Stories containing swordplay have been a way of Japanese cinema for a long time holding the same place in the cultures of the audience that the western did for Americans. Akira Kurosawa, a well-known director who had created an international reputation in the 1950s was an avid user of the Hollywood method in cinema and saw an opportunity to fashion a high adventure along the western lines. It is no surprise that Seven Samurai could so easily be remade as The Magnificent Seven (1960) because it draws so much of its plot and character from the Wild West.
The film opens with some plot groundwork. A farmer overhears a group of bandits agreeing to hold off a raid on a village because the peasants will not have had time to harvest their crops since the last attack. They promise, however, to return after the harvest. Here, Kurosawa one-ups Hollywood. Before 1954, even the most epic American adventures featured a lone hero or two rivals. But here Kurosawa invented the idea of a heroic leader assembling a team of specialists to meet a challenging task.
This cinematic gather of members to overcome a challenge ultimately drew his film to a wide audience clueless to the heroic team concept. By incorporating his culture and using a variety of cinematic cues such Kurosawa directed a masterpiece. Through culture adaptations and cinematic cues Kurosawa created a marvelous cinematic film using western culture as a motif for his Hollywood production. Ultimately, his film became a huge success because of his incorporation of Hollywood production concepts and inserting within his own culture.
Geoffery StJulien 