All language subtitles for Akira Kurosawa - It Is Wonderful to Create - Seven Samurai_Track03_en

AKIRA KUROSAWA

A truly good movie
is really enjoyable, too.

There's nothing
complicated about it.

A truly good movie is interesting
and easy to understand.

Ready.

Action!

He loved cinema
and believed in its power.

Akira Kurosawa
lived his life for cinema.

He made 30 films in his lifetime,

all of which have been
appreciated worldwide.

Kurosawa's films have had
a great impact on the film industry.

Let's take a look at his passion
FINAL SCENE OF MADADAYO

throughout the 55 years
of moviemaking

that began with Sanshiro Sugata.

Cut!

IT 1S WONDERFUL TO CREATE!
— AKIRA KUROSAWA

IT WAS ALL THERE IN THE SCRIPT

I often say this,
but cinema is like a public square

where people of the world gather.

On the screen, we see people
living in different parts of the world,

and we share the full spectrum
of their emotions

and come to understand them.

When we see them happy, we're happy.
When they suffer, we suffer too.

So I say that cinema is a system

that can inspire
people of the world to get along.

The greatest masterpiece
in the history of Japanese cinema:

Seven Samurai.

The film had a great impact
on filmmakers in Japan

as well as overseas.

Hot damn!
Here they come!

Let me share the background
of how the film was conceived

as we highlight some key scenes.

ATAMI, DECEMBER 1952

In 1952, three men gathered

at an inn in Atami.

They came to write a screenplay
for Seven Samurai,

Kurosawa's tenth film,
following Ikiru.

In order to write a realistic action story
with samurai as a theme,

the three men shut themselves up
in this room.

Seven Samurai is considered
the greatest film in the history of cinema,

the film that exemplifies
the truest nature of the medium.

A writer who has written many plays,
MASAYUKI YUI — ACTOR

Hisashi Inoue, has said,
“First of all, the script is wonderful.

It's as if it was rendered
by some supernatural power.”

The script held in such high esteem

was conceived in this very room.

Kurosawa sat here
and worked on the script.

He and two writers holed up
in here for the duration of the task.

The script,

which these three men completed
after 45 days of struggle,

would go on to upset the long-held
conventions of Japanese period drama.

THE ABANDONED FIRST SCENE

During the Civil Wars,

an endless cycle of conflict
left the countryside overrun by bandits.

Peaceable folk lived in terror
of the thunder of approaching hooves...

Seven Samurai starts

with the thundering gallop
of bandits' horses.

In an epic drama
of three hours and 27 minutes,

the first line of dialogue is this one,
spoken by one of the bandits.

Take this village too?

The bandit says,
“Take this village foo?”

In the script there was
actually a preceding scene

of another village
being attacked by the bandits.

Therefore, the bandits were
on their way back from that raid.

Including the preceding scene would have
enhanced the film's action-movie quality,

but Kurosawa took it out.
Why did he do that?

I don't like
a very elaborate first scene.

It's not good when the first scene
is really impressive.

It should be an unassuming lead-in
to the story.

Even working
from such a highly praised script,

Kurosawa was unsparing.

In fact, Seven Samurai
was the result

of discarding various ideas
from the script-writing stage.

HIRING SAMURAI

We fight.

Old Man, that's madness.

We're farmers.
What do we know of battle?

We'll hire samurai.

Whoever heard of farmers
hiring samurai?

Farmers hiring samurai

was a truly
extraordinary idea

that started the story rolling.

The script was written
by these three men:

Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu
Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguri,

the same threesome
that wrote the script for Ikiru.

SCREENPLAY BY AKIRA KUROSAWA,
SHINOBU HASHIMOTO, HIDEO OGUNI

Oguni didn't write a single line.
SHINOBU HASHIMOTO — SCREENWRITER

Kurosawa and I would be writing

on this side of the table,
and Oguni would be on that side.

We'd write a few pages
and pass them to Oguni.

He'd read them, and when he said,
“Good,” then that was it,

but when he criticized what he read,
we'd have to rewrite it.

With Oguni steering the storyline,

Kurosawa and Hashimoto
did the actual writing.

