Japan Release: 1954
Running Time: 203 minutes

Seven Samurai

Japanese Title

七人の侍
[Shichinin no Samurai]

Distributor: Production:

Toho
Toho

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Live Action

Box Office - Stock Footage - DVDs - CDs - Pictures - Background - Concept Art - Cut Scenes - Reviews

Titles

International Title

Seven Samurai

Initial US Title

Seven Samurai
US Distributor: Columbia (1956) / Time: 203 minutes

Alternate Titles

Seven Samurai
[Literal translation]

Staff

Cast

Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Writing credits Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni
Produced by Sojiro Motoki
Music by Fumio Hayasaka
Cinematography by Asakazu Nakai
Film Editing by Akira Kurosawa
Production Design by So Matsuyama
Assistant Director Hiromichi Horikawa

Kambei Shimada Takashi Shimura
Kikuchiyo Toshiro Mifune
Gorobei Katayama Yoshio Inaba
Kyuzo Seiji Miyaguchi
Heihachi Hayashida Minoru Chiaki
Shichiroji Daisuke Kato
Katsushiro Okamoto Isao Kimura
Shino Keiko Tsushima
Rikichi Yoshio Tsuchiya
Rikichi's Wife Yukiko Shimazaki
Manzo, Shino's Father Kamatari Fujiwara
Mosuke Yoshio Kosugi
Yohei Bokuzen Hidari
Gisaku, Village Elder Kokuten Kodo
Bun Vendor Atsushi Watanabe
Peasant Jiro Kumagai
Kidnapper Eijiro Tono
Ginsaku's Daughter-In-Law Haruko Toyama
Coolie Jun Tatara, Sachio Sakai, Takeshi Seki
Grandfather of Kidnapped Girl Toranosuke Ogawa
Blind Minstrel Sojin
Samurai Isao Yamagata, Masanobu Okubo, Gen Shimizu, Toshio Takahara, Sokichi Maki, Etsuro Nishijo, Minoru Ito, Kiyoshi Kamoda, Kaneo Ikeda, Masahide Matsushita, Haruya Sakamoto, Kyoro Sakurai, Hisaya Ito, Tatsuya Nakadai
Gosaku Keiji Sakakida
Head Bandit Shinpei Takagi
Bandit second-in-command Shin Otomo
Farmers Tsuneo Katagiri, Yasuhisa Tsutsumi, Fumiko Honma, Goro Amano, Tazue Ichimanji, Toku Ihara, Kazuo Imai, Koji Iwamoto, Kyoichi Kamiyama, Shigeo Kato, Masayoshi Kawabe, Ippei Kawagoe, Yoshikazu Kawamata, Akira Kichijoji, Sanpei Mine, Eisuke Nakanishi, Junpei Natsuki, Hideo Oe, Yasuo Onishi, Matsue Ono, Masako Oshiro, Hideo Otsuka, Keiko Ozawa, Megeru Shimoda, Misao Suyama, Jiro Suzukawa, Kazuo Suzuki, Toriko Takahara, Tomeko Umayato, Akira Yamada
Tea Shop Owner Hiroshi Sugi
Bandits Kichijiro Ueda, Akira Tani, Haruo Nakajima, Shoichi Hirose, Koji Uno, Ryutaro Amami, Akio Kusama, Jun Mikami, Seiji Sunagawa, Kyoji Naka, Kamayuki Tsubono, Senkichi Omura, Takashi Narita
Buddhist Priest Ichiro Chiba
Wife from the Gono Family Noriko Sengoku
Husband from the Gono Family Hiroshi Agetsu
Wives of the Farmers Shizuko Hogashi, Michiko Kawabe, Yayoko Kitano, Keiko Mori, Toshiko Nakano, Yuko Togawa, Michiko Uwamoto
Ginsaku's Son Fumiyoshi Kumaya
- Yu Akitsu
- Miki Hayashi
- Etsuryo Saijo
- Hideo Shibuya

Posters

Box Office

Release Date: April 26th, 1954 (Japan)
Budget: $560,000

Release Date: September 1st, 2002 (US, Re-Issue)
Opening Weekend: $21,830 (US, Re-Issue, 2 Theaters)
Total: $271,737 (US, Re-Issue)

DVDs and Blu-rays

	Region 1 Seven Samurai Criterion (1998)
	Region 1 Seven Samurai Criterion (2006)
	Region 2 Seven Samurai Toho (2002)
	Region 4 Seven Samurai Madman (2004)
	Blu-Ray Seven Samurai Toho (2009)

Background and Trivia

The movie was submitted to the US copyright office on April 30th, 1982, by Toho. The listing was submitted under registration number PA0000164647. Titles used were Seven Samurai, the international title, and Shichinin no Samurai, the Romaji title.
Toho attempted to pull the plug twice on the production. The first incident was over financing concerns. At the time, director Akira Kurosawa told Minoru Chiaki in response that: "So long as my pictures are hits, I can afford to be unreasonable." The second time Toho attempted to shut it down, Kurosawa simply stated "Now they've gotten in this deep, they have no choice but to finish it!" This account is found in Age of the Gods (self-published).
Composer Fumio Hayasaka was paid the equivalent of $1,000 US dollars for his work on the film. Cited in Japan's Favorite Mon-Star (ISBN: 1550223488).
In 2007, for their June 22nd edition, Entertainment Weekly released a list of the "25 greatest action movies". Seven Samurai made the list, ranking at number 6.
Following wrapping production, actor Yoshio Tsuchiya lived with director Akira Kurosawa for two years after Seven Samurai. Noted in Age of the Gods (self-published).

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