Multiply by ‘Seven’

AFI’s recognition of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” as a “watershed” film in the emergence of a “global cinema” is a bit overstated (“AFI Sums Up Cinema’s Year, Both On and Off the Screen,” by Robert W. Welkos, Jan. 10).

The panel writes that the film “fuses storytelling style and substance from many cultures” into a “global cinema.” While not taking anything away from Ang Lee’s entertaining movie, the movie that deserves this accolade is probably “The Seven Samurai” (1954). Kurosawa’s influential film fused the samurai tradition with the western into what has been called a “Far-East western,” and a moviegoing experience of universal appeal.

“Enter the Dragon” (1973) should also be mentioned; while this film is of lesser artistic merit, the film’s cross-pollination of the James Bond spy film with Hong Kong martial arts action (and the film’s worldwide box-office success in the West and the East) made it an important entry in the emergence of an international audience.

JOSEPH PUTERBAUGH

Santa Monica