Lucas even considered Mifune for the role of Ben Kenobi, who had formerly been a general himself during the Clone Wars. And if you’ve ever been bemused by the utter pointlessness of Queen Amidala disguising herself as her handmaid in The Phantom Menace, you can trace her subterfuge back to Princess Uki pretending to be a mute commoner so that she can travel undetected through enemy territory. Besides, can it really be a coincidence that at the end of The Hidden Fortress, the heroes are saved by a facially scarred villain who has a last-minute change of allegiance, much like Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi?

Of course, Lucas’s many innovations are what make Star Wars so magical – but in one respect the 1958 film seems more modern than the 1977 one, and that’s in its emphasis on Princess Uki. Lucas has said that Leia is “more of a stand-and-fight kind of princess” than Kurosawa’s heroine, but it’s hardly a fair assessment, given that Uki does actually stand and fight: when Tahei and Mataschichi first spy her in a forest, she whips them with a stick. Later, she frees a female slave from her master, and in return the grateful woman protects the princess from the peasants’ unwanted advances. Finally, it is Uki’s bravery which prompts the enemy general to switch sides. The story of The Hidden Fortress may be seen from the peasants’ perspective, but it is fundamentally the princess’s story.