| Photos (see all 14 | slideshow) |
| Toshirô Mifune | ... | General Rokurota Makabe | |
| Misa Uehara | ... | Princess Yuki | |
| Minoru Chiaki | ... | Tahei | |
| Kamatari Fujiwara | ... | Matakishi | |
| Takashi Shimura | ... | The Old General, Izumi Nagakura | |
| Susumu Fujita | ... | General Hyoe Tadokoro | |
| Eiko Miyoshi | ... | Old Lady-in-Waiting | |
| Toshiko Higuchi | ... | Farmer's Daughter bought from slave trader | |
| Koji Mitsui | ... | Guard | |
| Shiten Ohashi | ... | Samurai | |
| Kichijiro Ueda | ... | Slave Trader | |
| Ikio Sawamura | ... | Gambler | |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Tadao Nakamaru | ... | Young Man | |
| Rinsaku Ogata | ... | Second Young Man | |
| Ichirô Chiba | ... | Yamana foot soldier (uncredited) | |
| Yu Fujiki | ... | Barrier guard (uncredited) | |
| Shoichi Hirose | ... | Yamana soldier (uncredited) | |
| Minoru Ito | ... | Samurai on horseback (uncredited) | |
| Shigemasa Kanazawa | ... | Samurai on horseback (uncredited) | |
| Takeshi Katô | ... | Fleeing, bloody samurai (uncredited) | |
| Kokuten Kodo | ... | Old man in front of sign (uncredited) | |
| Yoshio Kosugi | ... | Akisuki soldier (uncredited) | |
| Niyoshi Kumaya | ... | Yamana foot soldier (uncredited) | |
| Ryu Kuze | ... | Akitsuki soldier (uncredited) | |
| Masayoshi Nagashima | ... | Yamana samurai (uncredited) | |
| Haruo Nakajima | ... | Akisuki soldier (uncredited) | |
| Etsuro Nishijo | ... | Yamana samurai (uncredited) | |
| Takeo Obugawa | ... | Guard at pass barrier (uncredited) | |
| Toranosuke Ogawa | ... | Magistrate of the bridge barrier (uncredited) | |
| Senkichi Omura | ... | Soldier (uncredited) | |
| Shin Otomo | ... | Samurai on horseback (uncredited) | |
| Yutaka Sada | ... | Guard at bridge barrier (uncredited) | |
| Sachio Sakai | ... | Captured foot soldier (uncredited) | |
| Haruya Sakamoto | ... | Samurai on horseback (uncredited) | |
| Makoto Satô | ... | Yamada foot soldier (uncredited) | |
| Haruo Suzuki | ... | Samurai on horseback (uncredited) | |
| Yoshifumi Tajima | ... | Potential slave buyer (uncredited) | |
| Akira Tani | ... | Captured foot soldier (uncredited) | |
| Nakajiro Tomita | ... | Potential slave buyer (uncredited) | |
| Yoshio Tsuchiya | ... | Samurai on horse (uncredited) | |
| Hiroyoshi Yamaguchi | ... | Samurai on horseback (uncredited) | |
Directed by | |||
| Akira Kurosawa | |||
Writing credits(in alphabetical order) | ||
| Shinobu Hashimoto | writer | |
| Ryuzo Kikushima | writer | |
| Akira Kurosawa | writer | |
| Hideo Oguni | writer | |
Produced by | |||
| Sanezumi Fujimoto | .... | producer (as Masumi Fujimoto) | |
| Akira Kurosawa | .... | producer | |
Original Music by | |||
| Masaru Satô | |||
Cinematography by | |||
| Kazuo Yamasaki | (as Ichio Yamazeki) | ||
Film Editing by | |||
| Akira Kurosawa | |||
Production Design by | |||
| Yoshirô Muraki | |||
Costume Design by | |||
| Masahiro Katô | |||
Makeup Department | |||
| Yoshiko Matsumoto | .... | hair stylist | |
| Junjiro Yamada | .... | hair stylist | |
Production Management | |||
| Hiroshi Nezu | .... | production supervisor | |
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director | |||
| Yoshimitsu Banno | .... | assistant director (as Yoshimitsu Sakano) | |
| Yoichi Matsue | .... | assistant director | |
| Samaji Nonagase | .... | chief assistant director | |
| Ken Sano | .... | assistant director | |
| Yasuyoshi Tajitsu | .... | assistant director | |
| Masahiro Takase | .... | assistant director | |
Art Department | |||
| Kôhei Ezaki | .... | art supervisor | |
| Koichi Hamamura | .... | property master | |
| Shinko Kato | .... | assistant art director | |
Sound Department | |||
