A Colorful Art of the War

Rating: 9/10 (27 September 2005)

In 1572, there is a civil war in Japan, and three powerful clans, leaded by the lords Shingen Takeda (Tatsuya Nakadai), Nobunaga Oda (Daisuke Ryu) and Ieyasu Tokugawa (Masayuki Yui), dispute the conquest of Kyoto. When Shingen is mortally wounded, the Takeda clan hides the incident and uses a poor thief to be the double of the strategist Shingen and keep the respect of their enemies. Along the years, Kagemusha incorporates the spirit of the warrior of the dead warlord.
"Kagemusha" is another awesome movie of Master Akira Kurosawa, where the colors are very impressive. I can highlight, for example, the nightmare of Kagemusha on the clouds; the rainbow on the beach; the flags and costumes of the warriors in the battlefield. Therefore, the cinematography of this film is spectacular, especially because most of Kurosawa's movies are in black & white. The performance of Tatsuya Nakadai is stunning and very touching in the final scenes, when he is expelled like a street-dog from the clan, and in the fields during the final battle. The strategies of the war used in this movie, with the wind, the forest, the flame and the mountain, recall parts of the famous Sun Tzu book. I like also to see the medieval feudalistic Japanese culture, totally different from the Western standards, and is also a great attraction for me. My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "Kagemusha  A Sombra do Samurai" ("Kagemusha  The Shadow of the Samurai")