Seven Samurai

8/6/2024:
A legendary film by a legendary director. I finally watched this and although I think it' a great movie, it's 207 minute runtime is way too long. The Shino and village kids add way too much padding to this story. I loved the characters and hate how quickly this wrapped up in the end. This film is quite an achievement, but there's a lot I found myself not quite enjoying. The cinematography in this is groundbreaking though, and I love how the Seven Samurai were formed. I will have to watch this again someday, but for now, I am unsure if I could ever call this the best Kurosawa film! (For that, I might choose Throne of Blood!)

3/21/2026:
This is my second time watching this film and I enjoyed it a lot more this time around! After watching a bunch of other Akira Kurosawa films, this one really does stand out as one of the best. I love how the samurai form together and how the story unfolds with so many different characters. My only complaint is still that this is a really long runtime and I feel it by the end. Some scenes could have been more efficient. I still love this though and the end was way more impactful this time around! There's so much to say about this but I want to wait until my third watch for a full run-down on this. It's pretty self explanatory on why this is great, but I really want to do a review that does this justice eventually.