‘Seven Samurai’ digitally restored

Kurosawa classic to be screened across Japan this year

Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic, Seven Samurai, has been digitally restored to 4k resolution. Widely regarded as one of the most influential films of all time, the Jidaigeki adventure movie will be shown across Japan later this year as part of the Asa 10 programme, reported AV Watch.

The restoration work was carried out by Toho Studios using original master copies as the status of the original negatives is unknown. The film was cleaned up frame by frame which must have been a tedious job considering the over half a million frames in total. Special attention was paid to clean up the soundtracks, in particular to make the dialogues crispier than those in the previous prints.

Kurosawa’s long time assistant, Teruyo Nogami, was pleased with the results after seeing the new prints. “I was so excited. I wanted to show them to Mr Kurosawa. He would be so proud,” Nogami said.



Seven Samurai is a story of farmers who hire samurai with no masters to counter bandits. Ever since its release, the film has seen innumerable adaptations in world cinema.

Other films in this year’s Asa 10 line-up include Ikiru, My Fair Lady, Doctor Zhivago, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Pianist, Back to the Future and the French classic Montparnasse 19.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th,  2016.

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