Kurosawa's most stylized period film is an adaptation of a popular Kabuki drama about a 12th-century lord forced to flee his estate with only six dedicated retainers to guard him. But Kurosawa parodied his source by introducing a low-comedy porter, a kind of naive Everyman, and through him satirizing militarism and feudal values. ("...a bit like adding Jerry Lewis to the cast of Hamlet," as Donald Richie notes.) The wartime Japanese government banned the film, and curiously, the Allied Occupation Forces did likewise, viewing it as pro-feudal. In any case, this strange and fascinating film may be enjoyed as one of Kurosawa's most offbeat works.