A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves. Seven Samurai (七人の侍, Shichinin no Samurai) is a 1954 Japanese adventure drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film takes place in Warring States Period in Japan (around 1587/1588). It follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven masterless samurai (ronin) to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops. Seven Samurai is described as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, and is one of a select few Japanese films to become widely known in the West for an extended period of time. It is the subject of both popular and critical acclaim; it was voted onto Sight & Sound's list of the ten greatest films of all time in 1982, and to the directors' top ten films in the 1992 and 2002 polls.