Kagemusha
Composite Score: 86.2
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara, Jinpachi Nezu, Hideji Ôtaki, Daisuke Ryu, Masayuki Yui, and Kota Yui
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writers: Masato Ibe and Akria Kurosawa
Genres: Drama, History, War
MPAA Rating: PG
Box Office: $4.02 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Kagemusha is Akira Kurosawa’s historical epic about the 16th century daimyo, Takeda Shingen, and his nameless double (Kagemusha) who’s forced to take over when Shingen is mortally wounded in battle. The film stars Tatsuya Nakadai in the double leading role, joined by Tsutomu Yamazaki as the warlord’s brother and chief advisor Nobukado, Kenichi Hagiwara as Shingen’s son Katsuyori, Daisuke Ryu as his rival Oda Nobunaga, and Masayuki Yui as Nobunaga’s ally Tokugawa Ieyasu. The film has been celebrated for its exploration of themes of perception vs. reality and the impact of parents on their children. It also received Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Film and Best Set Decoration.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Visually striking as the film is, I’m not totally sure that it fully earns its runtime of over two and a half hours. The story itself is told faithfully and with engaging battles, colors, sets, and cinematography, but the characters themselves don’t necessarily hold up to the rich characterizations of so many modern stories, often making decisions with little reasoning given for it or lucking their way into moments that might never have otherwise happened. For the Kagemusha, his development improves as the story progresses, starting out as shoddy and thin before eventually becoming the central cog holding the film’s story together. Every other character misses out on that improvement, though, and continues making decisions based on who they were at the start of the film, and that only expositionally and implicitly. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great war movie and a fun retelling of history, but I just wish that I cared at all about any of the characters who weren’t the double and Shingen’s grandson.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
What Kurosawa has done in Kagemusha, though, is give us a film that looks so much better than the typical drab fare of war films, be they modern or period. It’s a vibrant epic full of color, engaging sets, and massive battle sequences that are incredible in both their scope and story implication. His shots, working with cinematographers Takao Saitô and Shôji Ueda, draw you in and invite you to really take in what’s going on. Whether it’s the symmetrical three-way conversation of the film’s opening, the psychedelically colored and lit dream sequence or the tensely mysterious night battles, the entirety of the film looks better than any of the gritty war films that we’ve convinced ourselves to be the cream of the crop – this isn’t to knock those films, more to encourage filmmakers that not every war film has to look like Saving Private Ryan because that’s already been done. It also helps that these unconventional sets and shots all feel incredibly intentional, drawing the audience in so that we can see exactly what the director wants us to, hitting us with the reveals and realizations at just the right moments.
Kagemusha is an example of Kurosawa’s brilliant ability to achieve his own vision for a film through his direction, rather than trying to mimic convention or copy what has been successful in the past, resulting in a visibly engrossing film worth a spot among the greats. Its extra-long runtime and inconsistent character development keep it from being one of the director’s best films, but the visuals and themes keep it as a film worth watching if you’ve not yet seen it. Currently, it’s available to rent on most streaming platforms if you’d like to give it a go.
