE. -->
| runtime        = 207 minutes (with intermission)
| country        = Japan
| language       = Japanese
| budget         = {{¥|210 million}} ({{US$|580,000|long=no}})<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ryfle|first1=Steve|last2=Godziszewski|first2=Ed|url=https://archive.org/details/ishiro-honda-a-life-in-film-from-godzilla-to-kurosawa|title=Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa|publisher=[[Wesleyan University Press]]|year=2017|page=105|isbn=9780819570871}}</ref> or US$556,000<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=Top budget Jap film| url=https://archive.org/details/variety194-1954-04/page/n76/mode/1up|date=14 April 1954|page=14}}</ref>
| gross          = Japan [[Theatrical rental|rentals]]: {{¥|268.2 million}}<ref name="JasperSharp">{{cite web |last=Sharp |first=Jasper |title=Still crazy-good after 60 years: Seven Samurai |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/seven-samurai-akira-kurosawa-classic-status |publisher=[[British Film Institute]] |date=May 7, 2015 |access-date=February 16, 2015 |archive-date=October 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211024173400/https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/seven-samurai-akira-kurosawa-classic-status |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Kinema"/> ({{US$|2.3 million|long=no}}) <br> USA: $833,533
}}

{{Nihongo|'''''Seven Samurai'''''|七人の侍|Shichinin no Samurai|lead=yes}} is a 1954 Japanese [[Epic film|epic]] [[Samurai cinema|samurai]] [[Action (genre)|action]] film directed by [[Akira Kurosawa]] from a screenplay co-written with [[Shinobu Hashimoto]] and [[Hideo Oguni]]. Taking place in 1586{{efn|"Kikuchiyo" has a genealogy which shows he was "born the 17th of the 2nd month of Tenshô 2 (1574), a wood-dog year". Kambei's comment is "o-nushi 13 sai niwa mienu ga" (You don't look 13...). Since the traditional way of counting ages in Japan is by the number of calendar years one has lived in, this means the story takes place in 1586.}} in the [[Sengoku period]] of [[Japanese history]], it follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who seek to hire [[samurai]] to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops.

At the time, the film was the most expensive film made in Japan. It took a year to shoot and faced many difficulties. It was the second-highest-grossing domestic film in Japan in 1954. Many reviews compared the film to the [[Western film]] genre.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Sharp|first=Jasper|date=May 20, 2020|title=Seven Samurai: The rocky road to classic status of Akira Kurosawa's action masterpiece|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/seven-samurai-akira-kurosawa-classic-status|access-date=January 18, 2021|website=British Film Institute|archive-date=October 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211024173400/https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/seven-samurai-akira-kurosawa-classic-status|url-status=live}}</ref>

''Seven Samurai'' is regarded as one of the [[List of films voted the best|greatest and most influential films]] in cinema history. Since its release, it has consistently ranked highly in critics' lists of greatest films, such as the [[British Film Institute|BFI]]'s ''[[Sight & Sound]]'' and [[Rotten Tomatoes]] polls.<ref name="RT300"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/critics|title=Critics' top 100|work=bfi.org.uk|publisher=[[British Film Institute]]|access-date=June 26, 2019|archive-date=January 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109154650/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/critics|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Sight & Sound 1992 Critics poll|url=https://www.listal.com/list/sight-sound-1992-critics|website=listal.com|access-date=March 4, 2021|archive-date=June 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604185631/https://www.listal.com/list/sight-sound-1992-critics|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Sight & Sound 2002 Critics' Greatest Films poll|url=https://www.listal.com/list/sight-sound-2002-critics|website=listal.com|access-date=March 4, 2021|archive-date=June 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603015451/https://www.listal.com/list/sight-sound-2002-critics|url-status=live}}</ref> It was also voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time in the [[BBC]]'s 2018 international critics' poll.<ref name="bbc"/> It is regarded as one of the most "remade, reworked, and referenced" films in cinema.<ref name="Desser">{{cite journal|last1=Desser|first1=David|title=Reviewed Work: The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Richie|journal=The Journal of Asian Studies|date=Nov 1998|volume=57|issue=4|page=1173|jstor=2659350|doi=10.2307/2659350|s2cid=159855562 |doi-access=free}}</ref>