Hidden Fortress Blu-ray

'The Hidden Fortress' Director: Akira Kurosawa (1958) BFI Blu-ray | 4K restoration | Rigid slipcase | Japanese w/ English subtitles

Akira Kurosawa's story of rival clans, hidden gold and a princess in distress is a thrilling mix of fairy story and samurai action movie. It was the director'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. 

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.

Special features include:
- Audio commentary by Japanese film expert Tony Rayns
- Actor, writer and theatre director Ian Haydn Smith reflects on The Hidden Fortress, the talents of Toshiro Mifune and his first viewing of the film in the late 1950s
- Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create - The Hidden Fortress (2002, 41 mins): documentary about the making of the film, with contributions from director Akira Kurosawa, production designer Yoshiro Muraki, actor Toshiro Mifune and script supervisor Teruyo Nogami
- George Lucas on Akira Kurosawa and The Hidden Fortress