The Seven Samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa uses many cinematic techniques and characteristics of the Japanese samurai film genre to engage and influence audiences. The Japanese samurai film genre focuses on physical martial arts and is very similar to American westerns. These films are usually set in the Tokugawa era and the main characters are samurai or Ronin. Seven Samurai is a stereotypical Japanese samurai film set in the Tokugawa era about a village full of farmers who hire seven samurai to protect their village from a group of bandits. Kurosawa used many characteristics of a typical samurai film in Seven Samurai such as the use of the katana, the samurai were usually clean and seen as socially superior and the endings were usually depicted as "bittersweet" as life continues in the film. the face of tragedy. Sword fighting and the use of the katana are symbolic in Japanese samurai films. The katana is the main weapon used by samurai and they carry it with them whatever they are doing, eating, sleeping and, above all, when they are in battle. In the film we never see any of the samurai without their swords and at the end there is a long shot of the tombs of the four samurai where we see the katana sticking out of each tomb. This proves that all samurai carry their katana with them, dead or alive; they take tradition very seriously and never part with their swords. There is a scene in the film where Kambei takes out his katana from under his clothes when the farmers say they won't help, when Kambei takes out his sword the villagers cower and fall back into line, fearing they will get hurt. . The katana and its use in combat symbolize strength, honor and hope and is one of the main… middle of the card… everyone dies and the village is saved, but four samurai are killed in the process. In the end the farmers are happy and celebrate their triumph over the bandits and this is seen as the sweet part, the bitter part of the ending is the fact that four samurai were killed during the film. The three remaining samurai don't feel like they won, as Kambei said "we were the losers, the farmers were the ones who won", however all the farmers celebrate because they got rid of the bandits. The peasants don't care about the samurai, they just used them. This feature of the Japanese samurai genre engages the audience as the films don't just end with a happy ending, there is also some tragedy and important people get hurt or killed, this makes the viewer feel sympathy towards the characters and enhances the viewing experience of the movie. public.