The British Film Institute has provided final details for its upcoming 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray releases of Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress(1958), starring Takashi Shimura, Toshirô Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, and Susumu Fujita. The two releases are scheduled to arrive on the market on August 11.
Description: Upon release, The Hidden Fortress became Kurosawa's biggest box office hit to date and won several awards, including the Golden Bear at the 1959 Berlin Film Festival. Some 20 years on, the film's influence would have even greater impact on the world when George Lucas borrowed elements of its plot for the first of his Star Wars series.
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 TohoScope, and he exploited this to the full in the film's rich variety of landscape locations, including the slopes of Mount Fuji.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
NEW audio commentary by Japanese film expert Tony Rayns
BFI Screen Epiphanies: Steven Berkoff (2015, 18 mins): in a wide-ranging discussion with journalist Ian Hadyn Smith, the actor, writer and theatre director 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 Hidden Fortress 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 (2001, 8 mins)
Original trailer
Includes original Perspecta Stereophonic Sound audio track
First pressing only: Illustrated booklet with a new essay on the film by Kenta McGrath, How Star Wars Conquered Cinema with the Help of The Hidden Fortress by Graham Hughes, Kurosawa on The Hidden Fortress (1964) and an original review
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