Kurosawa was good at telling stories,
WHAT WAS THE ORIGINAL STORY?

so I'd find myself getting caught up.

He said, “A samurai wakes up
in the morning, right?

He must certainly groom himself
by shaving the top of his head.

Then he prays at a Buddhist altar,
has breakfast and goes to work.

At the castle, where he works,
he makes a very minor mistake,

and when he comes home,
he kills himself by performing harakiri.

Isn't that a good story?”

He tells it so well,
you can't help but agree.

He also sald it was going to be
a reallstic period drama

unlike any we were
then familiar with.

He said, “Period dramas
came from Kabuki,

so there's too much
Kabuki influence.

But movies in this genre
should be different.

I want to make
a realistic period movie.”

And he asked me to conduct
thorough research to that end.

So I did research, met a lot of people
and asked a lot of questions.

But I couldn't find out
anything relevant.

In the end, ‘A Day in a Samurar's Life”
was abandoned.

Kurosawa said,

“There were great swordsmen

like Bokuzen Tsukahara
and Sekishusai Yagyu.

We can make a film highlighting
five such swordsmen's famous battles.

It'll be an action-filled
samurai movie,

and I think we can make
something interesting.

What do you think?”

It took me about three months
to write a script based on that idea.

As I reread the completed script,

I wasn't completely happy with it,

but Kurosawa was anxiously waiting,

because six months had elapsed
since the first idea for the harakiri story.

So I took the script to his house
in Komaya,

where he was living at the time,
and he immediately began reading.

He read each page carefully,
taking his time.

I had no choice
but to just sit there.

Finally he finished reading
the last page and put it down.

He said, “Hashimoto,

I guess it wasn't a good idea

to construct an entire movie
as a series of climaxes.”

So that second idea
was thrown out too.

And thus his next
film project came to a halt.

The harakiri story was out,
and so was the swordsmen story.

So he and I talked

to Sojiro Motoki
SOJIRO MOTOKI — PRODUCER

about the days when there were
many swordsmen.

We asked, “These swordsmen traveled
all over Japan to perfect their skill.

It doesn't seem they were well-off
or had much money.

How were they able to travel?”

Motoki looked into it right away,
and he came back with answers.

Around the end of the Civil Wars,
when a martial artist

traveled around the country
to perfect his swordsmanship,

he'd visit a kendo school and be given
one night's lodging and a meal.

And the next morning
he'd be served breakfast.

He'd also be given
a handful of dried, cooked rice,

which was to serve
as his lunch on the road.

So these swordsmen were able
to travel with very little money.

Then I asked, “What about
when there was no kendo school?”

And he told me that Buddhist temples
gave them lodging.

In those days, Buddhist temples
would always let them stay.

Temples provided
a night's lodging and a meal,

as well as breakfast
the next morning.

If there was neither a kendo school
nor a Buddhist temple, then what?

I wanted to know what happened
in such a situation

and asked Motoki to find out.

He told me that
around the end of the Civil Wars,

there were bandits everywhere.

Because of this problem with bandits,
if a samurai went to a peasant village

and served on a night watch,
then he was provided with a meal.

I thought, “This is it!”

Right then and there
we decided we'd write a story

about farmers hiring samurai
to fight the bandits.

How did Kurosawa work
auring the script-writing process?

I'd pass him what I'd just written.

He'd mutter,
“What is this? This is rubbish.”

He'd yell at me, “Don't you have
any sense of the flow of the story?

I'll tell you how this sequence
should be written.”

I wasn't the director,
so I didn't think like a director.

There was nothing I could do
but rewrite the entire sequence.

When I was done,
I'd pass the pages to him.

He'd grunt as he read them.
Then he'd get angry and say,

“You can write well
when you apply yourself.

Why didn't you do it right
the first time?”

Kurosawa's storyboard
for the film's trailer is preserved.

The storyboard states
that the film depicts

ideal samurai whose conduct
Is not motivated by fame or greed.

Kurosawa said that being holed up
in that inn for 45 days

was really hard.

