The 1954 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa that features seven warriors protecting a village is Seven Samurai.
Set in 16th-century Japan, the film follows impoverished farmers who hire seven samurai to defend their village from bandits expected to return after the harvest. The samurai, led by the compassionate Kambei Shimada, train the villagers and organize a defense despite deep class tensions between farmers and warriors.
Akira Kurosawa co-wrote the screenplay with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni. The film stars Takashi Shimura as Kambei and Toshiro Mifune as the unruly but courageous Kikuchiyo. Its 207-minute running time, dynamic editing, weather effects, and large-scale battle scenes made it a landmark of world cinema.
A common mix-up is confusing Seven Samurai with Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Ran, or Yojimbo. Those are also major Kurosawa films, but none centers on seven warriors defending a farming village.