| Ichirô Minawa | .... | sound effects editor | |
| Yoshiro Miyamoto | .... | sound assistant | |
| Hisashi Shimonaga | .... | sound mixer | |
| Fumio Yanoguchi | .... | sound | |
Camera and Electrical Department | |||
| Sei Arai | .... | assistant lighting technician | |
| Masao Fukuda | .... | still photographer | |
| Ichirô Inohara | .... | lighting technician | |
| Takao Saitô | .... | assistant camera | |
| Daisaku Kimura | .... | assistant camera (uncredited) | |
Editorial Department | |||
| Chozo Kobata | .... | negative cutter | |
Other crew | |||
| Shigeru Endo | .... | horseback riding instructor | |
| Takuyuki Inoue | .... | production assistant | |
| Ienori Kaneko | .... | horseback riding instructor | |
| Yoji Ken | .... | choreographer | |
| Teruyo Nogami | .... | script supervisor | |
| Koichi Noguchi | .... | accountant | |
| Yoshio Sugino | .... | swordplay instructor | |
| Yuichi Yoshitake | .... | acting office | |
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| Shichinin no samurai | Kumonosu jô | Star Wars | Yojimbo | The General |
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| Full cast and crew | Company credits | External reviews |
| IMDb Action section | IMDb Japan section | Add this title to MyMovies |
The hidden fortress starts with it's two main characters Tahei and Matakashi (played by Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara) walking through a war torn country side. They have just escaped from an internment camp after a recent great battle. The two had been forced to dig graves as prisoners and they are already, at the start of the movie, at wit's end. They soon become frustrated with each other and their situation that they set out in opposite directions, only to be both recaptured shortly thereafter. After a prisoner mass uprising and subsequent exodus, the two find themselves completely unscathed but monumentally stunned amongst the dozens of dead.. and piles of pillaged gold.
Unable to carry much in their escape, their sense of scheming is palpable and a testament to the quality of direction. While walking through the woods they come upon a camping warlord, General Makabe (played by Kurosawa mainstay, Toshiro Mifune), who they enlist to help them steal the gold. Makabe has other ideas. They later meet up with the fiercely sexy Princess Yukihime (Misa Uehara) who playfully defends herself from the two anti-heroes, smacking all insolent fools with a reed and secretly running the show. The two rogues suffer through constant harassment with wide eyed fear and cowardice that Kurosawa somehow makes endearing.
It was said that Kurosawa would spend the mornings of the writing process thinking up impossible situations for the two rogue protagonists and the production crew would have the afternoon to plot out how the two would escape from certain death; The pair survive numerous captures, a prison riot, multiple rock slides (!) and more often than not each other during a sometimes cathartic, sometimes hilarious series of events. The Hidden Fortress is an archetypal dark comedy and could be well adapted in the future because of it's intelligent dynamics and carefree yet succinct episodes (the first Star Wars employs much of the same wide open sense of adventure).
While being one of the lightest of Kurosawa's films, it still has the underlying fatalism and rebelliousness that is inherent of much of interesting Japanese cinema. For examples, see much of mainstream (and probably most non mainstream) anime, as well as the nihilistic cult films of today like the recently Americanized Ringu (The Ring) and Kyua (Cure) by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation). The Hidden Fortress is worth a viewing by any patient film buff.