shoots Kyūzō dead. An enraged Kikuchiyo charges in and is shot as well, but kills the chief before dying. The remaining outlaws are slain. In the aftermath, Kambei, Katsushirō and Shichirōji watch in front of the funeral mounds of their comrades as the joyful villagers sing whilst planting their new crops. Katsushirō and Shino meet one last time but their relationship has ended. Kambei reflects to Shichirōji that it is another pyrrhic victory for the samurai: "The victory belongs to those peasants. Not to us." Cast The seven samurai Takashi Shimura as , a war-weary but honourable and strategic rōnin, and the leader of the seven Toshiro Mifune as , a humorous, mercurial and temperamental rogue who lies about being a samurai, but eventually proves his worth and resourcefulness Daisuke Katō as , Kambei's old friend and former lieutenant Isao Kimura as , the untested son of a wealthy, land-owning samurai, who Kambei reluctantly takes in as a disciple Minoru Chiaki as , an amiable though less-skilled fighter, whose charm and wit maintain his comrades' morale in the face of adversity Seiji Miyaguchi as , a serious, stone-faced and supremely skilled swordsman Yoshio Inaba as , a skilled archer, who acts as Kambei's second-in-command and helps create the master-plan for the village's defense Villagers Yoshio Tsuchiya as , a hotheaded villager Bokuzen Hidari as , a timid old man Yukiko Shimazaki as Rikichi's wife Kamatari Fujiwara as , a farmer who disguises his daughter as a boy to try to protect her from the samurai Keiko Tsushima as , Manzō's daughter Kokuten Kōdō as , the village patriarch, referred to as "Grandad" Yoshio Kosugi as Mosuke, one of the farmers sent to town to hire the samurai Others Shinpei Takagi as the bandit chief Shin Otomo as the bandit second-in-command Haruo Nakajima as a bandit scout killed by Kyūzō Eijirō Tōno as a thief Atsushi Watanabe as a bun seller Toshio Takahara as Samurai with a Gun Jun Tatara as a coolie Sachio Sakai as a coolie Takeshi Seki as a coolie Tatsuya Nakadai (uncredited) as a samurai wandering through town Production 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