When he got tired, he'd walk out
HIROMICHI HORIKAWA — DIRECTOR

to the garden
and watch the carp in the pond,

but he never stepped outside the inn.

“A movie as rich

as a buttered steak
topped with grilled eel.”

This was how Kurosawa answered
when asked to describe the film.

THE SAMURAI THEME

Among the music that
Fumio Hayasaka composed,

the “Samurai Theme” from
Seven Samurai /s the most popular piece.

We hear the music for the first time
in this scene with Kambel.

MUSIC NOTEBOOK
FOR SEVEN SAMURA/

Actually, Hayasaka had originally
discarded the piece.

The pieces that Hayasaka
had prepared for the film

were not to Kurosawa's liking
and were all refected.

In desperation, Hayasaka picked up
a previously discarded score

and played it on the piano
for Kurosawa, and it was accepted.

The music really grabs you.

The “grabbing” Kurosawa talked about.
SHIN' ICHIRO IKEBE — MUSIC DIRECTOR

You mean the theme from
Seven Samurai?

You hear it once and can't forget it,
because it has a strong flavor,

and yet it has
no unnecessary elements.

It's solid and direct,
like calligraphy of a single stroke.

Kurosawa liked that kind of music.

I heard Kurosawa asked Hayasaka
to compose something like that,

but he didn't like the pieces
Hayasaka played for him.

After the last piece, Hayasaka said
he actually had one more.

He played a piece retrieved from
the trash basket, and that was the one.

Hayasaka may have
planned it that way.

Like your “eighth piece”
that you used fo place last on purpose.

Maybe the piece in the trash basket
was the one he liked the best.

I shouldn't say that.
It's disrespectful.

THE PERSONALITIES
OF THE SEVEN SAMURAI

When the seven samurai
arrive at the viflage,

they're received coldly by the farmers,
who are fearful of them.

Hey, what's wrong?

What's the matter?

This is a fine welcome.

Something was needed to connect
the farmers and samurai.

That role would fall to Mifune.

No one saw any bandits?

Then who sounded the alarm?

KIKUCHIYO: I did!

Hey, blockheads.

Remember how you welcomed us
when we got here?

But as soon as I bang on this,

“Samurai, sirs!
Samurai, please!”

You're practically groveling!

Got what you deserved,
you mud snails.

Kurosawa designated Kikuchiyo,
played by Mifune,

as the buffoon who serves as a bridge
between the farmers and the samurai.

The seven men
are rich in character.

How were their personalities
determined?

When I agreed to write the script
and we got together to write,

Kurosawa pulled out a notebook
and placed it on the table.

Then he opened the notebook,
and I could see his notes.

The name Shichiroji was circled,
and his description followed.

“He's five feet
and some inches tall,

and a little on the pudgy side.

He walks
in such-and-such a manner.

He speaks
in such-and-such a way.

When he's called from behind,
he looks back in response

in a certain way in case of emergency,
and in a different manner otherwise.”

Each of the seven samurai
was described in similar detail.

Shimura's character
Kambei resembles

Nobutsuna Koizumi in the abandoned
script about the swordsmen.

So we made good use of the attributes
of the characters in that script

to flesh out the seven characters.

For instance, Seiji Miyaguchi's character
resembles Musashi Miyamoto.

So a character outline had been
prepared for each of the seven men.

When I initially saw the contents
of Kurosawa's notebook,

I thought, “Wow! He really puts
great effort into his films.”

AKIRA KUROSAWA MEMORIAL HALL

The notes Hashimoto refers to still exist.

Some of the notes are on display,
along with many other valuable items,

at the Akira Kurosawa Memorial Hall.

Here are Kurosawa's
film notebooks.

They were discovered
after his death in 1998

and are filled
with an unbelievable amount of images.

Many of the notes seem to reveal
secrets to Kurosawa's filmmaking.

A total of 46 notebooks
were discovered,

and six of them contained
notes for Seven Samurai.

Written in them were fragments
of elements to be inserted into the film,

Kurosawa's perspective
on tackling the project,

and a detailed character outline
for each of the seven samurai.

Some notes came fo be used
as part of the film's dialogue.

These are names considered
for the seven samurai.

