Acknowledged by George Lucas as his inspiration for Star Wars, Akira Kurosawa’s medieval adventure unfolds against the landscape of the civil war, and follows in the grand tradition of Seven Samurai.  The action centers around a deposed princess who has gone into hiding within her father’s secret fortress.  In a marvelous deadpan performance, international star Toshiro Mifune portrays the brave general who guards the high-spirited princess, waiting for a chance to escape with her into a neighboring province.  Japanese comics Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara costar as the bumbling soldiers (forerunners of R2D2 and C3P0) that Mifune enlists to help him take the princess, and her family’s fortune in gold, to safety.  Considered by many critics to be the perfect introduction to foreign film, Kurosawa’s rousing “eastern western” builds to a completely satisfying conclusion.