The Hidden Fortress · reception & legacy

How The Hidden Fortress has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A huge commercial hit in Japan on release — Kurosawa's biggest box-office success to that point — it later got filed as 'minor Kurosawa' next to Seven Samurai and Rashomon, before being reclaimed as one of cinema's great pure adventure entertainments.

What's debated

The eternal debate: is it a lightweight romp that only gets talked about because of Star Wars, or is 'Kurosawa having fun' secretly peak Kurosawa?

Its footprint

This is the film George Lucas named as an influence on Star Wars — the story told through two bickering lowly peasants became the template for C-3PO and R2-D2, and Princess Yuki is a clear ancestor of Leia. Half its modern audience arrives via that connection alone.

Where it stands

A Criterion staple and the classic 'gateway Kurosawa' — the one cinephiles hand to people who think 1950s Japanese cinema sounds like homework.