Seven Samurai (1954)

Akira Kurosawa's three-and-a-half-hour epic about villagers hiring ronin to defend against bandits invented the modern action ensemble film, influencing everything from The Magnificent Seven to Star Wars. With a budget of just $500,000 (over 27 times cheaper than the average Hollywood blockbuster today), it became a landmark in cinematic storytelling. This film's team-assembly template remains more influential than Parasite's narrative structure, setting a standard for nearly every action movie that followed.