SW based on old Japanese ninja movie?

On a Star Wars rumor site, it was found out that George Lucas based the whole Star Wars saga on an old Japaneses ninja movie. The ending of Episode III is also supposedly told. I don't remember the name of the movie but the site is boards.theforce.net if you care to try to find it. It may not be on the immediate page.

I remember George Lucas saying somewhere that he used a lot of different sources for writing the first Star Wars. He studies different religions and cultures- probaably old movies for fighting techniques as well.

you're probably talking about "Hidden Fortress"
some characters like R2 and 3PO got based on the two farmers there

The seven samurais

dunno.,...al i know is he got the name 'jedi' for'jidai geki' wich are some sort of asian stories.

Yes, the reference is most like 'The Hidden Fortress'. The new films are rather less directly influenced by anything other than the old films.

Interesting. I knew the word Jedi came from a japanese word but didn't know about the old movie you guys mentioned. Sounds cool.

I wouldn't know.

Speaking of old Japanese films, I watched a cool one. They cut off the arm of the statue of liberty.

Originally posted by finti
The seven samurais

4) Mace Windu 5)Ki-Adi-Mundi 6)Luke Skywalker and 7) Master Yoda (Saving the best for last)

Ki-Adi-Mundi ?

I saw him as the third most powerful person on the Council.

but he doesn't have much significance in the plot.

Plo Koon would be better 😉

GL probably used ideas from that japanese movie. when was the japanese movie first shown?

isn't it from kurosawa?

The inspiration you're referring to was from The Hidden Fortress directed by the late Akira Kurosawa. I rented the Hidden Fortress around Thanksgiving of last year. It was good samurai movie (even though it's B/W). The first inspiration for GL to write SW was Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe.
😉

see, I was right afterall 😄

The Star Wars: A New Hope plot is almost a mirror of The Searchers. Lucas is also into westerns. The Darth Vader helmet is part samurai head gear and a German WWI helmet. There are so many influences that are too numerous to name.

but Hidden Fortress is almost the exact plot to A New Hope. And Lucas borrows a lot of shots from Kurosawa and has said on numerous occasions that that movie specifically was a major influence on ANH. It even has missing plans, a massive fortress similar to the Death Star as far as importance and place in story, obviously there isn't any superlaser. An old samurai (Kenobi) finds a guy (Luke) who's the son of a really famous samurai(Anakin) who is now an evil war lord (Vader). So, as far as the major backbone of the story, yeah, I'd say that's an influence 🙂 .