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Hidden Fortress
is a 1958 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' adventure film directed by Akira Kurosawa. 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 role of 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 join 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 withou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dynamic style, strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it; he was involved with all aspects of film production. Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director during World War II with the popular action film '' Sanshiro Sugata''. After the war, the critically acclaimed ''Drunken Angel'' (1948), in which Kurosawa cast the then little-known actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director's reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another fifteen films. ''Rashomon'' (1950), which premiered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ryō (Japanese Coin)
The was a gold currency unit in the shakkanhō system in pre- Meiji Japan. It was eventually replaced with a system based on the ''yen''. Origins The ''ryō'' was originally a unit of weight from China, the ''tael.'' It came into use in Japan during the Kamakura period. By the Azuchi–Momoyama period it had become nearly uniform throughout Japan, about 4.4 ''monme'' as a unit of weight (about the same as 16.5 grams). During the Sengoku period, various local ''daimyō'' began to mint their own money. One of the best known and most prestigious of these private coins was the ''koshukin'' issued by the warlord Takeda Shingen, who had substantial gold deposits within his territories. The value of the koshukin was based on its weight, with one ''koshukin'' equal to one ryō of gold, and thus stamped with its weight (about 15 grams). During the Tenshō period (1573–1592), one ryō was equal to four ''koku'' of rice, or 1000 brass coins. Tokugawa period The Tokugawa shogunate at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyōgo Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, and Okayama Prefecture and Tottori Prefecture to the west. Kōbe is the capital and largest city of Hyōgo Prefecture, and the seventh-largest city in Japan, with other major cities including Himeji, Nishinomiya, and Amagasaki. Hyōgo Prefecture's mainland stretches from the Sea of Japan to the Seto Inland Sea, where Awaji Island and a small archipelago of islands belonging to the prefecture are located. Hyōgo Prefecture is a major economic center, transportation hub, and tourist destination in western Japan, with 20% of the prefecture's land area designated as Natural Parks. Hyōgo Prefecture forms part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area, the second-most-populated urban region in Japan after the Greater Tokyo area and one of the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hōrai Valley
The is a geographical area that is located in the Rokkō Mountains, Hyōgo, Japan. This valley is a part of Setonaikai National Park in Japan. The name of Hōrai Valley coming from a name of the mountain in a mystical land found in Chinese mythology. Outline Horai Valley is a typical ‘Badland' along Ōtada River in the Rokkō Mountains. It is said that there is no so many typical bad land as Hōrai Valley. The valley is made from granite and the stones are soft enough to be broken by hands of climbers. Many climbers and tourists are attracted by the unique sights just not far from down town of Osaka or Kobe. Hōrai Valley is made of two parts. The lower part, Hōrai Valley for the narrow part, and the upper part, Oku-Horai Valley, or Deep Hōrai Valley. Access * Shirube Iwa Bus stop or Zatodani Bus stop of Hankyu Bus , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of the flag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinephiles and public and academic libraries. Criterion has helped to standardize certain aspects of home-video releases such as film restoration, the letterboxing format for widescreen films and the inclusion of bonus features such as scholarly essays and commentary tracks. Criterion has produced and distributed more than 1,000 special editions of its films in VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray formats and box sets. These films and their special features are also available via an online streaming service that the company operates. History The company was founded in 1984 by Robert Stein, Aleen Stein and Joe Medjuck, who later were joined by Roger Smith. In 1985, the Steins, William Becker and Jonathan B. Turell f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perspecta
Perspecta was a directional motion picture sound system, invented by the laboratories at Fine Sound Inc. in 1954. The company was founded by Mercury Records engineer C. Robert (Bob) Fine, husband of producer Wilma Cozart Fine. As opposed to magnetic stereophonic soundtracks available at the time, Perspecta's benefits were that it did not require a new sound head for the projector and thus was a cheaper alternative. Introduced as a "directional sound system" rather than a true stereophonic sound system, Perspecta did not use discretely recorded sound signals. Instead, three sub-audible tones at 30 Hz, 35 Hz, and 40 Hz are mixed appropriately and embedded in a monaural optical soundtrack, in addition to the audible sound. When run through a Perspecta integrator, depending on whenever each tone is present, the audio is fed into a left (30 Hz), center (35 Hz) and right (40 Hz) speaker. Unlike true stereophonic sound, which would be described as discrete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TohoScope