KAMBEI, GENTA, KATSUSHIRO,
SHINKURO, SABUROBEI, MAGOBEI

Kambei, the leader of the seven men,

was to be played by Takashi Shimura
from the very beginning.

He's described as a man
of nearly 50 years

with striking white hair
ILLUSTRATION BY AKIRA KUROSAWA

who's fought in many battles,
but never on the winning side.

It's the most important role,

since it's his personality
that brings the other men together.

ILLUSTRATION BY KOHEI EZAKI

There's nothing
special about me.

I may have seen
my share of battle,

but always on the losing side.

That about sums me up.

Gorobei is positioned
as Kambei's adviser and right-hand man.

Kurosawa reminds himself not to make
the character into a lesser Kambei.

This scene fo test Gorober's ability
as a swordsman was taken

from an episode
in Bokuzen Tsukahara's life.

YOSHIO INABA
AS GOROBEI

Surely you jest.

Heihachi, who sels
the mood for the group,

Is also a great master
at coming up with nicknames.

What's wrong,
Lord Kikuchiyo?

MINORU CHIAKI
AS HEIHACHI

What's the matter, junior?

Shichiroji is Kambei's loyal helpmate.

Truth is, there's a tough battle ahead
leading to neither money nor rank.

Will you join?
- Yes.

This may be the one
that kills us.

DAISUKE KATO
AS SHICHIROJI

Katsushiro is the son
of a wealthy landowner.

He ran away to become a samurai
against his parents' wishes.

Tomorrow you go home.
ISAO KIMURA AS KATSUSHIRO

You've learned a lot
these four or five days.

You have fine stories to tell.

Kyuzo is a master swordsman
modeled after Musashi Miyamoto.

His conauct is based
on strict, self-imposed rules.

He is haughty
and cold in demeanor.

His first appearance also resembles
an episode in the swordsmen script.

I had never tried my hand at kendo,
SEIJI MIYAGUCHI — ACTOR

and I was to play
a master swordsman,

so I declined at first,
feeling I wasn't right for the role.

But Kurosawa assured me it was
all up to the magic of camerawork,

so I accepted the role.

I learned how to wield a sword
in a crash course of one or two days,

which caused a spell of anemia,

and I couldn't move
the day before I was to shoot a scene.

Although Kyuzo comes off
as a merciless swordsman,

he has a gentle heart underneath.

How are you? Tired?

Poor man.
You've lost a lot of weight.

I'll go.
I swear I'll get one!

No. You're looking to die.
I'll go.

In the script there was a scene
in which Kyuzo turns out to be clumsy

when he helps farmers
with harvesting wheat.

Although the scene was shot,
it was cut from the film.

Kikuchiyo,
played by Toshiro Mifune,

is the most colorful character
among the seven men.

Initially, the character was named
Zenbei in Kurosawa's notebook.

Zenbei is described
as a man with a dreadful past,

a monstrous proauct
of the Age of Civil Wars,

a character with a dark background.

When Zenbei was changed to Kikuchiyo,
gone was the dark characterization.

What remained was a character

described as an unconventional,
almost primitive, hot-blooded man,

all of which fully drew out
Mifune's magnetism.

But tell me this:
Who turned them into such monsters?

You did!
You samurai did!

A wild, hot-blooded man,

Kikuchiyo was yet another person
whose life was thrown off course

by the turmoil of the civil wars.

This baby... is me.

This is just what happened to me.

CAPTURING LIGHT IN THE EYES

Within the solidly masculine movie,
the only love story that takes place

involves a farmer's daughter
and a samurai.

It's all right. I don't mind.
We can't know

what the future holds!

In Kurosawa's films, light must be
caught in the eyes of the actor.

In this scene in which Shino expresses
her feelings to Katsushiro,

the script describes her eyes
as ‘glittering.”

The use of mirrors that had proved
successful in Rashomon

became stanaard practice
when lighting scenes in the woods.

AKIRA KUROSAWA
When lighting this scene
proved fo be difficult,

Kurosawa himself helped out.

Keiko Tsushima, who played Shino,
injured her eyes

from repeated
screen tests and retakes.

