SAMURAI DUEL SCENE - SEVEN SAMURAI - AKIRA KUROSAWA- FOOLISH SAMURAI DUELS WITH REAL STEEL SWORDS

From award winning director, Akira Kurosawa - the famous sword fight scene from Seven Samurai. This film predated the US version “The Magnificent Seven“ and its later remake. At over three hours long, this is one of Kurosawa’s most lengthy films. In this scene, a couple of Ronin (samurai without a lord or master) are hired by a village of farmers because they need protection from local bandits. Thy hear a commotion nearby and investigate, hoping to recruit more samurai. They witness a duel between two swordsmen who initially duel with bamboo sticks. One of the duelists declares that the duel with sticks was a draw, to which the other swordsman says that if it were real steel that he’d be dead. This offends the one samurai who challenges him to a duel with real swords to the horror of the two samurai who are watching. Their skill is such that they can determine who has the better skill from the bamboo stick duel even though it only involved one slash - in the world of Samurai sword fighting, the contests usually are over in one stroke as opposed to the thrust and parry of western sword fighting.