A war film with no battle scenes, but a lot of heart

Rating: 6/10 (9 August 2016)

This is Akira Kurosawa's penultimate historical epic made before his last such film, RAN, in 1985. Kurosawa is best known for his string of successful samurai flicks made during the 1950s – the likes of SEVEN SAMURAI, THRONE OF BLOOD, and HIDDEN FORTRESS which have wowed critics and audiences alike for the last half century. KAGEMUSHA, THE SHADOW WARRIOR is a film that sometimes recaptures those glory days but for the most part is a lesser cousin to those classic works. Where films like SEVEN SAMURAI were epic in every sense of the word, the only thing epic about KAGEMUSHA is the running time, which is seriously overlong. This means that there are quite a few slow-paced scenes which add exposition, detail, and character so only the most patient viewers need apply.
Yet this isn't the biggest problem with this flawed film. The major issue is the budget, which ran out before production was complete, meaning that George Lucas came in to supply funding when Toho lucked out. In the end, this provides Kurosawa with the biggest joke of all: he's made a war film without any battle scenes, except he tricks us into thinking he has. He shoots a major incident during the night, relying on some excellent sound effects to recreate the noise and feel of warfare; my favourite trick is the use of a flickering red and blue back screen to simulate the burning of a castle. Even at the climax, we only hear and then see the aftermath of a huge, decisive battle.
The good news is that these things aren't too much of a problem, because at heart KAGEMUSHA is a character piece, all about the guy who pretends to be Shingen. Tatsuya Nakadai takes the duel role of warlord and stand-in, and he's frankly excellent; the finest element of the film. He crafts a believable character, a man living his life as a lie, and his development from a petty thief to a man who really believes that he's Shingen himself is spellbinding. It helps that he's supported by a great cast, all of whom are adept at the official Japanese 'stony face' stance. Kurosawa's is a film of small, telling details and the fact that the whole thing is based on a true story makes what happens even more amazing. A mature, intelligent work of film.