Still, Kurosawa wasn't satisfied.

Kurosawa wasn't happy with the shots
of the scene taken there,

so we had to reshoot it on a studio set.
He said that was okay.

But when I got home in the evening,
MITSUO KANEKO — LIGHTING TECHNICIAN

I felt responsible and couldn't sleep.

Here is one scene
Kaneko is proud of.

We can clearly see the light
caught in Shino's eyes.

Kurosawa wanted her eyes to look

like those of a hawk
aimed at its prey.

So I embedded the lights in the field

in order to light her from below.

PROBLEMS BURNING DOWN
THE WATER MILL

The scene of the burning water mill

was shot before the scene of the fire
at the bandits' fortress.

The key point was
fo capture the roaring flames

in the background of the action
taking place, but it didn't go smoothly.

Where's the Old Man
and your husband?

Yoshiro Muraki, who was then
an assistant in production design,

remembers shooting the scene.

When working with Kurosawa,
YOSHIRO MURAKI — PRODUCTION DESIGNER

people try to be super-efficient.

We wrapped parts of the mill in fabric,

so when we set the fire,
it flamed up at once.

Then we extinguished the fire to continue
shooting on subsequent days.

The mill was soggy from then on
and wouldn't burn. It only smoked.

We were in trouble.

But in such a situation,

Kurosawa never scolded
the props crew.

That was his tactic.

He'd line the assistant directors up
in front of everyone

and lecture them
about being more alert.

Hearing this, the props crew
would feel terrible.

Later that evening, Kurosawa would drink
with the ADs to soothe their feelings.

When he lectured the crew,
he'd point his finger like this and bark,

as if scolding
those furthest in the back.

So I felt that his directing
was not limited to actual shooting.

He applied it elsewhere too.

The mill was rebuilt three times,

and the scene was finally completed.

This is just what happened to me.

TRAGEDY AT
THE BANDITS' FORTRESS

In the scene of a surprise attack
at the bandits' fortress,

as the fortress
Is engulfed in panic,

Rikichi encounters his wife,
who had been sacrificed to the bandits,

as narrated in the script.

The fire at the fortress
was to start slowly.

However, the fire grew
much more quickly than expected.

That day, we had a dry-air alert
YOSHIO TSUCHIYA — ACTOR

and needed a fire truck standing by
to shoot a fire scene.

But all fire trucks had been
dispatched that morning.

To put out real fires.

So none came to the set.

We had to wait
a very long time.

Finally, when it was almost dusk,
about seven fire trucks arrived.

Even back then,
you couldn't shoot a fire scene

without a fire truck standing by.

And all that time spent waiting
led to trouble.

Because while we,
meaning the actors,

Just waited patiently
for the fire trucks,

Kurosawa
and props master Hamamura

used the extra time to make sure

that they'd have no problem
starting the fire

by spraying
a little gasoline here and there.

So when the shooting
finally began,

and I set the fire,
as I was supposed to,

it just burst into flames!

Since the shoot involved burning
the huge fortress set,

there was no chance
fo do a retake.

Kurosawa's repeated shout
of ‘Keep going!”

rang throughout the set,

as the actors continued
to play their parts.

Serves you right!

We did it!

The cliff behind the fortress
was built of sheets of tin,

and the grass behind the cliff
was burnt from the heat of the fire.

As Rikichi, played by Tsuchiya, tries
fo run after his wife, an incident occurs.

The overgarment that Rikichi's wife
wore cost several million yen.

She takes it off, drops it,
and then runs away.

As I reacted and tried to run after her,
there was no flame nearby,

but the overgarment
just disintegrated

and burned up in an instant.

The hot air attacks Tsuchiya.

I didn't tell anyone,
but I got burned here, on the windpipe.

From inhaling the hot blast?

Because the air,
which is hotter than the flames —

I remember it well.
The fortress's roof was intact

while my wife
was still in the scene,

though it was already very hot.

But after she ran away,
I had to continue acting.

Just as I was about
to run after her,

a huge hole opened up above
and the roof caved in.

Then this hot air rushed out
toward the entrance, where I was.

