Editing Seven Samurai (section)

===Writing===
Akira Kurosawa had originally wanted to direct a film about a single day in the life of a samurai. Later, in the course of his research, he discovered a story about samurai defending farmers. According to actor Toshiro Mifune, the film was originally going to be called ''Six Samurai'', with Mifune playing the role of Kyūzō. During the six-week scriptwriting process, Kurosawa and his screenwriters realized that "six sober samurai were a bore—they needed a character that was more off-the-wall".<ref>{{cite AV media notes|title=Toshiro Mifune interview|type=Pamphlet|publisher=Criterion Collection|date=August 25, 1993}}</ref> Kurosawa recast Mifune as Kikuchiyo and gave him creative license to improvise in his performance.<ref name="Perera_2021">{{cite web | last=Perera | first=Ashen | title=Seven Samurai: Kurosawa's masterpiece | website=[[Sunday Observer]] | url=https://archives1.sundayobserver.lk/2021/09/05/seven-samurai-kurosawa%E2%80%99s-masterpiece | date=September 5, 2021 | access-date=March 3, 2024 | archive-date=March 4, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304165717/https://archives1.sundayobserver.lk/2021/09/05/seven-samurai-kurosawa%E2%80%99s-masterpiece | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Wheeler 2020 m761">{{cite web | last=Wheeler | first=David | title='Seven Samurai,' a timeless world treasure, one of cinema's greatest masterworks | website=The Standard | date=April 28, 2020 | url=https://www.the-standard.org/life/reviews/seven-samurai-a-timeless-world-treasure-one-of-cinema-s-greatest-masterworks/article_8aec556c-8965-11ea-aac9-2bbe925cfea7.html | access-date=March 4, 2024 | archive-date=March 4, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304162703/https://www.the-standard.org/life/reviews/seven-samurai-a-timeless-world-treasure-one-of-cinema-s-greatest-masterworks/article_8aec556c-8965-11ea-aac9-2bbe925cfea7.html | url-status=live }}</ref> During the six-week scriptwriting process, the screenwriters were not allowed visitors or phone calls.<ref name=":3" />

Kurosawa and the writers were innovative in refining the theme of the assembly of heroic characters to perform a mission. According to Michael Jeck's [[Audio commentary (DVD)|DVD commentary]], ''Seven Samurai'' was among the first films to use the now-common plot element of the recruiting and gathering of heroes into a team to accomplish a specific goal, a device used in later films such as ''[[The Guns of Navarone (film)|The Guns of Navarone]]'', ''[[Sholay]]'', the western remake ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'', and Pixar's animated film ''[[A Bug's Life]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lack|first1=Jonathan R.|title=An Appreciation of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai|url=http://www.jonathanlack.com/2012/05/appreciation-of-akira-kurosawas-seven.html|website=Fade to Lack|access-date=February 20, 2015|archive-date=June 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601022246/http://www.jonathanlack.com/2012/05/appreciation-of-akira-kurosawas-seven.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Film critic [[Roger Ebert]] speculates in his review that the sequence introducing the leader Kambei (in which the samurai shaves off his topknot, a sign of honor among samurai, in order to pose as a monk to rescue a boy from a kidnapper) could be the origin of the practice, now common in action movies, of introducing the main hero with an undertaking unrelated to the main plot.<ref name="StillInterEmpire">{{cite news|author=Roger Ebert|author-link=Roger Ebert|title=The Seven Samurai (1954)|work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|date=August 19, 2001|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-seven-samurai-1954|access-date=February 24, 2021|archive-date=March 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305233724/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-seven-samurai-1954|url-status=live}}</ref>

Other plot devices such as the reluctant hero, romance between a local woman and the youngest hero, and the nervousness of the common citizenry, had appeared in other films before this, but were combined in this film.{{cn|date=January 2024}}