The Hidden Fortress is a 1958 jidai-geki film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshirō Mifune as General Rokurota Makabe and Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki. A literal translation of the Japanese title is The Three Villains of the Hidden Fortress. The film begins with two bedraggled peasants, Tahei and Matashichi , escaping the aftermath of a battle en route to the Hayakawa country where they lived, but later captured and forced into slavery. After an uprising in the slave compound, Tahei and Matashichi escape and settle near a river, where they find gold belonging to the Daimyo... for whom they had fought. They thereafter travel with General Rokurota Makabe , escorting Princess Yuki Akizuki and what remains of her family's gold to a secret territory. In order to keep her identity secret, Yuki poses as a mute. During the mission, the peasants impede it and sometimes try to seize the gold. They are later joined by a farmer’s daughter , whom they acquire from a slave-trader.
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| Release date: | December 28, 1958 |
| Directed by: | Akira Kurosawa |
| Runtime: | 139 Minutes |
| Producer: | Sanezumi Fujimoto, Akira Kurosawa, Shiten Ohashi |
| Editor: | Akira Kurosawa |
| Music by: | Masaru Satoh |
| Cinematography: | Kazuo Yamasaki |
| Screenplay by: | Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni |
| Genre: | Action, Adventure, Comedy |