Shinji Higuchi’s remake of Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress now has a full trailer, available on the official website, as well as at YouTube.
The trailer seems to put into question the earlier claim that the two peasants of the original film have in the remake been merged into one, played by Jun Matsumoto. Although it is difficult to say for sure, the trailer would appear to have two lower class characters paired in a number of shots. Or so it seems to me. If someone is better at face recognition than I am (and I am really bad at it), let me know what it looks like to you.
Another thing to notice is that the film is now apparently officially known in English as The Last Princess. At least, this is what the official website now uses. The Japanese title is still Kakushi toride no san akunin, or “Three bad men in a hidden fortress”, just like Kurosawa’s original.
It is interesting to speculate why the name change has taken place, especially as the film was originally marketed as “The Hidden Fortress”. Are the international rights to The Hidden Fortress (whoever holds them) somehow blocking the use of the name abroad (but this seems unlikely) or have they decided to distance themselves slightly from the original (but then why wouldn’t they do the same with the Japanese title). Perhaps, they simply decided that “The Last Princess” sounds better and more descriptive of the film, and also conveniently rides on the title of The Last Samurai?
Finally, I want to send my thanks to Ben for once again spotting the change at the official website and letting me know about it!
I’m sure Jeremy will weigh in with his opinion soon enough, but I am pretty sure there are two lower class farmer types, Matsumoto being one of them, though seemingly the hero lead of the film now.
The English name change I would guess be for aesthetic reasons. There is something maybe more dynamic and suggestive of action and adventure with the Star Wars-esque The Last Princess. Also seems to be helping to raise the stakes.