is a 1958 Japanese epic jidaigeki adventure film directed by Akira Kurosawa, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It tells the story of two peasants who agree to escort a man and a woman across enemy lines in return for gold, without knowing that he is a general and she is a princess. The film stars Toshiro Mifune as General Makabe Rokurōta and Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki, while the peasants, Tahei and Matashichi, are portrayed by Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara respectively.
The Hidden Fortress was the fourth highest-grossing film of the year in Japan, and Kurosawa's most successful film up to that point. It influenced the 1977 American film Star Wars.
Plot Two bedraggled peasants, Tahei and Matashichi, sell their homes and leave to enlist with the feudal Yamana clan, hoping to make their fortunes as soldiers. Instead, they are mistaken for soldiers of the defeated Akizuki clan, have their weapons confiscated, and are forced to help dig graves before being sent away without any food. After quarrelling and splitting up, the two are each captured again and reunited when the Yamana force them alongside dozens of other prisoners to dig through the ruins of the Akizuki castle for the clan's secret reserve of gold. After a prisoner uprising, Tahei and Matashichi slip away, steal some rice, and make camp near a river.
While building a fire, they find a piece of gold marked with the crescent of the Akizuki clan hidden in a hollowed-out stick. Looking for more of the gold, the peasants are discovered by a mysterious man whom they take to be a bandit. They explain how they intend to escape Yamana territory: rather than cross the closely-guarded border into the neighboring state of Hayakawa, they will travel to Yamana itself and then pass into Hayakawa. The stranger is enthused by their plan, so he shows them another piece of gold, and he leads them to a secret camp in the mountains where the rest is hidden. Unbeknownst to them, the man is a famous Akizuki general, Makabe Rokurōta. Although Rokurōta initially planned to kill the peasants, he changes his mind and decides to use their plan to bring the gold and Princess Yuki of the Akizuki clan, also hidden in the camp, to Hayakawa, whose lord has promised to protect them.
Rokurōta escorts Princess Yuki and the huge cache, 200 kan of the clan's gold (still hidden in hollowed-out logs of wood), to Yamana, bringing Matashichi and Tahei to help carry the gold but kept unaware of Yuki and Rokurōta's identities. To protect Yuki, he has her pretend to be a deaf-mute and has a decoy (Rokurōta's younger sister) sent to the Yamana to be executed so they will believe that she is dead. During their travels, Tahei and Matashichi get the group into dangerous situations several times owing to their cowardice and greed. During a stop for the night at an inn, Yuki forces Rokurōta to buy the freedom of a captive young woman who had belonged to the Akizuki clan, who then refuses to leave them.
After losing their horses and obtaining a cart to move the gold, the group is spotted by a Yamana patrol, and Rokurōta is forced to kill them. While pursuing two stragglers, he accidentally rides into a Yamana camp, where the commanding officer, Rokurōta's old rival Hyoe Tadokoro, recognizes him. Tadokoro is sorry he did not get to face Rokurōta in battle and challenges him to a lance duel. Rokurōta wins, but spares Tadokoro's life before stealing a horse and riding back to the group. While in Yamana, they see worshippers gathering for the Fire Festival, so Tahei and Matashichi decide to hide the load of wood among them, but, since they are under the eyes of the Yamana soldiers, they are forced to throw the cart onto the bonfire and join in the ritual dance. Princess Yuki is quite taken by the philosophy behind the Festival regarding the shortness of life and the pettiness of the world. The next day they dig the gold out of the fire's remains and take away as much as they can carry. One night as they approach the Hayakawa border, they are surrounded. Matashichi and Tahei manage to hide in the confusion while the rest are captured by Yamana soldiers and detained at an outpost. The two of them try to turn in Rokurōta for a reward, but having already captured them, the soldiers laugh at them and they leave for Hayakawa with nothing.
Tadokoro comes to identify the prisoners the night before their execution. Tadokoro's face is now disfigured by a large scar which he explains is the result of a beating ordered by the Yamana lord, as punishment for letting Rokurōta escape. Yuki proclaims that she has no fear of death and thanks Rokurōta for letting her see humanity's ugliness and beauty from a new perspective, and she repeats the ritual chant from the Fire Festival. The next day, as the soldiers start marching the prisoners to be executed, Tadokoro begins singing the same chant, and suddenly sends the horses carrying the gold running across the border. He frees the prisoners and distracts the guards so they can ride off, but Yuki tells him to join them. The entire group manages to escape across the border into Hayakawa.
Matashichi and Tahei, both hungry and tired, stumble across the lost gold carried by the horses and immediately start arguing about dividing it between them, before being arrested by Hayakawa soldiers as thieves. The peasants are brought before an armoured samurai and a well-dressed noblewoman. General Rokurōta and Princess Yuki finally reveal their identities to the astonished peasants. Thanking them for saving the gold (which will be used to restore her clan), the princess rewards Matashichi and Tahei with a single ryō on the condition that they share it. As the two men leave the castle to walk back to their village, they begin to laugh upon realizing that they have finally made their fortunes.