Even so, Tsuchiya tries
fo enter the fortress,

but the intense heat
blocks his way.

When I saw the rushes later,
the horses were all gone.

Yes, the horse in the foreground
ran away.

And actors playing slain bandits...

were wiggling away like this,
like maggots.

Trying to stop Rikichi
from following his wife,

Heihachi, played by Minoru Chiaki,

Is felled by a gunshot and dies.

Chiaki didn't come to stop me.

I was making as if to run in,
but he didn't come.

If he didn't stop you,
you'd really have to go in.

I'd really have to go
into the burning fortress.

There was no way I could.
I remember thinking that.

Later, I spotted Chiaki in the rushes
of shots taken with a long lens.

At a spot quite far
from the fortress's entrance,

he was lying on the ground
as though he'd been shot dead.

The sequence involving the two actors
was later reshot and inserteq,

but it was impossible to reshoot
shots including the entire fortress.

What the hell are you doing?

As Kurosawa shouted “Cut!”
fire trucks began hosing down the fire.

In the midst of all the confusion,
Kurosawa stood alone and cried,

having finished a very risky
and dangerous shoot.

THE TRUTH BEHIND
THE BATTLE IN THE RAIN

The night before the final battle,
the rain tums into a downpour,

and this serves as a prologue
fo the legendary battle scene in the rain.

To simulate the start of rainfall,
KOICHI HAMAMURA — SET DECORATOR

I made a gadget,
which I ended up not using.

It was a rotary unit with an umbrella top.

I experimented with it,

but it was later decided to just
sprinkle water with bamboo leaves.

But for close-up shots, we used
syringes as well as bamboo leaves.

There are 13 left.

We'll let them all in.

Once they pass this point,

we close in from all sides
at the crossing.

Everything's riding on this battle!

Teruyo Nogami, script supervisor
at the time, kept her copy of the script.

The pages of the battle scene
are covered with notes,

nearly obliterating the printed lines.

She even had to add
an extra sheet for her notes.

This surprises everyone.
TERUYO NOGAMI — SCRIPT SUPERVISOR

I like to show people,
because they're always surprised.

It's well known that the shoot
went on longer than scheduled.

It was supposed to wrap in three months,
but that stretched into a year.

I heard that Daisuke Kato felt lucky

to be shooting a film
in the middle of summer

and wearing very light clothing,
which meant very little sweating.

Then there they were,
shooting in February.

Mifune suffered the most.

- He was nearly naked.
- That's right.

And in the February cold,

the ground was wet for the battle scene,
so the actors' feet were in this cold mud.

They had to run around
wearing straw sandals,

and the sandals absorbed water.

Mifune said the sandals
became unbelievably cold.

It's amazing he endured all that.

He told me, “I could do it because
I was young, but I couldn't anymore.”

Kurosawa himself said,

“I couldn't do that again
even if you begged me to.”

Kikuchiyo, what are you up to?

I can't Kill five
with just one blade.

Then, heavy snow fell right before
the shooting of the battle scene,

and the snow had
fo be watered down to melt it.

When water saturates the ground,
you get mud,

a heavy, sticky kind of mud.
- Slushy and squishy.

I noticed that Kurosawa looked
very happy seeing the muddy ground.

I thought, “You don't have to act
in this muck.”

The person
in charge of the rain effect

was the man who can make rain
with one thumb,

props master Koichi Hamamura,
known as Hama-chan.

When shooting on an open set,
wind becomes a factor.

It can cause the simulated rain
to slant a little.

Then Kurosawa would complain
that there was too much mist.

I dreaded that the most.

How many water trucks did you use?

I think about seven regular-size ones.

Before shooting began,
the ground had turned to mud.

It wasn't just humans
who had to endure difficulties.

The horses had it hard too. They were
were spread across different locations,

and we had to use makeup
on them for continuity.

Village scenes were shot
in five different locations.

Transporting horses posed a challenge,
since each location had its own horses.

So Hamamura applied makeup fo
the horses to simulate the white markings.

The supposedly same horse could look
different from one location to another.

That's right.
So I'd paint the muzzle white.

