Shichinin no Samurai (Seven Samurai)
1954
*****
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Takashi Shimura, Toshirō Mifune, Isao Kimura, Yoshio Inaba, Daisuke Kato, Minoru Chiaki, Seiji Miyaguchi
Akira's Kurosawa's best known film tells a story of villagers who hire seven samurai warriors to protect them from a group of bandits. It's full of groundbreaking action scenes and lovely knockabout comedy, and three hours pass in a flash. Kurosawa himself was influenced by American Westerns and this is a direct influence to The Magnificent Seven and indirect influence to many other action and caper movies.
