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隠し砦の三悪人 The Hidden Fortress
Original Japanese poster
Directed by	Akira Kurosawa
Produced by	Sanezumi Fujimoto Akira Kurosawa
Written by	Shinobu Hashimoto Ryuzo Kikushima Akira Kurosawa Hideo Oguni
Starring	Toshirô Mifune Misa Uehara
Music by	Masaru Satô
Distributed by	Toho Company Ltd.
Release date(s)	December 28 1958 October 6 1960
Running time	139 min.
Language	Japanese
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Hidden Fortress (Japanese: 隠し砦の三悪人, Kakushi toride no san akunin) is a 1958 film by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune as General Rokurota Makabe and Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki. A literal translation of the Japanese title is The Three Villains of the Hidden Fortress.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Production 3 Responses 4 Influence 5 External links

The film begins with two luckless peasants, Tahei and Matashichi (Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara) escaping the aftermath of a battle. In a hidden valley, they meet and try to help General Rokurota Makabe, whose mission is to help and protect a princess. The peasants try to help but mostly impede his mission. They are later joined by a farmer’s daughter (Toshiko Higuchi), whom they acquire at an inn from a slave-trader, or procurer. Together, the five make an arduous and desperate trek through enemy territory, transporting a treasure of gold that the princess and the general hope to use to rebuild the princess's military to one day retake her land and rebuild her realm.

Rather than write a formal script, Kurosawa and his screenwriter simply set out to create a variety of interesting characters, then created a rough storyline to bring them together. He effectively allowed the story to write itself before the camera.^{[citation needed]}

This was Kurosawa's first feature filmed in a widescreen format, Tohoscope, which he continued to use for the next decade. Hidden Fortress was originally presented with Perspectasound, which was re-created for the Criterion DVD release.

As a film, The Hidden Fortress has been argued to demonstrate what Kurosawa was capable of at the height of his powers as a filmmaker,^{[citation needed]} with a rain of plot complications, hair's breadth escapes through visually compelling locations, and rich character development, brought together through tightly realized action in visually compelling settings.^{[citation needed]}

"The Hidden Fortress" has what is often considered^{[citation needed]} to be one of the finest fight scenes in cinematic history, featuring Toshiro Mifune with a spear.

George Lucas has acknowledged the influence of The Hidden Fortress on Star Wars, particularly in the technique of telling the story from the points of view of the film's lowliest characters, C-3PO and R2-D2. ^[1]

• The Hidden Fortress at the Internet Movie Database
• Criterion Collection essay by Armond White

Japanese Cinema
Films directed by Akira Kurosawa
1940s	Sanshiro Sugata | The Most Beautiful | Sanshiro Sugata Part II | The Men Who Tread On the Tiger's Tail | Those Who Make Tomorrow | No Regrets for Our Youth | One Wonderful Sunday | Drunken Angel | The Quiet Duel | Stray Dog
1950s	Scandal | Rashomon | The Idiot | Ikiru | Seven Samurai | I Live in Fear | Throne of Blood | The Lower Depths | The Hidden Fortress
1960s	The Bad Sleep Well | Yojimbo | Sanjuro | High and Low | Red Beard
1970s	Dodesukaden | Dersu Uzala
1980s	Kagemusha | Ran
1990s	Dreams | Rhapsody in August | Madadayo