The Hidden Fortress - (Essential Art House) (1958)

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A story of rival clans, hidden gold and a princess in distress, The Hidden Fortress is a thrilling mix of fairy story and samurai action movie. It was Kurosawa's first film shot in the widescreen process of Tohoscope, and he exploited this to the full in the film's rich variety of landscape locations, including the slopes of Mount Fuji.

The Hidden Fortress became Kurosawa's biggest box office hit to date and won several awards, including the Golden Bear at the1959 Berlin Film Festival. Some twenty years on, the film's influence would have even greater impact on the world’s box office, when George Lucas borrowed elements of its plot for the first of his Star Wars series.

Widely remembered as the film that inspired George Lucas`s Star Wars, The Hidden Fortress is one of Akira Kurosawa`s most popular works, a thrillingly choreographed and cleverly written tale of chivalry and greed in medieval Japan, featuring Toshiro Mifune as a weary general in charge of protecting a princess (Misa Uehara).