Toho Scope (東宝スコープ) is an anamorphic lens system developed in the late 1950s by Toho Studios in response to the popularity of CinemaScope. Its technical specifications are identical to those of CinemaScope. This widescreen format was first used for the black-and-white films '' The Men of Tohoku'', and '' On Wings of Love'', made use of color in '' The Last Pursuit'', and debuted in full-color (and tokusatsu) with ''The Mysterians'' (all 1957). The label fell out of use in 1965 to be replaced by Panavision lenses of similar specifications. In contemporary popular culture, the recognizable Toho Scope logo prefaced '' Godzilla: Final Wars'', one of many homages to older science fiction productions made throughout the film. References * Galbraith, Stuart IV. Audio commentary, ''Invasion of Astro-Monster is a 1965 ''kaiju'' film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the sixth film in the ''Godzilla'' franchise and Shōwa period. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kōji Mitsui
was a Japanese movie, TV, and stage actor. He appeared in more than 150 films from 1925 to 1975, including 29 of ''Kinema Junpo''’s annual Top-10 winners and three of its 10 best Japanese films of all time. In 2000 the magazine named him one of the 60 most important Japanese actors of the 20th century. Career The son of a Shochiku movie theater owner, Mitsui joined the studio in 1924, making his film debut in 1925 under the name Hideo Mitsui (三井秀男). His short stature, soft features, and expressive face and voice suited him for rebellious “younger brother” roles, and he appeared as a youth lead in many silent and early sound films, notably in several Yasujirō Ozu classics and the “Yota” series, about the antics of a trio of young idlers that also included Akio Isono and Shōzaburō Abe. Mitsui left Shochiku in 1935 to help found the independent studio Tokyo Hassei (Sound), which was largely staffed by talent who had left Shochiku to bring prestige to the new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kokuten Kōdō
, real name Tanigawa Saichirō (谷川 佐市郎), was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than eighty films from 1923 to 1959. Career Kōdō first began acting on the stage in 1901 in shinpa dramas. He joined the Teikine studio in 1923, and after the war, the Toho Studio. He appeared in numerous films by Akira Kurosawa, most notably in ''Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The story takes place in 1586 during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. It follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who hire seven ...'' as the village elder. Filmography References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kodo, Kokuten 1887 births 1960 deaths People from Takasago, Hyōgo Japanese male film actors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoshio Tsuchiya
was a Japanese actor who appeared in such films as Toshio Matsumoto's surreal ''Bara No Soretsu'' (a.k.a. ''Funeral Parade of Roses'') and Akira Kurosawa's '' Seven Samurai'' (as the firebrand farmer Rikichi) and ''Red Beard'', and Kihachi Okamoto's ''Kill!''. He had a long-standing interest in UFOs and wrote several books on the subject. He preferred starring in science fiction films, usually as aliens, or people possessed by them, in such films as ''Battle in Outer Space'', '' Monster Zero'', and ''Destroy All Monsters''. Biography Tsuchiya was born in Kofu, Yamanashi in 1927. His film debut was in the 1952 Shintoho film ''Murder Suspect'' (殺人容疑者). During the auditions for Akira Kurosawa's '' Seven Samurai'', Tsuchiya was watching, and was picked by Kurosawa although he originally had no intention of auditioning himself. ''Seven Samurai'' was filmed during the same time as ''Godzilla'', and Tsuchiya would frequently leave the set of ''Seven Samurai'' to see ''God ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sachio Sakai
, born , was a Japanese actor. In 1947, he made his film debut with Akira Kurosawa's ''One Wonderful Sunday''. He often worked with Akira Kurosawa and Kihachi Okamoto. Filmography Films * ''One Wonderful Sunday'' (1947) as Ticket seller * ''Drunken Angel'' (1948) as Guitarist * ''Stray Dog (film), Stray Dog'' (1949) as Spectator of theater * ''Aoi sanmyaku'' (1949) * ''Bōryoku no Machi'' (1950) * ''Aoi Shinju'' (1951) as Yanagiya * ''Vendetta for a Samurai'' (1952) * ''Nangoku no hada'' (1952) * ''The Man Who Came to Port'' (1952) * ''Ikiru'' (1952) as Gang * ''Eagle of the Pacific'' (1953) * ''Seven Samurai'' (1954) as a coolie * ''Godzilla (1954 film), Godzilla'' (1954) as Hagiwara * ''Half Human'' (1955) as Nakata * ''Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple'' (1955) as Matahachi Honiden * ''Throne of Blood'' (1957) as Washizu's vassal * ''Song for a Bride'' (1958) as Kurokawa * ''The Hidden Fortress'' (1958) as Ashigaru * ''Life of an Expert Swordsman'' (1959) * ''The Secret o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
