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I watched this Japanese film for the first time out of interest. I appreciate foreign films and I know this one deserved to be in my collection. I also know that there is a lot of hype as to the film being one of Akira Kurosawa's masterpieces of cinema. This was the inspiration for The Magnificent Seven and many of the Spaghetti Westerns that came later. I am in the minority of critics who think this is just average. The movie was too long and the final showdown seemed to drag on. There are good things that I saw. The characters are likeable and I especially loved Takashi Shimura as the ronin samurai leader Kambei Shimada who falls on hard times and accepts to help the village with their bandit problems. Toshiro Mifune steals the show as Kikuchiyo, an impostor samurai. Seiji Miyaguchi plays samurai Kyuzo with a Clint Eastwood quality. He is always serious and hardly ever talks. My personal preference would have been to have the film cut to two hours and show more of each samurai interacting with each other and the villagers. The whole film is in Japanese with subtitles. These subtitles could have been a little bit bolder in the outline, though it was not a problem because the picture is dark many times. Some scenes were grainy or foggy which I found distracting. Included in the second disc are special features. Four different trailers. One trailer was silent; I did not see them all. Also included is a documentary with director Akira Kurosawa It Is Wonderful to Create. It was difficult to watch because the English subtitles were so damn thin with hardly any black outline. For this reason I did not bother to watch the other documentaries. Criterion really dropped the ball on this point. I own The Seventh Seal from Criterion and I did not have a problem with the subtitles. You should buy this only if you enjoy foreign films otherwise you may want to avoid tis Blu-ray release. Perhaps the DVD has better subtitles that are not too small to read.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Item was received safely and ahead of time. Item was as advertised and very enjoyable. I highly recommend the movie, realistic and interesting if the watcher is interested in the Japanese culture.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
This 2 disk set has everything a film need like me might want. I love it and intend to collect up the rest of the Criterion Collection Kurosawa Special Editions on bluray. An excellent restoration of the video with the original mono sound, available in 2 track mono as well. I love this.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Excellent samurai movie with plenty of action and a story that holds your interest with all the seven samurai. Their fate is held in all they do to save the village they were hired to protect. One of the best movies that I have ever seen and highly recommend you watch it if you get a chance to.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
This is a film which presents themes of life and of transcendent humanity with such skill and clarity and honesty that it should be watchable and enjoyable to anyone who yearns for such a thing. I can see why Kurosawa has influenced so many directors over the years.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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