I’d heard in the past that the plot of the original Star Wars was inspired by Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress, and…sure? In some specific ways? If you squint?
But I just recently read that the costume designers specifically modeled the Imperial helmets after Samurai helmets and…it’s kind of blowing my mind.
The particular source where I found this claim:
https://dorksideoftheforce.com/2021/09/24/star-wars-inspired-japanese-cinema-samurai-history/
Can’t tell if it’s speculation there, or originates with costume designers themselves.
@inthehands I think it’s part “all action movies are inspired by Akira Kurosawa either directly or indirectly” and “Lucas knew how the steal instead of copy”.
A good steal can fool most of us just watching a movie. A copy we’ll figure out and then all of a sudden we can predict everything happen next. Like the giant spherical space station will try to blow up a planet and get destroyed by the rebels. Lucas stole, JJ copied.
@inthehands
https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-trending/fedayeen-darth-vader-helmets/
This will blow it further then. : )
@davejackson Bonkers!
There’s something profoundly sad about that story, really: the mixture of fanboydom, cruelty, and incompetence….
@inthehands absolutely.
@inthehands @quephird there are more parallels than it seems on the surface, Lucas has talked pretty explicitly about the influence Kurosawa in general and The Hidden Fortress in specific had on him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEJ6CzG9zVc
A fun fact that falls out of this is that Lucas originally wanted Toshiro Mifune for Obi-Wan, but Mifune turned him down.
@inthehands There's also a lot of Doctor Doom in Darth Vader, specifically.