History Film / SevenSamurai

* EndOfAnAge: The samurai who die get killed by firearms.

* PlotHole: Why do the bandits continue to assault the village after it becomes clear that the village is strongly defended, causing them to take many casualties? ''The Magnificent Seven'' justified this by explaining that the bandits are starving and can't move on.
** There's actually two scenes justifying this in the original movie as well. Two bandits who try to escape are shot and killed. The bandit leader, who judging by his armor is a former samurai, seems to regard the village's defiance as a personal affront and tells his men that any other attempts to escape will be dealt with in a similar manner. Kikuchiyo, while disguised as a bandit, also has a candid conversation with another bandit that implies they're running low on food as well.

* StarCrossedLovers: Either [[spoiler:Katsushirou and Shinou]] or [[spoiler:Katsushirou and Kyūzō]], depending on your interpretation. Or [[TakeAThirdOption possibly]] [[LoveTriangle all three]].

* ThemeNaming: With the exception of Kambei all samurai have numbers in their names. Katsu''shi''rou: 4, ''Go''robei: 5, ''Shichi''rouji: 7, Hei''hachi'': 8, ''Kyū''zō: 9 (the kanji is different but the pronounciation is the same), Kiku''chi''yo: 1000. Probably intentional, but leaves one wondering why Kambei is an exception.

* HypocriticalHumor: At one point Katsushirou is lazily picking flowers in the mountains when he happens across a young woman dressed as a boy (Shinou), also picking flowers. He angrily tells her that an able-bodied young man should not be picking flowers at a time like this... emphasizing his point by gesturing with the flower he's just picked.

** Manzo, worried about womanizing samurai coming to town, tries to cut his daughter Shinou's hair and disguise her as a boy. [[spoiler:It doesn't work. Good news is, the just-as-innocent Katsushirou is the one who finds Shinou and begins a humorously sweet courtship with her.]]

* KidSamurai: Katsushirou

* MustNotDieAVirgin: [[spoiler:Katsushiro and Shinou realize it's now or never.]] Probably.

* EpicMovie: This cost about $500,000 and a year to produce. Most films at the time took 1 month to film and cost $70,000! The combined production of this movie and {{Godzilla}} (budgeted at an estimated $1,000,000) nearly drove Toho into bankruptcy.

* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler: Four of the seven]]

* ButtMonkey: Subverted with Kikuchiyo. The other samurai mock him repeatedly, [[spoiler: but eventually accept him as a teammate. Kikuchiyo performs heroically during the final attack and even [[RedemptionEqualsDeath earns a samurai's death]].]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Being samurai sucks. They aren't allowed to change jobs to earn money. They can only rely on their martial prowess to make a living. The possibility of death is very high.
** Also, the final decisive battle is quick and not very grand. Before you know it [[spoiler:the bandits are all dead and two of the five remaining samurai have fallen in battle]]. The entire battle against the bandits is played as realistically as possible, [[WarIsHell from beginning to end]].

** Manzo, worried about womanizing samurai coming to town, tries to cut his daughter Shinou's hair and disguise her as a boy. [[spoiler: It doesn't work. Good news is, the just-as-innocent Katsushirou is the one who finds Shinou and begins a humorously sweet courtship with her.]]

* KnightInShiningArmor: Subverted. The samurai are enraged when they discover that the villagers whom they are defending have in the past sometimes killed samurai escaping from battles and stripped them of their armor and weapons. As the other samurai begin muttering about how they'd like to slaughter the entire village, Kikuchiyo [[spoiler: (who was born a commoner)]] angrily reminds them that it was living under samurai rule that forced the villagers to live like that in the first place. This case of WriterOnBoard is widely held to be an apology by Kurosawa, who was from a family with samurai heritage.

* MustNotDieAVirgin: [[spoiler: Katsushiro and Shinou realize it's now or never.]] Probably.

* PluckyComicRelief: Heihachi Hayashida, who is not very skilled, is recruited mainly in hopes he can be this during adversity. However [[spoiler: he is the first one killed before the big battle]].

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Kikuchiyo]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Kikuchiyo is revealed to be a common-born farmer's son. This explains his reactions to the villagers, lack of training, and his unwitting assumption of a child's name.]] But it was quite obvious very early on.

* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler: Kikuchiyo kills the bandit leader before dying of a fatal gunshot wound.]]

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Subverted. [[spoiler: Kyūzō]] does this, but only to show the others where his attackers are hiding [[spoiler: before he dies]].

