A common thief becomes the daimyo of a major clan vying for supremacy in feudal era Japan.

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2006)

I prefer Kagemusha over Ran because the former is semi-historical while Ran is well, just another story, never mind even if it is from Shakespeare. True there are more battle scenes in Ran and they are truly massive and moving. But I was impressed by the characterization of the thief turned warlord in Kagemusha. The dream or more appropriately nightmare sequences are evocative of Dali paintings.
By the way, I visited that castle in Kumamoto where Kurosawa often filmed his samurai movies. It has been turned into a museum with great displays of armor, weapons and costumes from Japan's feudal age. Inside I came upon what looked like steps to the donjon (a tower serving as castle keep used as the final shelter defense during a siege) of the castle which seemed impossible to climb for a normal person. The steps are too high and steep and I could only imagine a leaping ninja scaling them.
Visitors are not allowed to climb those "stairs" and they have to go by another way. The displays include table dioramas of battles and sieges that took place centuries ago in the castle environs and they show the disposition of the troops of the contending forces. I visited the castle in winter and the castle and its grounds looked magnificent in the snow. The film in my camera froze and when it thawed in my overheated quarters, it caught moisture. As it was weeks before I returned to my country, it had grown mold and could not be processed. I would do anything to return to that castle.