FILM STUDENT WATCHES *SEVEN SAMURAI* FOR THE FIRST TIME! (Movie Reaction) 

Thank you for reacting to this Elie! Isao Kimura was an amazing actor. Zen and Sword (1961) & Miyamoto Musashi V: Duel at Ganryu Island (1965) are a couple of stand-outs. Glad u enjoyed the movie!

Beautiful imagery in this movie. Frustrating that modern filmmaking doesn't take full advantage of everything they have access to nowadays or feel it's worth the effort. It's far easier today for certain movie companies to slop some special effects together and hope audiences will simply be overloaded stimulus-wise. Well crafted classic television and movies have incredible depth as they had fewer tools to use, so they put "everything" into nuanced camera angles and any little tricks they could muster. The ending to this film is fantastic and that ending line. The bandits are all defeated, leaving the three remaining samurai to watch the villagers set to sowing their crops, singing happily the entire time, one of them notes that; “In the end, we’ve lost this battle too. The victory belongs to those peasants. Not to us.” Wonderful review Elie. Think you'd enjoy 'Imitation of Life', it seems like a formulaic movie for it's time but it has so much more depth to it.

Kurosawa is my all time favorite director so this was an early birthday-treat for me, thanks Elie! Kurosawa is who arguably ruined a lot of mainstream modern cinema for me. The way he composes his shots, almost always with distinct elements in the fore, middle and background gives almost every single frame a painting like quality. He also makes sure that there is some element of movement somewhere, so even when the characters are static there is often some sort of weather effect (wind, rain, dust) going on. It just makes a lot of cgi-focused action cinema seem so dull and pedestrian in it's film making by comparison. The actor who plays Kikuchiyo, Toshiro Mifune, was a regular collaborator of Kuroswas, their work is very much worth checking out. For some examples (though they are all pretty damn good): Yojimbo was the film Morricone based "A fist full of Dollars" on, "Drunken Angel" is a very atmospheric Noire-like film and "Stray Dog" is arguably the precursor of modern "buddy cop" films. You wondered at some point how Kurosawa might look like in color: For that I recommend one of his last films - "Ran" from 1985. A hauntingly dark film, loosely based on Shakespeares King Lear, but with the most vibrant and amazing use of color I have ever seen. In any case, keep up the good work and take care!

Seven Samurai!!!!!!!

03:32 -03:35 The Samurai crossing left to right on the screen is the movie debut of Tatsuya Nakadai, who became one of Japan's most famous actors, and a frequent actor in other Akira Kurosawa films such as Yojimbo, and the lead roles in both Kagamusha and Ran. And regarding Toshiro Mixing (Kikuchiyo)... Kurosawa paid him the ultimate accolade when he said "When most Actors need 30 feet of Film to Emote, it takes Mifune only ten Feet of Film."

Still the greatest film ever made.

Film reaction to Seven Samurai? That's an instant sub in my book. Kurosawa is well known for Samurai films, but I would strongly recommend "High and Low" - a crime/suspense film. The way he uses blocking of the characters in the first half to support the story is masterful in itself.

That comment you made about watching this movie being therapeutic...I feel exactly the same way

Speaking of Kurosawa in color, There is a scene in Kagemusha which is a masterclass in color grading and scene composition. There is a ridge line along the back with the foreground sloping front to back and slightly up into the ridge. Along the top of the ridge are Takeda troops marching from right to left and in the foreground are a small group of troops resting and lamenting the fact that they are retreating. Directly behind them are another line of troops marching parallel to the ones on the ridge line but turning into the camera as they reach the left edge of the shot. Now here is where Kurosawa’s magic happens. The setting sun is burning hot orange just behind the ridge, casting the background in a sharp orange tone, while all this activity has kicked up so much dust that the whole scene is washed out in a sort of tan filter settling like curtains between the different groups of troops, while the troops themselves are a muted purple with very little detail because of the dusk sky and the dust. The orange of the sun is casting shadows of the troops on the ridge forward onto the curtains of dust, which is just a breathtaking visual. The whole thing is shot with a telephoto lens, which flattens out the shot and allows every piece of the scene to live more or less in the same plane. Coupled with an excellent score, it is an amazing scene and I will watch that entire movie anytime just to see that scene. It’s why we’re still talking about Akira Kurosawa today.

If Elie wants Kurosawa in color, gotta watch Ran, his homage to King Lear. You'll thank me

Looking forward to more great movie reacts!

Thank you, masterpiece

Now you have to watch: Samurai 7 (Anime) Magnificent Seven (1960) Magnificent Seven (2016) Edit: Also, A Bug's Life lol

The Negotiator Samuel Jackson, Please react to this.