The Hidden Fortress (kakushi-toride No San-akunin)

Of all the directors that have influenced modern cinema my most favorite has to be Akira Kurosawa, the man who almost singlehandedly put Japanese cinema on the map and inspired countless other generations of filmmakers. His masterpiece "Rashomon" was followed by one critically acclaimed film after another though he already made great films before like "Stray Dog" and "Drunken Angel", Japanese films became a worldwide phenomenon that were copied and adapted by other film makers. These films helped establish Kurosawa's reputation not only as a great director but also one of the best in the world and as one famous director once said Kurosawa was one of the 4 great living directors of his time, the other three were Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini and Stanley Kubrick.

One of his films that I enjoy the most is "The Hidden Fortress", I first heard about this film after watching "Seven Samurai" and I quickly went out of my way to find it as soon as possible.
It tells the story of 2 peasants Tahei (Minoru Chiaki) and Matashichi (Kamatari Fujiwara) who tried to get rich in the midst of a civil war between 2 rival clans. Kurosawa was clever enough to introduce us to the 2 peasants who were already dirty and in rags because of the hardships they encountered. They bicker and quarrel to the point that they almost hurt each other but it is clear they really cannot survive without the other. On accident  they discover 2 wooden sticks that had hidden gold inside while foraging for firewood.

They quickly think that they struck it rich but soon find out that the gold belongs to the beaten Daimyo clan led by General Rokurota Makabe (Toshiro Mifune) who plans to rebuild their fallen house using the gold and transport it to safe territory. Makabe is able to overpower the 2 peasants and forces them to help him transport the gold into dangerous enemy territory, to make matters complicated they were accompanied by the tempestuous Princess Yuki (Misa Uehara) who pretends to be a mute to cover her real identity.

Kurosawa in this film brilliantly bypass the characters of Makabe and Yuki making the film more comical and endearing by focusing on the 2 bickering peasants and their helpless situation, this shift is essential in making their adventure more grand and colossal than it already was. It's like  watching Makabe and Yuki from a distance above the clouds while we were on the ground with the 2 bickering peasants enjoying their misfortunes.

It is easy to point out that the 2 bickering peasants and their story became the inspiration for the 2 androids R2D2 and C3PO in Star Wars and so did the rest of the characters like Makabe who was the combination of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Obi Wan Kenobi and Princess Yuki who was the equivalent of Princess Leia.

Is this man the inspiration for Darth Vader?

The duel between Makabe and the rival general from another clan was also the inspiration between the final duel between Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader in Star Wars, even the disfigured face of Dath Vader is a reference to the rival general that Makabe fought.

The cinematography of the film was also magnificent as it echoed John Ford's techniques like framing the characters on the mountain or the landscapes and villages that they were in, my most favorite is the massacre of the prisoners who led a revolt over their captors which I thought echoed the Odessa Steps sequence in "The Battleship Potemkin". Even though it did not have the epic dramatic setting that other Kurosawa films had like "Ran" and "Seven Samurai", it's still enjoyable because of the funny dialogue and quick cutting sequences that made the film more of a little boy's adventure.

I havent seen all of Kurosawa's films but I can honestly say that this is one of my favourite Kurosawa films and I think even better than the highly regarded "Ran". To me this is one of the reasons why I respect Akira Kurosawa's work and his colossal achievements in film making because "Hidden Fortress" is one of the many reasons to love the art of cinema.


Grade: A+