A wonderful return for a fi master

Rating: 8/10 (28 May 2005)

A samurai warlord stares at his exact double, a recently captured petty thief. Before long, the warlord is assassinated. In order to hide this new weak link, the warlord's advisors hire the thief as a substitute. What follows is in unforgettable study of power-thirst and the folly of war. This is KAGEMUSHA, the comeback film for master film-maker Akira Kurosawa.
In the late 1970's George Lucas, and Francis Coppola, fresh from conquering Hollywood with their films, watched in dismay as the Japanese film industry regarded Akira Kurosawa as an unmarketable relic. Kurosawa, who bought the Japanese film industry worldwide recognition with his 1950 film RASHOMON, was now being turned away by every Japanese studio for his latest film project. Both Lucas and Coppola borrowed furiously from Kurosawa films (STAR WARS is almost a remake of THE HIDDEN FORTRESS and SEVEN SAMURAI) Coppola's THE GODFATHER has numerous Kurosawa-styled moments. Lucas and Coppola came to the rescue with international distribution deals. This resulted in KAGEMUSHA, Kurosawa's long-planned samurai epic, becoming a reality. During KAGEMUSHA's "Development Hell" period, Kurosawa made over 200 color drawings of key scenes in the film. The resulting film is a marvel of color usage, shot composition, and character blocking. Tatsuya Nakadai, a veteran of Kurosawa's films (he's the gun-happy punk in YOJIMBO and the cool Tokyo detective in HIGH AND LOW) is both the ill-fated warlord and the mangy thief. With two character arcs to deal with, Nakadai helps to keep the film pulsating.