Japan Seven Samurai sits in the top 2% of Japan films on this catalog — ranked #112 of 4,579 by TMDB audience score.
Synopsis
七人の侍
“The Mighty Warriors Who Became the Seven National Heroes of a Small Town”
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.
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #112 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (98th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +1.6 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Action productions specifically: #54 of 1,714 (top 3%).
Audience Engagement
3,230 audience reviews — more than 99% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 94th percentile among Japan films.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Seven Samurai. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From TOHO
Action + Drama in Japan
444 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Action and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Seven Samurai itself).
The 1953–1955 Japan Window
Seven Samurai tops the 22 Japan films we index from this three-year window. Cards below list the runners-up in descending audience order.
The 1950s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1950s in Japan, 76 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Seven Samurai premiered alongside 5 others.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 3h 27m runtime, production spent $10K per minute on screen and earned $2K per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 5 other Japan films in 1954.
The 71st Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Seven Samurai, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- rice · 5
- moral ambiguity · 3
- looting · 1
- fencing · 1
- practice · 1
- bandit · 12
- 16th century · 11
- epic · 10
- peasant · 7
- japan · 454
- martial arts · 369
- samurai · 128
- jidaigeki · 61
- village · 46
- sword · 36
- battle · 34
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | TOHO |
| Runtime | 3h 27m |
| Release Date | April 26, 1954 |
| IMDb | tt0047478 |