The Hidden Fortress (隠し砦の三悪人, Kakushi toride no san akunin) is a 1958 jidai-geki film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshirō Mifune as General Rokurota Makabe (真壁 六郎太, Makabe Rokurota) and Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki. A literal translation of the Japanese title is The Three Villains of the Hidden Fortress. The film begins with two bedraggled peasants, Tahei and Matashichi (Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara) escaping the aftermath of a battle. They are attempting to make their way across the border to the Hayakawa country where they lived, but they find it blocked by border guards and are forced into slavery. After an uprising in the slave compound, Tahei and Matashichi manage to escape, then settle down near a river, and find that some of the sticks in the area contain gold from the defeated Daimyo family they were fighting for in the battle. They meet and begin to travel with General Rokurota Makabe (Toshirō Mifune). The general is trying to transport the princess of the...