Review of
Hidden Fortress, The
Reviewed by Young Il Kim
Director: Akiro Kurosawa
Starring: Bunch of Asians
Akiro Kurosawa is so revered by everyone in Hollywood that it is hard to find any critic, director or actor who does not admire Kurosawa’s work. He is like the Martin Luther King, Jr. of Hollywood—someone who nobody knew that well but knows enough to claim his greatness. Of all the Kurosawa movies that I have seen or slept through, Hidden Fortress was the worst. But perhaps I was watching the movie with an ulterior motive and was disappointed by the results.
Kurosawa’s works have influenced directors and spawned off American versions such as The Magnificent Seven (remake of the Seven Samurai) and Last Man Standing (remake of Yojimbo). Hidden Fortress also spawned a remake and made George Lucas incredibly wealthy. Hidden Fortress is about two bumbling soldiers who stumble onto a mission. They meet up with a noble general Rokurota who must rescue a princess from capture and bring her to safety. Along the way, the two soldiers act as comedic relief to the serious nature of the movie.
If you saw Hidden Fortress and never seen any other works by Kurosawa, you might say that this was a decent movie. However, if you wanted to see the spectacular and majestic fight sequences among the samurai and deep character development one expects from Kurosawa, you will be disappointed. The slapstick comedy seems inappropriate in this movie.
You will be especially disappointed if you try to draw similarities between this movie to Star Wars. Yes, the two soldiers were the inspiration behind R2D2 and C-3PO. The general is supposed to be Obi-Wan Kenobi and the captured princess is supposed to be Jabba the Hut (just seeing if you were paying attention). George Lucas called this movie the greatest inspiration for his Star Wars trilogy. The whole idea of the Force and the ways of the Jedi were modeled after his perception of the samurai from the Kurosawa movies. And as a result, Hidden Fortress is hyped as the inspiration behind Star Wars to force movie suckers and Star Wars diehards to rent this movie. In my case, I am both, so I felt doubly cheated.
Hidden Fortress lacked the sheer imagination that made Star Wars or any of other Kurosawa movies such delights. For a comedic film, the scenes between the two soldiers were about as funny as Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty in Ishtar. And the movie had a cornucopia of lame fights, painfully irrelevant scenes and dumb dialogue (it was subtitled so I could only imagine the pain and suffering the Japanese had). If you want to seem educated by saying that you are familiar with Kurosawa, rent Seven Samurai or Ran. And before you rent the inspiration behind Star Wars, just think about this for a minute: how good can The Hidden Fortress be if there were no inspirations in it for Han Solo or Darth Vader?
