wergo

After 'Seven Samurai' this year, and 'Yojimbo' and 'Sanjuro' coming next year, I gotta wonder about 'Hidden Fortress.'

On the one hand, it has the best-looking transfer of the four samurai Kurosawa movies Criterion put back out in the day but, on the other hand, it's gotta be temping to see if the fanbase will shell out for this one again as well.

Has Criterion ever dropped any hints on this?

darkside

Not sure why they would. The current version is anamorphic and already has a pretty solid transfer.

inri222

I doubt it, the current version is good enough.

From DVD Savant:

Criterion again makes DVD better than going to the movies. Their The Hidden Fortress restores the film to its full 139 minutes, and presents it in full Tohoscope widescreen, anamorphically enhanced. Better yet (and thanks to the timely intervention of Stuart Galbraith IV, who has a book on Kurosawa and Mifune coming out soon), the original Perspecta-Sound multitrack audio configuration has been restored to the disc. This '50s phenomenon spread a mono track to three speakers in a fairly sophisticated faux-stereo using selected frequencies. Or so I've been explained.

Fok

I'm pretty happy with the current release. Their re-release of Seven Samurai was pretty strong, so for their future re-releases I'm expecting good things

souvenir

To add to what's already been said - the next Kurosawa upgrade almost has to be High and Low so I can't imagine why Criterion would re-release The Hidden Fortress in the near future.