Tora no O o Fumu Otokotachi

Very early Kurosawa (although it wasn't released in Japan until 1952 because of the US censor's sensitivity about 'feudal' subjects) and in no sense a major work. Based on a traditional story that exists in both Noh and Kabuki stage versions, and Kurosawa makes use of elements from both. A young nobleman has to cross a checkpoint in his flight from a vengeful brother, and impersonates a porter to do so; one of his juniors has to beat him to make the deception more convincing, but thereby violates one of the prime tenets of the feudal code... Kurosawa's chief contribution to the project was to add a second, comic porter to the plot.