The Hidden Fortress
Encyclopedia
is a 1958
1958 in film
The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....

 jidai-geki film directed by Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...

 and starring Toshirō Mifune
Toshiro Mifune
Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...

 as General and Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki. A literal translation of the Japanese title is The Three Villains of the Hidden Fortress.

Plot

The film begins with two bedraggled peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...

s, Tahei and Matashichi (Minoru Chiaki
Minoru Chiaki
was a Japanese actor who appeared in such films as Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress.In Seven Samurai, he was the good-natured samurai Heihachi, and he was the first of the samurai to be killed. Ironically, in real life, he turned out to be the last of the seven actors to...

 and Kamatari Fujiwara
Kamatari Fujiwara
Kamatari Fujiwara was a Japanese actor.Born in Tokyo, he was a long-time member of director Akira Kurosawa's stock company, making his first appearance in a Kurosawa film alongside Takashi Shimura in 1952's Ikiru. He continued to appear in Kurosawa's films until his death...

), escaping the aftermath of a battle en route to the Hayakawa country where they lived, but later captured and forced into slavery.

After an uprising in the slave compound, Tahei and Matashichi escape and settle near a river, where they find gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 belonging to the Daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

 for whom they had fought. They thereafter travel with General Rokurota Makabe (Toshirō Mifune
Toshiro Mifune
Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...

), escorting Princess Yuki Akizuki (Misa Uehara) and what remains of her family's gold to a secret territory. In order to keep her identity secret, Yuki poses as a mute.

During the mission, the peasants impede it and sometimes try to seize the gold. They are later joined by a farmer’s daughter (Toshiko Higuchi), whom they acquire from a slave-trader. Eventually, they are captured and held by Rokurota's rival; but the latter unexpectedly sides with the Princess and Rokurota.

The peasants stumble upon the gold, but are later captured; whereupon Rokurota explains Yuki's true identity, and states that all of the gold has been used to restore her family's domain. The peasants are then dispatched, taking a single ryō. In the final scene, Tahei gives this to Matashichi to protect; but Matashichi allows Tahei to keep it.

Production

This was Kurosawa's first feature filmed in a widescreen format, Tohoscope
TohoScope
Toho Scope is an anamorphic lens system developed in the late 1950s by Toho Studios in response to the popularity of CinemaScope. Its technical specifications are identical to those of CinemaScope...

, which he continued to use for the next decade. Hidden Fortress was originally presented with Perspecta
Perspecta
Perspecta was a directional motion picture sound system, invented by the laboratories at Fine Sound Inc. in 1954. As opposed to magnetic stereophonic soundtracks available at the time, its benefits were that it did not require a new sound head for the projector and thus was a cheaper...

 directional sound, which was re-created for the Criterion DVD release.

Awards

Won
  • Berlin International Film Festival
    9th Berlin International Film Festival
    The 9th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from June 26 to July 7, 1959.-Jury:* Robert Aldrich * Johan Jacobsen* Charles Ford* John Bryan* Ignazio Tranquilli* Shigueo Miyata* Wali Eddine Sameh* O. E...

    : Silver Bear for Best Director
    Silver Bear for Best Director
    The Silver Bear for Best Director is the Berlin International Film Festival's award for best achievement in direction.-Awards:-Repeated winners:*Mario Monicelli *Satyajit Ray *Carlos Saura -External links:*...


Influence

George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...

 has acknowledged influence of The Hidden Fortress on Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...

, particularly in the technique of telling the story from the perspective of the film's lowliest characters, C-3PO
C-3PO
C-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...

  and R2-D2
R2-D2
R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...

. Kurosawa's use of frame wipes (sometimes cleverly hidden by motion within the frame) as a transition device also influenced Star Wars.

Remake

A loose remake entitled Kakushi Toride no San-Akunin: The Last Princess was directed by Shinji Higuchi
Shinji Higuchi
is a storyboard artist and is one of the top special effects wizards in Japan, best known for his work on the Heisei Gamera Trilogy. He works on both anime and tokusatsu projects.-Biography:...

 and released on May 10, 2008.

Poster gallery


Image:The Hidden Fortress poster 2.jpg|Original Japanese poster for The Hidden Fortress featuring Misa Uehara as princess Yuki.
Image:The Hidden Fortress poster 3.jpg|Japanese poster for The Hidden Fortress.

External links

  • The Hidden Fortress at Rotten Tomatoes
    Rotten Tomatoes
    Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

  • Criterion Collection essay by Armond White
  • The Hidden Fortress at the Japanese Movie Database
    Japanese Movie Database
    The , commonly referred to as JMDB, is an online database of information about Japanese movies, actors, and production crew personnel. It is similar to the Internet Movie Database, but lists only those films originally released in Japan. The site was started in 1997, and contains movies from Meiji...

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