Seven Samurai

[Highly rated reviewer]

ALL IN JAPANESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had been looking forward to seeing this film for some time as my film studies lecturer at Bangor Uni used to rave about Kawasaki's films all the time. This is the 1st Kawasaki film I've seen and I can honestly say I don't want to bother with any others. If it was dubbed it might have notched my approval rating up another star but this is all in Japanese and so you have to keep pressing pause to read all the dialogue - yep! There's a load of talking in this film - and towards the end my thumb was aching so much that I could hardly be bothered. What was supposed to be a 3hr 10min film became, with all the neccessary freeze-framing, a whopping 5 and a half hours. Not bad if you have four eyes or no job to go to in the morning. This is not a PATCH on any of the readily available dubbed Japanese films like Bruce and Ang Lee's efforts. Was prepared to give it a go, under the illusion that even though it is in B&W there must be some pretty impressive fight scenes to justify its reputation, but was left sorely disappointed. The acting is totally unrealistic: everyone just shouts angrily at each other. At one point the village is stunned because some guy is chopping his bobble off - WHAT? For real fans of Japanese cinema I recommend Tom Cruise's virtuoso performance in The Last Samurai. Defintitely give this one a miss, unless you have a beard and glasses and want to dupe a girl into thinking you're cultured as part of some bourgeois seduction technique - but be warned, she might just DIE OF BOREDOM.

Awesome!

Even without shifting expectations for this movie being an old early 50s black & white flick - this film is very good. But when you consider the lack of special features and effects available to the director, it is brilliant.

The combat scenes especially, could fit into any modern martial arts film, solely requiring colour. It shows traditional warfare at its best, and many great individual performances to depict the relatively recent feudal Japan.