Seven Samurai (1954)
七人の侍
Action, Drama • 3h 20m
Overview
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki, Daisuke Katō, Isao Kimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Yoshio Kosugi, Bokuzen Hidari, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Kokuten Kōdō, Eijirō Tōno, Jun Tatara, Atsushi Watanabe, Toranosuke Ogawa, Isao Yamagata, Kichijirō Ueda, Sôjin Kamiyama, Gen Shimizu, Keiji Sakakida, Shinpei Takagi, Shin Ōtomo, Toshio Takahara, Kan Sugi, Hiroshi Hayashi, Sachio Sakai, Sôkichi Maki, Ichirō Chiba, Noriko Sengoku, Noriko Honma, Masanobu Ōkubo, Etsuo Saijo, Minoru Itō, Haruya Sakamoto, Gorô Sakurai, Hideo Shibuya, Kiyoshi Kamoda, Senkichi Ōmura, Takashi Narita, Shōichi Hirose, Kôji Uno, Masaaki Tachibana, Kamayuki Tsubono, Taiji Naka, Chindanji Miyagawa, Shigemi Sunagawa, Akira Tani, Akio Kusama, Ryûtarô Amami, Jun Mikami, Haruo Nakajima, Sanpei Mine, Masahide Matsushita, Kaneo Ikeda, Takuzô Kumagaya, Ippei Kawagoe, Jirô Suzukawa, Junpei Natsuki, Kyôichi Kamiyama, Haruo Suzuki, Gorô Amano, Akira Kitchôji, Kōji Iwamoto, Hiroshi Akitsu, Akira Yamada, Kazuo Imai, Eisuke Nakanishi, Toku Ihara, Hideo Ôtsuka, Shû Ôe, Yasuhisa Tsutsumi, Yasumasa Ônishi, Tsuneo Katagiri, Megeru Shimoda, Masayoshi Kawabe, Shigeo Katō, Yoshikazu Kawamata, Takeshi Seki, Haruko Toyama, Tsuruko Mano, Matsue Ono, Tsurue Ichimanji, Masako Ōshiro, Kyōko Ozawa, Michiko Kadono, Toshiko Nakano, Shizuko Azuma, Michiko Kawabe, Yûko Togawa, Yayoko Kitano, Kyoko Mori, Misao Suyama, Toriko Takahara, Takeshi Katō, Tatsuya Nakadai, Ken Utsui, Ren Yamamoto, Takuzō Kumagai
Director: Orson Welles
MoC 4K Blu-ray and Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray are similar
Director: Orson Welles
MoC 4K Blu-ray and Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray are similar
Director: Jean Renoir
The Criterion 4K Blu-ray has marginally better detail and grain structure than ESC 4K Blu-ray
The ESC France 4K Blu-ray is an SDR grade erroneously presented in HDR, but if your player can force the HDR into SDR it looks very good.
Director: Jean Renoir
The Criterion 4K Blu-ray has marginally better detail and grain structure than ESC 4K Blu-ray
The ESC France 4K Blu-ray is an SDR grade erroneously presented in HDR, but if your player can force the HDR into SDR it looks very good.
Director: David Lynch
Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray - subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking
1993 MGM LaserDisc/2000 Region 1 MGM DVD
Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110
Director: David Lynch
Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray - subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking
1993 MGM LaserDisc/2000 Region 1 MGM DVD
Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110
Director: David Lynch
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is closer to the original DVDs than the 2015 Criterion release, not sure about whether the StudioCanal 4K is like the Criterion 4K/original DVD
Criterion 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision, StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has MEL
Director: David Lynch
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is closer to the original DVDs than the 2015 Criterion release, not sure about whether the StudioCanal 4K is like the Criterion 4K/original DVD
Criterion 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision, StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has MEL
Director: Jean Vigo
Director: Jean Vigo
Director: Charlie Chaplin
1936 version: Image Entertainment DVD
1954 version: Criterion Blu-ray
Cut info: https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?t=31209
1936 version: Image Entertainment DVD
Director: Charlie Chaplin
1936 version: Image Entertainment DVD
1954 version: Criterion Blu-ray
Cut info: https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?t=31209
1936 version: Image Entertainment DVD
Director: Béla Tarr
Curzon 4K Blu-ray August
Director: Béla Tarr
Curzon 4K Blu-ray August
Paramount 4K Blu-ray but poor encode, no alternatives though
Paramount 4K Blu-ray but poor encode, no alternatives though
Director: Robert Bresson
Director: Robert Bresson
Director: Akira Kurosawa
BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR
Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray
BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.
The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.
Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR
Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray
BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.
The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.
Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Criterion NTSC DVD overall. The 4K restoration's track is denoised and sounds muffled, but has a few of moments where it edges out in detail
Audio analysis between the Criterion 4K Blu-ray, BFI Blu-ray and Toho 4K Blu-ray
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Criterion NTSC DVD overall. The 4K restoration's track is denoised and sounds muffled, but has a few of moments where it edges out in detail
Audio analysis between the Criterion 4K Blu-ray, BFI Blu-ray and Toho 4K Blu-ray
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Criterion 4K Blu-ray: intact grain compared to Toho/BFI UHDs' DNR'd master
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is good, derived from the 1995 Criterion LaserDisc (which would be minimally better due to its lack of filtering) see blah-ray
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Criterion 4K Blu-ray: intact grain compared to Toho/BFI UHDs' DNR'd master
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is good, derived from the 1995 Criterion LaserDisc (which would be minimally better due to its lack of filtering) see blah-ray
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Italy Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray >StudioCanal UK (slightly better encoding on Eagle?)
The US Criterion DVD has some unique supplements with 2.0 surround audio - this release contains Japan end titles.
