The Hidden Fortress

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

Related Topics:
1958 - Akira Kurosawa - Toshiro Mifune - Misa Uehara

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Makabe's mission is to help and protect the princess. He is accompanied (or perhaps encumbered) by two luckless peasants, Tahei and Matakichi (Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara), who exist largely to provide comic relief. They are later joined by a farmer’s daughter (Toshiko Higuchi), whom they acquire at an inn from a slave-trader, or procuror. 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' military to one day retake her land and rebuild her kingdom.

Related Topics:
Peasant - Minoru Chiaki - Kamatari Fujiwara - Comic relief - Toshiko Higuchi - Inn - Slave - Gold

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Tahei and Matakichi, the two peasants who find themselves captured and put to forced labor by the Princess’s enemies, escape only to find themselves ensnared by the machinations of a bandit, who is actually General Makabe Rokurota. The spoiled and arrogant princess feigns being mute to avoid betraying her nobility through her speech; she demands that Makabe buy the farm-girl from a procurer to set her free, after which she repeatedly demonstrates deep wells of nobility by staying with the group and doing everything she can to help and protect the princess. In these ways and in others, the Hidden Fortress rises above its genre, transcending the idea of adventure as a mere catalog of exciting events to become an exploration of characters demonstrating personal virtues despite the harshness and violence of the world they live in.

Related Topics:
Bandit - Mute

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