Kakushi toride no san akunin - The last princess, (The Last Princess) (2008)

Featured Audience Ratings

• xGary X

  
  Two escaped slaves guide an ousted princess through enemy territory in exchange for a share of her royal gold reserve. The Last Princess is essentially a remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic The Hidden Fortress, and for the first half while the story stays faithful to the original… More
  Two escaped slaves guide an ousted princess through enemy territory in exchange for a share of her royal gold reserve. The Last Princess is essentially a remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic The Hidden Fortress, and for the first half while the story stays faithful to the original it's a fairly serviceable samurai adventure. The photography is a little cheap looking and some of the directorial gimmickry is clumsy making it all look a little "made for TV" but the leads are all fine and it has decent visual effects and costumes. Unfortunately at the halfway stage the script writer decides to make some "improvements" of his own promoting one of the bickering slave sidekicks to heroic love interest and the story nosedives into corny romantic melodrama. The finale also relies too heavily on poorly handled action and special effects and it ends up finishing up a little cheap and tacky. It's not terrible by any means, but quite why anyone would choose to watch this immature Disney-fied version over the magnificent original is an absolute mystery.

• Justin Y

  
  Shinji Higuchi directs <i>The Last Princess</i>, which is a loose remake of Akira Kurosawa's <i>The Hidden Fortress</i>.<p>The story starts out pretty good, as it seems there will be a group of characters making an epic journey across vast lands.… More
  Shinji Higuchi directs <i>The Last Princess</i>, which is a loose remake of Akira Kurosawa's <i>The Hidden Fortress</i>.<p>The story starts out pretty good, as it seems there will be a group of characters making an epic journey across vast lands. Unfortunately, this film, that is just under 2 hours, isn't as epic as it sounds. The travels of the characters are a little bland and at the same time, some of the characters lack depth. There isn't enough events to make this an exciting and entertaining film, which is why this is more of a drama than anything else.</p><p>It isn't all bad though. There is some decent swordplay from Hiroshi Abe's character and there are some nice effects with the sword clashing. The film also employs a sweeping sand scene transition, which it uses consistently.</p><p>Jun Matsumoto does an OK job at leading this picture, but the fact to the matter is Hiroshi Abe is the true professional in here. The gorgeous Masami Nagasawa is a good princess, especially in the early going, but sort of slips as her character gets soft.</p><p><i>The Last Princess</i> lacks in some areas, however it is a decent costume fantasy drama worth checking out if time permits.