The Hidden Fortress [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Akira Kurosawa Akira Kurosawa

Overview

Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (original Japanese title: Kakushi Toride No San Akunin) stars Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara as a pair of misfit soldiers. Running from the enemy after a disastrous defeat, the two soldiers fall in with general Toshiro Mifune, who is in search of a huge cache of gold. Mifune is also desirous of freeing princess-in-exile Misa Uehara from the clutches of the evil victorious army. Several large and small battles ensue before Mifune can realize his goal. If the plot of Hidden Fortress sounds vaguely familiar to you, try this exercise: substitute two robots for Chiaki and Fujiwara, Mark Hamill for Mifune, and Carrie Fisher for Uehara. George Lucas himself admitted that Hidden Fortress was a principal inspiration for his Star Wars saga; stretching the point farther, both Hidden Fortress and Star Wars had their roots in John Ford's The Searchers. Originally released in a 137-minute form, The Hidden Fortress was sliced to ribbons by its American distributors, and years later received extensive restoration.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/29/2016
UPC:	0715515174718
Original Release:	1958
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	2:19:00
Sales rank:	3,897

Special Features

New 2k digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Alternate 3.0 surround soundtrack preserving the original Perspecta simulated stereo effects, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio New Audio Commentary by film historian Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa Documentary from 2003 on the making of the film, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create Interview from 2001 with filmmaker George Lucas about Kurosawa Trailer Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Catherine Russell

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Toshiro Mifune	Gen. Rokurota Makabe
Misa Uehara	Lady Yukihime
Minoru Chiaki	Tahei
Kamatari Fujiwara	Matashichi
Susumu Fujita	Tadakoro
Takashi Shimura	The Old General
Eiko Miyoshi	The Old Woman
Toshiko Higuchi	The Farmer's Daughter
Kichijiro Ueda	Girl-Dealer
Jun Matsumoto	Takezo
Daisuke Miyagawa	Shinpachi
Kippei Shîna	Gyobu
Masami Nagasawa	Yukihime
Hiroshi Abe	Rokurota
Masaaki Akahori	Actor
Arata Furuta	Actor
Takaya Kamikawa	Actor
KREVA	Actor
Jun Kunimura	Actor
Masahiro Kômoto	Actor
Katsuhisa Namase	Actor
Masahiro Takashima	Actor
Pierre Taki	Actor
Koji Mitsui	Soldier
Tadao Nakamaru	Young Man
Ikio Sawamura	Gambler
Masaru Satô	Composer

Technical Credits

Akira Kurosawa

Kazuki Nakashima

Hideo Oguni

Ryuzo Kikushima

Shinobu Hashimoto

Masumi Fujimoto	Producer
Akira Kurosawa	Director,Producer,Screenwriter
Kazuki Nakashima	Screenwriter
Julie K. Fujishima	Executive Producer
Osamu Kamei	Executive Producer
Seiji Okuda	Executive Producer
Yoshishige Shimatani	Executive Producer
Morio Amagi	Producer
Minami Ichikawa	Producer
Hideo Oguni	Screenwriter
Ryuzo Kikushima	Screenwriter
Shinobu Hashimoto	Screenwriter
Fumio Yanoguchi	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Kurosawa's light adventure is probably best known as one of the primary inspirations for George Lucas' Star Wars (1977), but it's a masterful entertainment in its own right. Toshiro Mifune stars as a famous general who uses a couple of clownish peasants to help him transport a gold shipment and a volatile young princess through enemy territory. The film was the pioneering effort of the Japanese film industry in the use of the widescreen ratio, and, in a sense, Kurosawa's brilliantly supple deployment of the process is the star of the film. Especially in the early sequences in the prison and the quarry, the director achieves extraordinary effects of mass and scale as he suggests the smallness of the squabbling peasants and the stature of General Rokurota. He also uses the available space to spread the characters as far as he can, expressing the common distrust that is, at times, the only emotion these four very differently motivated characters share. Kurosawa has often suggested to his actors that they imagine themselves as various animals in an effort to elicit a more overtly physical performance, and that seems to be the case here, as the slightly exaggerated ensemble acting style enhances the humor of a film that is sometimes reminiscent of an early silent. Mifune, a virtuoso of physical acting, did all his own stunts, the most impressive being a horse-mounted pursuit while swinging a sword. Like Star Wars, the film has something of the quality of a fairy tale, one which can be appreciated both by children and adults.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello