AllMovie

A hard-luck actor sees the opportunity of a lifetime slip through his fingers when he's fired from the film that should have made him a household name. On the heels of an encounter with a famous Japanese director, struggling actor Nanshu lands a lead role in what's sure to be an instant classic. That night, however, the director has a terrible dream and insists that the number of heroic samurai in the film be cut back to seven from the original eight. Leaving the decision to destiny, he states that the first actor to approach him will be the one who gets fired. The following morning, Nanshu bestows the director a bottle of sake as a sign of his gratitude, and his fate is sealed. But Nanshu isn't about to give up that easy, and vows to fight for his job by confronting the bull-headed director.