4K restoration of Kurosawa's masterful film epic that tells the story of desperate residents of a 16th-century village who hire seven samurai to protect them from bandits.

This influential action-adventure film had a huge impact on later Westerns and action films. This monumental action-adventure film – starring legendary actors Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura – weaves philosophy and entertainment, subtle human emotions and relentless action into a rich, evocative historical thriller and moral-political fable in one.

Kurosawa's story – itself heavily influenced by the poetic Westerns of John Ford – had a huge impact on later Westerns and action films and was much loved by fellow filmmakers. Peter Jackson was inspired by Kurosawa's dramatic use of rain for the battles in Lord of the Rings. John Sturges copied Seven Samurai for his The Magnificent Seven. Seven Samurai also influenced many other Westerns, notably those of Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch) and Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West). Seven Samurai is considered by many filmmakers to be the best film school that cinema has to offer.

The film has a 15-minute intermission.