Seven Samurai (1954) Review: Criterion Collection 4K

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Kurosawa Akira’s 1954 film Seven Samurai was to go on to become the most successful and most acclaimed film of his career. It heralded a new era in his filmmaking career, a new direction, a new level of comfort and experimentation in his filmmaking. It marked his first use of telephoto lenses to flatten the action and draw viewers closer into the film, and its three-and-a-half-hour length left no doubt about his mastery over his art.

The slow, methodical epic samurai drama focuses on a provincial farming village harassed by a band of marauding bandits who, on the suggestion of the village elder, decide to hire seven masterless samurai, or ronin, to help defend them. They have nothing to offer in return for the samurai’s services other than shelter and one bowl of rice a day.

Upon finding the eponymous seven samurai, the warriors not only come in to defend the village and train the villagers to defend themselves, but they change how the villagers think about and see themselves.

Kurosawa’s film takes place over the span of an entire year, and it took nearly as long to create. Six weeks of script writing, three months of pre-production and 148 days of shooting — it shows in the careful way in which the action unfolds in Seven Samurai. Not a moment is wasted, not a line of dialogue out of place. An entire hour goes by before the eponymous warriors of the film are even hired. With most directors, this would seem tiresome and self-indulgent, but with Kurosawa and Seven Samurai, it is all in the pursuit of perfection.

Seven Samurai‘s influence has been far-reaching in the world of entertainment. In 1960, the film was remade as the Hollywood western The Magnificent Seven. There was even an anime series based on the film, Samurai 7, released in the US by FUNimation now Crunchyroll.

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The Video

Seven Samurai is taken from a new 4K restoration from a 35mm master positive undertaken by TOHO Archive Co. Ltd. The original camera negative is no longer available. The film is presented in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio in a HEVC 2160p (4K UHD) SDR encodement. Given this is from a master positive and there is no HDR, I will say that Seven Samurai looks miraculous. There are still some scenes with mild scratches in the source visible, which is unavoidable, but the amount of clarity and detail this new 4K scan brings forth is an amazing upgrade. The bald caps many of the actors playing the villagers wear to portray the chonmage hairstyle are now very noticeable. I do not know if that is a good or bad thing for the story, but is certainly good as far as picture quality. Contrast and nuance are excellent, and film grain looks natural and stable throughout other than the places where one would expect a difference such as in crossfades and so on.

The Audio

Criterion offers two audio choices: purists get the original monaural audio in LPCM 1.0 and a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 surround mix. The mono mix is mastered from a 35mm master positive. The sound is clean but the level is low, requiring some bumping up of normal listening levels. The lossless 2.0 surround mix bulks up the sounds a bit and makes the dialogue a little fuller and places some mild atmospherics in the surround channels.

The Supplements

Criterion Collection does not include anything new in this release but it is packed with a lot, including interviews with Kurosawa and essays.

Bonus Features:

• Audio Commentaries:
  • Scholar’s Roundtable – This commentary features renowned scholars and critics David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie – recorded individually in 2005 and 2006 – discussing Seven Samurai’s signature style, historical importance, and ongoing influence.
  • Michael Jeck – This commentary, recorded for the Criterion Collection in 1988, features Michael Jeck, who has lectured on and programmed Japanese film since 1974.

Supplemental Blu-ray Disc:

• Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create (1080i; 00:49:10) – This fifty-minute documentary on the making of Seven Samurai is part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create and features interviews with a number of Kurosawa’s key collaborators, including writer Shinobu Hashimoto, set decorator Koichi Hamamura, script supervisor Teruyo Nogami, and actors Seiji Miyaguchi and Yosho Tsuchiya.
• My Life in Cinema: Akira Kurosawa (1080i; 01:55:59) – Filmed for the Director’s Guild of Japan in 1993, this video interview features director Akira Kurosama in conversation with fellow filmmaker Nagisa Oshima. The two speak at length about Kurosawa’s life and career.
• Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences (1080i; 00:55:12) – The samurai occupied a prominent place in Japanese film long before the celebrated heroes of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. This documentary, created exclusively for the Criterion Collection, takes a close look at the history of the samurai in Japanese life and art, and the influence of the samurai in film leading up to and culminating in Kurosawa’s masterpiece.
• Trailers and Teaser:
  • Trailer 1 (1080i; 00:04:11)
  • Trailer 2 (1080i; 00:02:57)
  • Trailer 3 (1080i; 00:02:44)
  • Teaser (1080i; 00:00:42)
• Galleries (1080p):
  • Behind the Scenes
  • Posters
• Booklet: Essays by Kenneth Turan, Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Stuart Galbraith IV, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet, and an interview with actor Toshiro Mifune from 1993.

The Final Assessment

They rarely make them like this anymore and you would be hard pressed to come by a film of this length as easy to sit through as Seven Samurai. The brilliance of the film is in the seamless blending of history, philosophy, action, social commentary, and Kurosawa’s filmmaking prowess. This new 4K release has the film looking and sounding better than it ever has. Highly Recommended.

Seven Samurai is out on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray November 12, 2024 from the Criterion Collection

Purchase Seven Samurai (Criterion Collection) 4K Ultra HD on Amazon.com

• Rating Certificate: Not Rated
• Studios & Distributors: Toho | The Criterion Collection
• Director: Kurosawa Akira
• Written By: Kurosawa Akira | Hashimoto Shinobu | Oguni Hideo
• Run Time: 207 Mins.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
• Video Format: HEVC 2160p (4K UHD)
• HDR Format: SDR
• Primary Audio: Japanese LPCM 1.0
• Secondary Audio: Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 Surround
• Subtitles: English
• Street Date: 12 November 2024