Kagemusha
1980 Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Synopsis
When a warlord dies, a peasant thief is called upon to impersonate him, in order to protect his clan from appearing weak and vulnerable. But he finds himself haunted by the warlord’s spirit as well as his own ambitions.
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I guess I'll always prefer Kurosawa's pre-color, pre-split-with-Mifune, good movies that were also great to his later Great Movies, but for a Great Movie this is still pretty good. This time I was really reminded of The Godfather, because of all the strangely compelling scenes of powerful men plotting behind closed doors (the mix between these and the hugely expansive trek and battle scenes is a great dynamic). And I don't THINK it's just because I watched The Godfather I & II fairly recently, or Francis Ford Coppola's producer credit here.
Also like The Godfather, I suspect this takes at least 3 or 4 viewings in order to get all the who's and why's of the plot straight. And it doesn't help that Kurosawa's images, soaked in all the colors of a pretty dark rainbow, are sometimes so stunning that I found myself forgetting to read the subtitles!
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http://thefilmmann.blogspot.com/2012/03/zoom-in-2-kagemusha.html
I've always related Kurosawa films to black-and-white photography, having never seen his colour films. Never again. Kurosawa's own past as a painter comes to its full fruition in this visual masterpiece about illusion and reality. The film is visual poetry, engaging the viewer with stunning use of colour, showing us the darker sides of humanity.
After the death of warlord Shingen Takeda, his men decide to train a thief as his double, Kagemusha - literally meaning shadow warrior. Shingen's enemies dispatch spies after rumors that the warlord has been fatally wounded, but lo and behold, Shingen is alive and well. By imitating the late warlord's behaviour and learning more about him, Kagemusha manages to fool everyone, but finds himself…
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Too much Kage; not enough mush.
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The eighth Kurosawa film I've watched and also the eighth Kurosawa film I've rated 5 out of 5.
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Kagemusha opens in the 1500s with a Japanese lord hiring a former thief with a resemblance to himself as his body double. The film than follows this double through intense trials. I'll leave the synopsis at that since I think the less you know the better. Akira Kurosawa has described this film as a "rehearsal" for his 1985 film Ran and it does show. The storytelling isn't as polished as I would have liked and the film is a little self-indulgent in its runtime. Both substantial problems I did not have with Ran. I also feel like the story here, while interesting, does not have the same impact as Ran or several other Kurosawa films for that matter.
With all…
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Set in the 16th century in war torn Japan where three rival warlords battle to unify the country. One of the warlords, Takeda Shingen, is fatally injured and in order to secure the strength of his army, he convinces a double, a petty thief, to take his place. The warlord impersonated by the kagemusha ("Shadow Warrior") is based on the real-life daimyo of the same name. This one is different from Akira Kurosawa's other epics, in part, because it doesn't focus primarily on the wars themselves. Instead it deals with the customs and hidden aspects of the vastly different clans. Kurosawa's highly, and accurately, organized direction and Tatsuya Nakadai - playing both Takeda Shingen and the impersonating kagemusha ("Shadow Warrior")…
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I need to re-watch. I remember finding it difficult to follow.
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The plot is at times confusing, not that it 's hard to understand, but the motivations of characters seem odd at times, and the final catalyst that makes him be revealed seemed very weird to me both from the why did he do it and also seems like it should have been easy to contain, the woman that notices the scar is not there completely overreacts, and they just give up on the cover up. The cinematography as usual is great, and the final horse rides has some amazing shots even by today's standards.
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Too much Kage; not enough mush.
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An Akira Kurosawa epic with brilliant images and a human story.
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I guess I'll always prefer Kurosawa's pre-color, pre-split-with-Mifune, good movies that were also great to his later Great Movies, but for a Great Movie this is still pretty good. This time I was really reminded of The Godfather, because of all the strangely compelling scenes of powerful men plotting behind closed doors (the mix between these and the hugely expansive trek and battle scenes is a great dynamic). And I don't THINK it's just because I watched The Godfather I & II fairly recently, or Francis Ford Coppola's producer credit here.
Also like The Godfather, I suspect this takes at least 3 or 4 viewings in order to get all the who's and why's of the plot straight. And it doesn't help that Kurosawa's images, soaked in all the colors of a pretty dark rainbow, are sometimes so stunning that I found myself forgetting to read the subtitles!
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Sadly wasn't as impressed by it as I wish I was. Starts off really well but the ending felt rushed. Good watch though.
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I find it shocking that Kurosawa only regarded this film as a 'warm-up' for Ran. While I can agree it is that, as many similar attributes thrive in Kagemusha that are again shown in Ran, and because Ran is definitely better and is Kurosawa's masterpiece, Kagemusha by itself is a hallmark of a film. It is completely engaging throughout its 3 hour run time and is always displaying something amazing throughout every second. The plot may have grounds in being nothing more than a 'liar-revealed' story but it grows to so much more, making the movie fantastic. In particular I feel this is the most beautiful Kurosawa film I have seen visually. Many scenes stand out, from the colorful and…
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I found this film a bit disjointed, but probably because of expectations. I expected a war movie, the battles between warlords. And there is that. But as soon as one of the warlords dies and they put up an impersonator to pull the ol’switchamaroo, it felt like it was two movies fighting with each other; one, the war story, and two, a more esoteric study on identity and existence. I’m not sure about it. I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t feel completely coherent to me.
Probably just me.
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Kagemusha opens in the 1500s with a Japanese lord hiring a former thief with a resemblance to himself as his body double. The film than follows this double through intense trials. I'll leave the synopsis at that since I think the less you know the better. Akira Kurosawa has described this film as a "rehearsal" for his 1985 film Ran and it does show. The storytelling isn't as polished as I would have liked and the film is a little self-indulgent in its runtime. Both substantial problems I did not have with Ran. I also feel like the story here, while interesting, does not have the same impact as Ran or several other Kurosawa films for that matter.
With all…