Kurosawa in color!

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2007)

I have to admit, I'm a natural fan of Akira Kurosawa; seeing a film of his in color is simply amazing. With color, Kurosawa had the ability to create imagery and crafty art that was vivid and beautiful; good enough to tell a story through his images.
After saying that, master filmmaker Kurosawa's tale is about a thief (Tatsuya Nakadai) who is hired as the role of the king of the Takeda clan, after the king is killed. The film follows his personal, inner struggles as maintaining the role of a king, which is demonstrated very well by Mr. Nakadai. One of the best lines he delivers is "I'm not a puppet!" there are countless others as well, revealing his pains from living a life of bitterness and misery, into a life of luxury and comfort.
During his reign, other major clans decide an all-out war against one another, which causes the peace to falter in the lands of feudal Japan, and puts this thief to the test as being a rightful ruler. Additional to this, the director explores the change from old traditions and customs to modernization (premonitions of the Last Samurai), in which leads to the downfall of the old clans, and into the rise of the new clans.
Once again, Kurosawa has created another astounding film that explores: philosophy, reality vs. illusion, war, and ambivalence. the supply of Japanese actors were all great, specifically with Tatsuya Nakadai. The set-decoration and costumes were beautiful, the cinematography is vivid with color, and the music score is both haunting and triumphant.
However, the pace of the film was a roller-coaster. In some places it gets fast and in others it drags. Another thing to note is that the action sequences in the film are relatively "weak." The battles were long, but were mainly off-camera or implied, lacking the excitement and action needed for a real battle scene. Particulalry with the ending battle. There are hundreds of extras on horse and foot charging towards an infantry line, and the camera pans away from the battle, and all there is, is gunfire and screaming. And in a siege, again, off-camera, and the way it is filmed, it looked rather hokey, showing the actors and fighters on a sound stage rather than a battle field.
Maybe I'm just used to his action films like "Seven Samurai" or even "Ran", but his battles were feeble compared to his past films. This was a let-down to some degree, but this was still a decent film. Because of this, I rate it a ***1/2 out of **** It's not his best, but a creative piece of work!