THE SAMURAI ON THE BIGGEST SCREEN IN BRITAIN
Seven Samurai
If you want to understand modern menswear’s obsession with discipline, silhouette and quiet authority, start with Akira Kurosawa.
This spring, BFI IMAX stages THE SAMURAI, a programme of Kurosawa’s most enduring films, timed to complement the British Museum’s major exhibition on Japan’s legendary warrior class. It’s cinema as cultural study – and, for anyone serious about style, a masterclass in masculine codes.
Kurosawa’s influence on global filmmaking is well documented (Martin Scorsese called him a “giant”), but his impact on the visual language of menswear is just as potent. Armour becomes architecture. Kimono and hakama establish proportion. The sword is accessory, yes – but also attitude.
Yojimbo
The line-up is precise. Throne of Blood (1957) transposes Macbeth into feudal Japan, all stark landscapes and rigid warlord tailoring. This 2K screening on 28 February includes an extended introduction from Rosina Buckland, lead curator of the British Museum’s SAMURAI exhibition – useful context if you like your cultural references sharp.
Rashomon (1950), screening 22 March, remains the film that introduced Japanese cinema to global audiences. Its layered perspectives and stripped-back styling feel strikingly modern; ranked joint 41st in Sight and Sound’s 2022 Greatest Films poll, it’s essential viewing.
Then there’s Yojimbo (1961), on 19 April – the drifting samurai archetype later echoed in everything from Westerns to contemporary streetwear’s lone-wolf aesthetic.
Finally, Seven Samurai (1954) screens in 4K on 4 May. Ranked 20th in Sight and Sound’s 2022 poll, it remains a blueprint for the action epic: functional layering, pragmatic detailing, individuality within uniformity.
Across town, the British Museum’s SAMURAI exhibition (open until 4 May) traces 1,000 years of warrior identity through 280 objects and digital media, interrogating how myth was constructed – and exported into 21st-century pop culture.
The programme runs at BFI IMAX from 28 February to 4 May, with tickets on sale from 17 February (12pm for Members, 4pm general release).