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The Hidden Fortress (Japanese: 隠し砦の三悪人, Hepburn: Kakushi Toride no San Akunin, lit. 'The Three Villains of the Hidden Fortress') is a 1958 Japanese jidaigeki adventure film directed by Akira Kurosawa, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It tells the story of two peasants who agree to escort a man and a woman across enemy lines in return for gold without knowing that he is a general and the woman is a princess. The film stars Toshiro Mifune as General Makabe Rokurōta and Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki while the peasants, Tahei and Matashichi, are portrayed by Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara respectively.

The Hidden Fortress was the fourth highest-grossing film of the year in Japan, and Kurosawa's most successful film up to that point. It was a significant influence on the 1977 American film Star Wars.

Plot

Two bedraggled peasants, Tahei and Matashichi, sell their homes and leave to enlist with the feudal Yamana clan, hoping to make their fortunes as soldiers. Instead, they are mistaken for soldiers of the defeated Akizuki clan, have their weapons confiscated, and are forced to help dig graves before being sent away without any food. After quarrelling and splitting up, the two are each captured again and reunited when the Yamana force them alongside dozens of other prisoners to dig through the ruins of the Akizuki castle for the clan's secret reserve of gold. After a prisoner uprising, Tahei and Matashichi slip away, steal some rice, and make camp near a river.

While building a fire, they find a piece of gold marked with the crescent of the Akizuki clan hidden in a hollowed-out stick. Looking for more of the gold, the peasants are discovered by a mysterious man whom they take to be a bandit. They explain how they intend to escape Yamana territory: rather than cross the closely-guarded border into the neighboring state of Hayakawa, they will travel to Yamana itself and then pass into Hayakawa. The stranger is enthused by their plan, so he shows them another piece of gold, and he leads them to a secret camp in the mountains where the rest is hidden. Unbeknownst to them, the man is a famous Akizuki general, Makabe Rokurōta. Although Rokurōta initially planned to kill the peasants, he changes his mind and decides to use their plan to bring the gold and Princess Yuki of the Akizuki clan, also hidden in the camp, to Hayakawa, whose lord has promised to protect them.