Seven Samurai’s 4K restoration is headed to theaters

To rejoice its seventieth anniversary, Akira Kurosawa’s black-and-white epic Seven Samurai is coming again to theaters with a brand new 4K restoration.

Arguably the crowning achievement of one of many world’s most lauded filmmakers, the movie depicts a small village within the sixteenth century that’s threatened by bandits. To guard themselves from the invaders, the farmers go in the hunt for ronin — master-less samurai for rent — who can keep at bay the marauders and hold the village secure.

One of many movie’s co-writers, Shinobu Hashimoto, discovered the method of placing collectively Seven Samurai so exhausting that he checked himself right into a hospital. “I believed I’d by no means be capable of write something nearly as good ever once more,” he mentioned. “Alternatively, I believed since writing it was so troublesome, and I survived, I may write something.”

It was additionally a tremendously costly movie, particularly for the Nineteen Fifties, with a funds estimated between $150,000 and $200,000 — far above the $70,000 common of Japanese movies of that period. Throughout filming, Kurosawa needed to cease manufacturing after he realized he had run by way of his funding solely a 3rd of the best way by way of the shoot. The whole shoot lasted almost a 12 months.

Nonetheless, Seven Samurai proved nicely value it, changing into a field workplace success in Japan and, within the 70 years since its launch, now thought of one of many biggest movies of all time.

The 4K restoration debuted on the Cannes Movie Pageant earlier this 12 months. In New York, the film opens at Movie Discussion board on July fifth; in Los Angeles, the premiere will likely be on July seventh on the Egyptian Theatre, with a gap at Laemmle Royal to comply with on July twelfth.