But the rain would wash off
the makeup.

With the makeup gone,
the horse would look different.

Sometimes that happened.

The battle scene in the rain
was conceived

as a result of Kurosawa's ambition
fo create something unachievable

by Hollywood's rain machines
in its dry climate.

Mifune was wearing armor,
and it was raining,

so when he moved like this,
his armor reflected the light.

On occasion,
when horses faced the camera,

light had to be captured
in their eyes too.

I think Kurosawa played up
those effects.

How did you record sounds back then?

We only had four tracks to work with.
ICHIRO MINAWA — SOUND EFFECTS

Dialogue would take up one track.

Dialogue called “FD”
would take up another.

Then we'd only have two tracks left.
- What is FD?

FD is overlapping dialogue —

Overlapping dialogue
of many people in the background.

We'd need one track for that,
because it needs to match the action.

So we'd be left with only two tracks
fo record all other sound effects.

For Seven Samurai, we did things
that sound stupid now.

When someone falls from a horse
to the wet ground,

we'd need a sloshing sound.

If one track was dedicated to that,
then we couldn't record other sounds.

So we decided
to employ foley effects.

In the sound recording room,
we had a tub set up.

It was about three feet by six feet
and about this tall,

made of wood.

We filled the bottom
with a muddy mixture.

We had an assistant in the tub
stomping his feet

in sync to the falling action.

It was winter when we were recording
these sound effects.

When the timing was perfect,
the foley sound wasn't good.

And when the foley went well,
the timing was off.

So the assistant had to make
repeated efforts,

and as he got frustrated,
he splashed a lot of mud on the screen.

We were soundly scolded
for the mess later.

Also, for the sound
of a horse's whinny,

you can't use a relaxed whinny
like this for battle scenes.

I wanted something
that sounded nervous like this.

So we separated the male horses
from the female horses for a while

so that when they were brought
together, they'd be in heat,

and the male horses neighed like this,
so I made a lot of recordings of that.

I used a great deal
of the recordings.

So what you hear in the battle scene
are not the actual neighs,

but those uttered by male horses
toward the females.

I've used those recordings for later films
such as Kagemusha

when a battle scene required them.

For which film
did you make them initially?

I think it was for Seven Samurai.

Using multiple cameras to shoot
scenes that could not be reshot

Is called a multicamera setup.

Considered the key element that gives
Kurosawa's films their dynamic quality,

the technique was an innovation
created on this film.

We did it!

In the battle scene,

when men on horses
and farmers armed with bamboo spears

are mixed together
in the confusion of battle,

you'd come up with shots
that are unimaginable.

I couldn't believe no one
actually died shooting that scene.

When vivid shots
captured by three cameras

were connected
as sequential action,

the result was a scene infused
with the utmost intensity and speed.

We'd go through the motions
for test shots.

You'd do that several times
for a Kurosawa film.

Eventually he'd say,
“Cut! Now let's do a real take.”

Well, our feet got stuck in the mud,
and we couldn't move.

But once the take began,
everyone ran around like lightning.

I guess some inner reserve
came through.

Fighting to maintain their balance,
actors ran all around...

and Kurosawa himself stood
in the mud as he watched them.

Water turned to mud,
but it quickly froze.

So it was that cold.

Yes, but he stood in it
the whole time.

His feet got frostbitten,
and some of his toenails decayed.

Lasting for almost six minutes,

the ferocious battle scene
in the rain finally comes to an end.

Once more we survive.

A source of legends and legacy,

the filming of Seven Samurai
wrapped on March 18, 1954.

I feel like the first era
in cinema has ended,

and I think it ended
with Kurosawa's death.

Now, as the second era begins,

it seems to me that it'll be
some time before it begins to blossom.

I'm talking about quality movies,
not only in Japan but all over the world.

Kurosawa's death may have had
that great an impact.

Although 100 years have passed
since the birth of cinema,

there was no one
like Kurosawa before him,

and there's no one that comes close
to Kurosawa after him either.

Seven Samurai /s one of the most
representative films of the 20th century.

The joy and thrill of cinema
that it embodies

will never cease to impress us.