The Hidden Fortress 4K 1958 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Long ago, in distant Japan, feudal wars raged. A young, beautiful, and determined princess, heir to the ruling clan, and her loyal and resolute samurai were forced by fate to hide in the mountain wilderness, in a secret fortress unknown to anyone, from imminent destruction.

In order to reach safe territory, they came up with a plan: disguised as ordinary peasants, they would set off on a journey with a load of gold hidden in firewood.

They took two random vagabonds as their assistants, two scoundrels who, upon learning about the gold, could think of nothing else but gold.

Review 4K Movie

The film beautifully tells the story of a young princess from the Akizuki clan, doomed to death in a hostile state and forced to embark on a long journey with two scoundrels and former general Makabe to safe lands, encountering manifestations of greed, meanness, inhumanity, and many difficulties.

Unfortunately, I was unable to fully appreciate the work due to a misunderstanding of some of the visual images and context—I watched the film as a picture that became the ideological basis for the original Star Wars, and making some concessions, I will say that this is not what it is.

It dawned on me at five in the morning when I suddenly realized that in the scene of burning wood at the festival, accompanied by the choir singing the words “Throw human life into the fire!”, the flame is a synonym and symbol not of all-consuming destruction, but of purification, through which all the characters in the film, without exception, pass. As a result, in the final minutes of the film, the viewer sees that human nature, tempered and purified of all husks and dirt, shines like the sun, or, more prosaically, like the gold that the characters found in a handful of ashes after that very festival of burning. This is why the climactic scene is so important, where the main antagonist, singing the same words, releases the people who once spared him and, in doing so, reveals his true self, throwing his high status, his allegiance, and all the social roles imposed on him by the dishonorable and cruel government and authorities he served. And in the finale, even the two “little people,” eternally oppressed by difficult circumstances and thirsting for wealth, having gone through the closeness of suffering and touched true nobility, realize that their main treasure is their brotherhood.

So, upon careful reflection, it becomes clear that this film is a great and original canvas about humanity, which has enormous weight and value apart from the fact that it was Kurosawa who inspired New Hope. And everyone should watch Hidden Fortress. I won't give it a rating—I might as well give one to the Mona Lisa.