Cast Toshiro Mifune as Minoru Chiaki as Tahei Kamatari Fujiwara as Matashichi Susumu Fujita as Takashi Shimura as General Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki Eiko Miyoshi as Yuki's lady-in-waiting Toshiko Higuchi as a woman purchased by the group who chooses to accompany them Yū Fujiki as a Yamana soldier Sachio Sakai as a samurai Yoshio Tsuchiya as a Yamana samurai Kokuten Kōdō as an old villager who tells Matashichi about a reward for Yuki's capture Kōji Mitsui as a Yamana guard overseeing the excavation of Akizuki Castle
Production The Hidden Fortress was Kurosawa's first feature filmed in a widescreen format, Tohoscope, which he continued to use for the next decade. The film was originally presented with Perspecta directional sound, which was re-created for the Criterion Blu-ray release.
Key parts of the film were shot in Hōrai Valley in Hyōgo and on the slopes of Mt. Fuji, where bad weather from the record-breaking Kanagawa typhoon delayed the production. Toho's frustration with Kurosawa's slow pace of shooting led to the director forming his own production company the following year, though he continued to distribute through Toho.Conrad, David A. (2022). Akira Kurosawa and Modern Japan, 130-31, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co.
Music
The film's musical score was composed by Masaru Sato. The soundtrack album comprises 65 tracks.
Tracks Titles Fallen Warrior's Death Peaceful Mountain Pass Road Yamana: Temporary Checkpoint War town ~ To the border Prisoner's loss of dignity Burnt Ruins of Autumn Moon Castle Flight Money!!! Mysterious Mountain Man 1 Mysterious Mountain Man 2 Good idea to go cross country Shining Extended Staff Road to the Hidden Fortress Woman on the Summit Useless Work Spring Woman Escaping Woman Reward Money Rokurota, to the Cave Princess Yuki's tears Horse and Princess Riding in the indicated direction Setting off Gestured Excuse Rokurota's Scouting Reliable Ally 1 Reliable Ally 2 Over the Black Smoke Bolder Trick Into the cheap lodgings Autumn Moon Woman Princess Yuki's Wish Adept on Horseback Spear March Departing Rokurota Party's true shape Daughter and Rokurota Sleeping Princess Line of Firefighters Surprising Rokurota (unused) Introduction to Firefighters Firefighters Highland Hauting Going Downhill Coming to the same conclusion To Hayawaka Territory Matashichi and Peace, In the checkpoint Firefighter's Song Execution Draws Near Treasonous Pardon ~ Pass Crossing Two Bad men in prison Reunion in a Castle Reward Ending Castle Town (ambient sounds 1) Castle Town (ambient sounds 2) Child Song Alternative Takes Titles Escaping Woman Adept on Horseback Departing Rokurota (alt take 1) Departing Rokurota (alt take 2) To Hayawaka Territory Reunion in a Castle
Release The Hidden Fortress was released theatrically in Japan on December 28, 1958. The film was the highest-grossing film for Toho in 1958, ranking as the fourth highest-grossing film overall in Japan that year. In box-office terms, The Hidden Fortress was Kurosawa's most successful film, until the 1961 release of Yojimbo.
The film was released theatrically in the United States by Toho International with English subtitles. It was screened in San Francisco in November 1959 and received a wider release on October 6, 1960, with a 126-minute running time. The film was re-issued in the United States in 1962 with a 90-minute running time. The film was compared unfavorably to Rashomon (1950) and Seven Samurai (1954), and performed poorly at the U.S. box office.
Critical reception In a 1957 review, Variety called it "a long, interesting, humour-laden picture in medieval Japan". Performances of the lead actors, Kurosawa's direction and Ichio Yamazaki's camerawork were praised.
An article published in The New York Times on January 24, 1962, featured a review of the film by journalist Bosley Crowther, who called The Hidden Fortress a superficial film. He said that Kurosawa, "the Japanese director whose cinema skills have been impressed upon us in many pictures, beginning with "Rashomon", is obviously not above pulling a little wool over his audiences' eyes — a little stooping to Hollywoodisms — in order to make a lively film." Crowther further opined that "Kurosawa, for all his talent, is as prone to pot boiling as anyone else."
Writing for The Criterion Collection in 1987, David Ehrenstein called it "one of the greatest action-adventure films ever made" and a "fast-paced, witty and visually stunning" samurai film. According to Ehrenstein: The battle on the steps in Chapter 2 (anticipating the climax of Ran) is as visually overwhelming as any of the similar scenes in Griffith's Intolerance. The use of composition in depth in the fortress scene in Chapter 4 is likewise as arresting as the best of Eisenstein or David Lean. Toshiro Mifune's muscular demonstrations of heroic derring-do in the horse-charge scene (Chapter 11) and the scrupulously choreographed spear duel that follows it (Chapter 12) is in the finest tradition of Douglas Fairbanks. Overall, there’s a sense of sheer "movieness" to The Hidden Fortress that places it plainly in the ranks of such grand adventure entertainments as Gunga Din, The Thief of Baghdad, and Fritz Lang's celebrated diptych The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Hindu Tomb.
David Parkinson of the Empire on a review posted on January 1, 2000, gave the film four out of five stars and wrote "Somewhat overshadowed by the likes of Seven Samurai, this is a vigorously played, meticulously staged adventure. It's not top drawer, but still ranks among the best of Kurosawa's minor masterpieces."