A Brilliant Conflict

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Blistering performances.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves. Seven Samurai is perhaps another one big colossal overrated film that has a rating that doesn't deliver at neither of it's true potentials since it's very slow, very dumb and it's almost like 3 and a half hours long i mean common? Is this what a film needs to become a classic? To be 5 hours long and have people talking to each other? Cause that is not Art it's the different face of art it's called abomination against humanity and this movie is that. (0/10)

Shichinin No SamuraiThe choreography of all the action based sequences are dreadful and well shot, as it keeps it grounded and says a lot about the execution of the feature through it and also the plausible work that went behind the camera for it. Ticking for around 200 minutes, it never feels overstretched, but is elaborated in detail; the difference that the makers are aware of and keeps it separate throughout the course of it. It is rich on technical aspects like sound effects, choreography and production design. Akira Kurosawa; the screenwriter and director, has done an excellent on executing the anticipated vision, and also keeping the tone of the feature alive for such a long period, takes a lot skill and passion towards the project to pull it off. Each individual character in here is allotted a specific track to portray which they do hold on to tightly. There is a lot of concrete material which never gets overstuffed, as the makers take their time whilst holding few tactics to keep the audience on the edge of the seat and engaged through the process. Shichinin No Samurai is an emblem of unity that shines unflinchingly that is at best a classic culmination of all genres and at worst an action packed feature; both the side, it's a win-win.

Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" is rightly considered one of the greatest films in the history of cinema. Apart from the fact that it is technically perfect, this is one of the most influential films of all time. From today's perspective, the film tells the story that has been seen many times, but this is because the Kurosawa's version has left such a strong impression that, in the following decades, many filmmakers were inspired by it. The most famous remake is the western "The Magnificent seven" (1960), which tells the same story, and even copies some scenes, only places them in Wild West and replaces the samurai with the gunslingers. Each frame of this film is a perfect black and white photography, the story is well developed, the characterization is convincing, and the performance is excellent (even to those like me who hate over-acting and exaggerated drama typical for Japanese). I could point to a couple of weaker points in the story and acting, but that would be only a subjective impression that arose from the personal taste and cultural gap between the East and the West. But objectively, this film hardly has any faults.10/10

This is mostly spoiler free, due to not giving anything away, but I do mention some obvious end-film scenes without mentioning anything specific. I am a fan of Toshiro Mifune. That is one of the reasons I decided to watch this movie. He is one of the best Japanese actors, although my knowledge of Japanese cinema is severely lacking. This movie is up there with The Godfather trilogy, 2001 A Space Odyssey, and many other great movies. One thing to know going in is that this is not an action movie first, this is a drama first, and an action movie when the time for the action is right. Like any good movie, the characters come first. While there are no downsides to this movie that I have noticed, some may be turned off my the length and the lack of knowledge of Japanese culture. This, for the moment, is the longest movie I have seen besides the Extended Lord of the Rings (counting it as one movie as it was filmed that way and written that way. The 3 and a half hour runtime is perfect for this movie. It may feel long but not 200+ minutes long. The drama is engaging, the comedy (mostly from Mifune) is great, and when the action starts it is edge of your seat. The early fight scenes are intense as they are shown to be what a real samurai fight would be like.