Movielogr

Kagemusha (1980)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Drama | History | War

Overview

Akira Kurosawa’s lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord.

Rated PG | Length 180 minutes

Actors

Tatsuya Nakadai | Tsutomu Yamazaki | Kenichi Hagiwara | Jinpachi Nezu | Hideji Ôtaki | Daisuke Ryû | Masayuki Yui | Kaori Momoi | Mitsuko Baisho | Hideo Murota | Takayuki Shiho | Kôji Shimizu | Daikei Shimizu | Sen Yamamoto | Shuhei Sugimori | Kota Yui | Yasuhito Yamanaka | Kumeko Otowa | Tetsuo Yamashita | Kai Atô | Takashi Ebata | Yu Shimaka | Toshiaki Tanabe | Naruhito Iguchi | Yoshimitsu Yamaguchi | Eiichi Kanakubo | Akihiko Sugizaki | Yugo Miyazaki | Masatsugu Kuriyama | Norio Matsui | Jirô Chiba | Yasushi Doshida | Takashi Watanabe | Nobaru Sone | Toshiya Ito | Francis Selleck | Morihiro Yanase | Alexander Kairis | Toshimitsu Kato | Paul Okawa | Toshihiko Shimizu | Senkichi Ômura | Takashi Shimura | Kamatari Fujiwara

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Date ViewedDeviceFormatSourceRating
11/30/2013TVBlu-rayLibrary8 stars
 

Viewing Notes

Sixth film in my Kurosawa week over the Thanksgiving holiday. Another I’ve put off simply due to the 3hr run time but it earns nearly every minute. The story itself is rather simple but the real drama is in the beauty of the filmmaking. The acting, the sets, the cinematography. One to revisit for all those reasons.

Watched many of the extras on the Criterion blu-ray. I knew that Lucas and Coppola were instrumental in getting this film made so it was cool to hear more about that from each of them. The production really is a feat considering the location and planning for all these amazing sequences. But a very tragic and futile story.

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