The Japan 4K Restoration Blu-ray has some exclusive features with 4.0 audio (though the release is not English-friendly)- this release contains Japan end titles.
The StudioCanal releases contain France end titles - while their 4K Blu-ray releases contain identical features.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Italy Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray >StudioCanal UK (slightly better encoding on Eagle?)
The US Criterion DVD has some unique supplements with 2.0 surround audio - this release contains Japan end titles.
The Japan 4K Restoration Blu-ray has some exclusive features with 4.0 audio (though the release is not English-friendly)- this release contains Japan end titles.
The StudioCanal releases contain France end titles - while their 4K Blu-ray releases contain identical features.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: John Waters
Director: John Waters
Director: Sidney Lumet
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray
2011 Criterion Blu-ray is the best. Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has heavily filtered audio
Director: Sidney Lumet
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray
2011 Criterion Blu-ray is the best. Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has heavily filtered audio
2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray
2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray
2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray
2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray
Director: John Waters
Director: John Waters
Director: Ridley Scott
Capelight 4K Blu-ray has better encode than Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Ridley Scott
Capelight 4K Blu-ray has better encode than Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Chen Kaige
Director: Chen Kaige
Director: Michael Curtiz
Director: Michael Curtiz
Director: Luis Buñuel
StudioCanal 50th Anniversary Blu-ray
StudioCanal 50th Anniversary Blu-ray uses a newer 4k scan than Criterion Blu-ray or older StudioCanal Blu-ray see https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=4373
Director: Luis Buñuel
StudioCanal 50th Anniversary Blu-ray
StudioCanal 50th Anniversary Blu-ray uses a newer 4k scan than Criterion Blu-ray or older StudioCanal Blu-ray see https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=4373
Edit History
12/24/2025
Additional Info
12/22/2025
Best English-Friendly Release
From
Criterion 4K Blu-ray Vinegar Syndrome BFI 4K Blu-ray the subtitles are translated differently. See Blu-ray.com forum.
To
From
Criterion 4K Blu-ray Vinegar Syndrome BFI 4K Blu-ray the subtitles are translated differently. See Blu-ray.com forum.
To
10/11/2025
Best English-Friendly Release
From
Criterion UHD vs BFI UHD
the subtitles are translated differently. Please see blu-ray forum
To
Criterion 4K Blu-ray Vinegar Syndrome BFI 4K Blu-ray the subtitles are translated differently. See Blu-ray.com forum.
From
Criterion UHD vs BFI UHD
the subtitles are translated differently. Please see blu-ray forum
To
Criterion 4K Blu-ray Vinegar Syndrome BFI 4K Blu-ray the subtitles are translated differently. See Blu-ray.com forum.
Blu-ray.com
Added
https://www.blu-ray.com/Seven-Samurai/24392/
Added
https://www.blu-ray.com/Seven-Samurai/24392/
blah-ray
Added
https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/search/label/Seven%20Samurai%20%281954%29
Added
https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/search/label/Seven%20Samurai%20%281954%29
DVDBeaver
From
To
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare7/sevensamurai.htm
From
To
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare7/sevensamurai.htm
8/17/2025
Best English-Friendly Release
From
Criterion UHD/BFI UHD (preference)
To
Criterion UHD vs BFI UHD
the subtitles are translated differently. Please see blu-ray forum
From
Criterion UHD/BFI UHD (preference)
To
Criterion UHD vs BFI UHD
the subtitles are translated differently. Please see blu-ray forum
Best Video Release
From
Criterion SDR UHD has better defined grain and additional clean-up. BFI UHD's HDR/DV grade can be debatable.
To
No clear winner,
Criterion SDR UHD has better defined grain and is cleaned-up more thoroughly. But looks grayer and flatter in daytime scenes.
BFI UHD's HDR/DV is better in contrast but the grading can be debatable.
From
Criterion SDR UHD has better defined grain and additional clean-up. BFI UHD's HDR/DV grade can be debatable.
To
No clear winner,
Criterion SDR UHD has better defined grain and is cleaned-up more thoroughly. But looks grayer and flatter in daytime scenes.
BFI UHD's HDR/DV is better in contrast but the grading can be debatable.
7/13/2025
Best Video Release
From
Criterion SDR UHD has better defined grain and additional clean-up. BFI UHD's DV grade can be debatable.
To
No clear winner, Criterion SDR 4K Blu-ray has better defined grain and is cleaned-up more thoroughly. But looks grayer and flatter in daytime scenes. BFI 4K Blu-ray's HDR/DV is better in contrast but the grading can be debatable.
From
Criterion SDR UHD has better defined grain and additional clean-up. BFI UHD's DV grade can be debatable.
To
No clear winner, Criterion SDR 4K Blu-ray has better defined grain and is cleaned-up more thoroughly. But looks grayer and flatter in daytime scenes. BFI 4K Blu-ray's HDR/DV is better in contrast but the grading can be debatable.
7/13/2025
Best Video Release
From
Criterion UHD has better defined grain and damage clean-up, but is a bit flat compared to BFI UHD
To
Criterion SDR UHD has better defined grain and additional clean-up. BFI UHD's DV grade can be debatable.
From
Criterion UHD has better defined grain and damage clean-up, but is a bit flat compared to BFI UHD
To
Criterion SDR UHD has better defined grain and additional clean-up. BFI UHD's DV grade can be debatable.
12/15/2024
Best Video Release
From
Toho UHD. Criterion UHD expected soon, 4k screening in theaters
To
Criterion UHD has better defined grain and damage clean-up, but is a bit flat compared to BFI UHD
From
Toho UHD. Criterion UHD expected soon, 4k screening in theaters
To
Criterion UHD has better defined grain and damage clean-up, but is a bit flat compared to BFI UHD
