In some instances in the film, such as when Gorobei kills the bandit who was checking the water level with an arrow, the actors were actually shot with real arrows. The actor would simply wear a block of wood under his costume (which you can see if you know what to look for) and an expert archer would actually shoot him. See more...
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15 biggest Harry Potter mistake pictures
Factual error: Toshiro Mifune's character, Kikuchiyo, travels to the bandits' camp and steals one of their two remaining fuselock muskets. Shortly afterward, the bandits fire twice at the samurai within five seconds with their last firearm. A fuselock takes as much as two minutes to reload, prime, and fire.
Visible crew/equipment: When the samurai are giving battle advice to the peasants, who sit around them forming a circle, the camera does a rather wide circle shot of them. You can see the camera track for the shot in most of scene behind the sitting peasants.
Deliberate "mistake": When Kikuchiyo impresses the Samurai by catching a fish, it's rather obvious that it's a dead fish that he grabs out of the water. A live fish would flop around and be gasping for water, but the fish he holds is completely motionless. Obviously this was done because it actually is QUITE difficult to catch a live fish in water.
Revealing: When Kikuchiyo tricks and kills the gunner, he chases him a short way, then stabs him with a sword. Even though there's a tree blocking the action, you can still see he never actually stabs him, he just lightly stabs the ground near him.
Revealing: At the last battle Katsushiro stabs a bandit who's climbing the fence to escape. It's completely obvious that the sword never penetrates the bandit. In fact, Katsushiro just seems to just tap him with the tip and his clothes aren't even torn from it, yet he still dies. Maybe a heart attack?
Continuity: Shichiroji throws a spear out the door of Rikichi's hut in anger, it lands obviously in parallel with the door. Later, after Kikuchiyo's outburst he runs outside and picks the spear up, however it's now laying sideways compared to the door.
Visible crew/equipment: During the climactic battle scene in the rain a man is running and takes an arrow in the back. As he falls into the mud you can spot the wire that the arrow travelled along and which is attached to his back.
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