A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves. Starring Takashi Shimura, Toshirô Mifune, and Yoshio Inaba -- 1st Kurosawa film --
This was quite an enjoyable piece of Japanese cinema which is widely known as one of the greatest films of all time. Kurosawa overcomes technological defecits and the restrictions of his forrest setting and comes through with some impressive camera work for the time period. He also provides a nice running score and notably exceptional lighting.
All of the cast played their roles well, but Takashi Shimura as Kambei the wise leader and Toshirô Mifune as Kikuchiyo the rambunctious rebel both particularly shined. One especially interesting aspect of this film is its constant shifting of the main character role. As the film begins, the villagers are the main focus, and then Kambei as he is introduced, and then Kikuchiyo, and then as the film closes the focus seems to land on Katsushiro, the young apprentice.
While the film may have been a bit overlong at almost 3 1/2 hours, and it perhaps had too many subplots, it was ultimately a pleasurable viewing expierience as well as an important one in an exploration of classic and foreign cinema. I'm looking forward to getting Rashomon.
