Great Sixteenth-Century Samurai Epic Of Doppelganger Warlord

Rating: 6/10 (13 August 2006)

In sixteenth-century Japan, feudal warlord Shingen Takeda is besieging Kyoto when he is mortally wounded by a sniper. Ordering his army to flee home, he dies en route, but requests that Kagemusha, a thief who looks exactly like him, impersonate him for three years to fool his enemies. Kagemusha takes on the role, but can he convince everyone, and what effect will his new-found position have on him ?
For a movie which - in typical Kurosawa style - is a lament on the futility of war ending with the hero floating away face down in a river, this is a happy story. This is because it was a triumphant return to form for this great Japanese director; after the dismal critical and commercial failure of Dodes'ka-den (which prompted him to attempt suicide) and the very obscure Dersu Uzala, Kagemusha is a masterful samurai epic, brilliantly made, sumptuously produced, very well acted and great entertainment. It's a sort of cross between Alexandre Dumas Sr's The Man In The Iron Mask and Kurosawa's earlier Throne Of Blood, with a terrific main theme. Kagemusha, the pretend-Lord, is a petty thief, with no grasp of court politics or the horrors of battle, but he is not without courage, kind-heartedness and humour. We share his affection for the heir-in-waiting child, his terror whilst watching a bloody siege unfold and his misery when he is exposed as a charlatan and ostracised. Nakadai is terrific in the dual role of Kagemusa / Shingen, with great support from Yamazaki as Nobukado, his adviser. Visually, the film is outstanding, with trademark use of natural elements; wind, rain, dust, clouds, sunsets (the shot of Yamazaki leading the retreat with the crimson sky behind him is just stunning). My one criticism of the film would be that the last two reels, after Kagemusha's expulsion, are a little unnecessary and overly familiar in their grand tragedy - however, they do contain an amazing battle scene with a unique technique of shooting suicidal charges with no reverse-angle shots of the carnage until the battle is over. Some have dismissed this film as a sort of practice run for Kurosawa's subsequent masterpiece, Ran, but don't believe it. Ran is a better movie - deeper, more complex, more visually dazzling - but Kagemusha is a superb epic historical intrigue, and a rousing redemption in the career of one of the world's greatest directors. Francis Coppola and George Lucas helped to fund and secure the film's US release, where it was titled The Shadow Warrior.