* ''Seven Samurai 20XX''

* SamuraiJack defends a group of archaeologist dogs from Aku's army of robots in a very similar fashion.

** Also, the final decisive battle is quick and not very grand. Before you know it [[spoiler: the bandits are all dead and two of the five remaining samurai have fallen in battle]]. The entire battle against the bandits is played as realistically as possible, from beginning to end.

** Also, the final decisive battle is quick and not very grand. Before you know it [[spoiler: the bandits are all dead and two of the five remaining samurai have fallen in battle]]. The entire battle against the bandits is played as realistically as possible.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: ''All'' of the seven get one. Kambei's moment, in which he shaves his head to impersonate a monk, shows how he doesn't place much stock in honor or fair play. He rubs his bald head throughout the film to remind the audience of it.

* TheTeamWannabe

* TheArcher: Gorobei. [[spoiler: Kambei replaces him after his death.]]

* {{Samurai}}: Obviously! [[spoiler:Technically, like the Ronin entry above notes, they're not ''really'' samurai. But all seven fight - and four die - like samurai]]

* JapanesePronouns: But of course. The peasants all use "ora," regardless of gender. Noble-born Katsushirou uses "watakushi" when talking to the samurai, and "ore" with Shinou. The samurai use "sessha" when they first meet, but later on they all switch to "ore" except for Kanbei who uses "washi." Kikuchiyo uses "ore," and "ore-sama" when he's being boastful.

* YouDontWantToDieAVirginDoYou: [[spoiler: Katsushiro and Shinou realize it's now or never.]] Probably.

* SingleStrokeBattle: Early in the film, Kyūzō is seen holding a duel with another swordsman. They face off, neither moving for some time, Kyūzō draws and swings, his opponent falls to the ground, dead. It's possibly the most famous SSB in film history
** Some argue that it is the TropeCodefier, if not TropeMaker, for SSB.

* ''Manga/SamuraiSeven''

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sevensamurai.jpg]]

''Seven Samurai'' is a 1954 Japanese film directed by Creator/AkiraKurosawa; it starred his longtime collaborators Takashi Shimura and ToshiroMifune in two of the lead roles. It is considered by many Western critics to be the finest Japanese film of all time, and a few of them consider it to be the finest film ever made, period.

It has been remade, homaged, or flat out ripped off numerous times, in genres ranging from western (''TheMagnificentSeven'') to science fiction (''Battle Beyond The Stars'', ''SamuraiSeven'') and, if you're willing to stretch a bit, anthromorphized animals (''[[WesternAnimation/ABugsLife A Bug's Life]]'').

!!This film - very frequently appearing in Top Ten Of All Time lists - is a TropeMaker or early example of:

Homages, parodies, or knock-offs

* ''{{Naruto}}'' - The Land of Waves arc.
* ''{{Battle Beyond the Stars}}''
* ''SamuraiSeven''
* ''TheMagnificentSeven''
* ''[[Film/ThreeAmigos Three Amigos]]''

* ''Star Wars: The Clone Wars'' - Season 2, Episode 17

* ''{{Ironclad}}''

* ''TheDarkTower/WolvesOfTheCalla''

* ''YuGiOh'' has an archetype of cyborg bushi called ''The Six Samurai''.

* SingleStrokeBattle: Early in the film, Kyūzō is seen holding a duel with another swordsman. They face off, neither moving for some time, Kyūzō draws and swings, his opponent falls to the ground, dead. It's possibly the most famous SSB in film history.

* {{Samurai}}: Obviously!

* ''ThreeAmigos''

** MoodWhiplash: The [[spoiler:first samurai]]'s burial scene goes through no fewer than four intense emotions in less than 30 seconds.

* BatmanColdOpen: One of the earliest examples of this trope in Kambei's introduction -- rescuing a boy taken hostage.

** Kikuchiyo. [[spoiler:Even after getting shot, [[DyingMomentOfAwesome he walks slowly towards the bandit leader and runs him through before dying]].]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: ''All'' of the seven get one.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Four of the samurai die.]] Kind of counts as an ItWasHisSled [[spoiler:because samurai ''want'' to die heroically defending someone. We're just hiding the count.]]

* KatanasAreJustBetter: Averted, as there's little they can do against muskets at range

* TheMagnificentSevenSamurai: [[CaptainObvious Trope Maker]]

** Although Kambei might qualify more as an AwesomeByAnalysis warrior.
* MoodWhiplash: The [[spoiler:first samurai]]'s burial scene goes through no fewer than four intense emotions in less than 30 seconds.