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Licensor Information
Toho Co.
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
A grand-scale adventure as only Akira Kurosawa could make one, The Hidden Fortress stars the inimitable Toshiro Mifune as a general charged with guarding his defeated clan’s princess (a fierce Misa Uehara) as the two smuggle royal treasure across hostile territory. Accompanying them are a pair of bumbling, conniving peasants who may or may not be their friends. This rip-roaring ride is among the director’s most beloved films and was a primary influence on George Lucas’s Star Wars. The Hidden Fortress delivers Kurosawa’s trademark deft blend of wry humor, breathtaking action, and compassionate humanity.
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Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Format:
Blu-ray
Disc:
BD-50 (1 Disc)
Total: 1 Disc
Regions:
A (Blu-ray)
Aspect Ratio:
2.39:1
Audio Options:
Japanese PCM Mono 1.0
Japanese DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1
Resolution:
1080p/24
Subtitles:
English
Supplements
Types of Supplements Included: Audio Commentary, Documentary, Interview, Theatrical Trailer, Booklet
- New audio commentary by film historian Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa
- Documentary from 2003 on the making of the film, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create
- Interview from 2001 with filmmaker George Lucas about Kurosawa
- Trailer
- Booklet featuring an essay by Catherine Russell
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Film
Picture
Audio
Supplements
Artwork
Release Credits
Producer: Curtis Tsui
Artwork: Vania Zouravliov
Release Notes on Restoration
The Hidden Fortress
The Hidden Fortress is presented in its original TohoScope aspect ratio and framed at 2.39:1. Black bars at the top and the bottom of the screen are normal for this format. This new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on a DFT Scanity film scanner from the original 35mm fine-grain master positive; the original negative for this film no longer exists. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI's DRS, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, noise management, jitter, and flicker.
The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from a 35mm optical soundtrack print. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation. The alternate 3.0 surround soundtrack was decoded through a Perspecta integrator to a create a simulated stereo stereo LCR soundtrack. Though only three channels of audio are present, the Perspecta soundtrack was encoded as 5.1 on the disc to maintain compatibility with legacy players.
The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from a 35mm optical soundtrack print. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation. The alternate 3.0 surround soundtrack was decoded through a Perspecta integrator to a create a simulated stereo stereo LCR soundtrack. Though only three channels of audio are present, the Perspecta soundtrack was encoded as 5.1 on the disc to maintain compatibility with legacy players.