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| Hidden Fortress, The |
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Genre:Action Adventure
Reviewed In Issue 12 Of Widescreen Review®
Stars:
Toshiro Mifune, Misa Uehara, Minon Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Takashi Shimura & Susumu Fujita |
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 DVD General Information |
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| (Studio/Distributor): |
Criterion Collection |
| (Catalog Number): |
CC1384L-232 |
| (MPAA Rating): |
Not Rated |
| (Retail Price): |
$$69.95 |
| (Running Time In Minutes): |
139 |
| (Color Type): |
Black & White |
| (Chaptered/Scene Access): |
Yes |
| (Closed Captioned): |
No |
| (Theatrical Release): |
1958 |
| (LD Release Date): |
12/1/94 |
| (THX® Digitally Mastered): |
No |
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| Credits Information |
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| (Director): |
Akira Kurosawa |
| (Screenplay/Written By): |
Ryuzo Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto & Akira Kurosawa |
| (Story): |
NA |
| (Music): |
Masaru Sato |
| (Director Of Photography): |
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| (Production Designer): |
Yoshiro Muraki & Kohei Ezaki |
| (Visual Effects): |
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| (Costume Designer): |
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| (Editor): |
NA |
| (Supervising Sound Editors): |
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| (Re-Recording Mixers): |
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| (Executive Producers): |
NA |
| (Co-Producers): |
NA |
| (Producers): |
Masumi Fujimoto & Akira Kurosawa |
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| DVD Picture Information |
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| (Principal Photography): |
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| (Theatrical Aspect Ratio): |
2.35:1 |
| (Measured LaserDisc Aspect Ratio): |
2.0:1 |
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| DVD Sound Information |
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| (DVD Soundtrack): |
Mono Sound |
| (Theatrical Sound): |
Optical Mono |
| (Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack): |
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| (Remastered Dolby Digital): |
No |
| (Remastered DTS Digital Surround): |
No |
| (Additional Languages): |
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| WSR Narrative Review |
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Story Synopsis:
Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress is one of the greatest action films made and is freely acknowledged as an inspiration for George Lucas’ Star Wars. Set in feudal Japan in the 16th century the story is about Princess Yuki, (Misa Uehara) who is fleeing from an enemy clan with her faithful retainers and military commandant, General Ma-kane, (Toshiro Mifune) who with their hoard of gold plan to make their escape across a near-by border by disguising themselves as peasants. The story is told through the eyes of two bickering peasant farmers who help in their disguise and escape with the promise of gold. With troops on the lookout it’s one chase after another in this different ’50’s Kurasawa samurai adventure.
LaserDisc Picture:
The black and white scope picture has been recomposed at 2.0:1. The picture suffers from poor gray scale, poor contrast and an over-bright transfer. It appears the transfer element was a poor quality print. Problematic with artifacts, noise and grain its value is archival.
LaserDisc Soundtrack:
The theatrical release was in Perspecta® Stereophonic Sound which this is not.
| (Surround Bass Below 50Hz): |
No |
| (Aggressive System Surround): |
No |
| (Intense 25Hz Bass): |
No |
| (Deep Bass Challenging): |
No |
| (Aggressive 0.1 LFE): |
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| (Holosonic Soundfield): |
No |
| (Aggressive Split Surround): |
No |
| (Center Back Surround Imaging): |
No |
| (Directionalized Dialogue): |
No |
Superb Sound Effects Recording Quality: |
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Superb Music Score Recording Quality: |
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Superb Special Visual Effects Quality: |
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Superb Color Fidelity: |
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Superb Cinematography: |
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Reference LaserDisc: |
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Collector Edition: |
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