Akira Kurosawa

A shoe company executive who has mortgaged everything he has becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped and is conflicted over whether he should pay the ransom.

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people ...