Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Wordiezett So much average

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

The Movie Diorama It tells the story of a powerful warlord, Shingen, in Japan's feudal conflict. He is wounded and before succumbing to them he orders his clan to find a double so that his enemies will not attack. I found this to be a rather interesting, enthralling and captivating piece of cinema. The study of imitation not just through physical embodiment, but also in mind. The double was a petty thief, all of sudden is then given power and responsibility of an entire clan. The gradual process of him being selfish to then becoming a role model was executed brilliantly. The beauty of it is that you can see how he is also convincing himself, the original warlord's family love him just as much as the original and he succumbs to this love. It's a different tradition, he came from following no rules to now creating them. Tatsuya Nakadai performed really well, his facial expressions were extremely emotive. I could see the fear in his eyes and the terror of bloodshed. But, again, the star of the show is Akira Kurosawa who really was a technical genius behind the camera. The first scene alone was a five minute one take shot. What a statement! Already I was hypnotised by his directing methods. His use of colour, slow panning shots during the dramatic scenes and then the frantic quick cuts during the war scenes. The production design and costumes were authentic, definitely felt like 1500s Japan. I like how different sub-clans had different coloured armour and banners, it made distinguishing the characters much easier. It's a long run time of 159 minutes and yet it didn't feel like it all, there is always something happening on screen. My only negative would be the heavy political script, there were times where I had no idea who was who or what was what. So many castle names and so many clans, I felt like I needed a notebook. Having said that, I am extremely susceptible to traditional Japan and their culture, not to mention the great performances and direction. Close to perfection!

Sabre_Wolf Well I watched this movie years ago, it even compelled me to read up on Shingen Takeda and my goodness he was one of the most interesting characters of the Sengoku period! Also he was known for the 'Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan' motto emblazoned on his war banners.This is interesting take on how things went after the death of Shingen and how the Kagemusha was able to impersonate Shingen but the way the story is told is incredible! Tatsuya gives memorable performances as both the real Shingen and the Kagemusha also the actors who play the Takeda generals performances are also nothing to be sneezed at.This is as we can expect from not just a great director like Akira Kurosawa but also him as a descendant of samurai.Definitely recommended for those interested in the Sengoku Jidai (Age of the Country at War) or for fans of samurai films in general.

riolama This is the best movie I have ever seen. In any language from any culture. I thought so when I first saw it thirty years ago and I still think so now, despite not being able to see it in its original mind- blowing wide-screen form. It is not just one of the most visually beautiful films ever done. The positive reviews are all accurate, but many focus too much on Kurosawa in general rather than on the particular theme of this film, which is closely tied to Japanese history and ideals, and which unites all the specific beauties of text and technique. This is not simply a film about historical belatedness (a lament that the ancient idea of heroes is now exposed by the modern world to be a hollow fantasy, as Ebert and other suggest), or the Shakespearian tragedy of inevitable discrepancy between individual and historical role, as in Henry V), although the film includes something of these elements. It is more--a beautiful elegy to a positive feudal ideal of leadership that goes beyond individual power to sacrifice for country--embodied in the figure of Takeda Shingin. Great tactician, unsurpassed "rider" of horses and women, inspiring and fearsome military leader, he is also a student of the Sutras and a man who "stepped right into people's hearts," as one of his aides says. The opening scene shows he listens to criticism and has a sense of irony about himself; when the thief who is to play his "double" accuses him of being a murderer, he agrees but says he will do anything to unite the country in order to prevent endless war and bloodshed. The same actor plays the lord and his double with incredible depth and subtlety. Shingin is killed (by a gun) early in the movie; as he is dying he tells his generals not to let anyone know he's dead for three years--to let the thief replace him, so as to give the clan time to prepare for confrontation with the western- armed enemy--and, given that his clan is not armed with western firearms, not to move out of its own territory. The double or "shadow warrior" who takes his place begins to identify with the role and finds out that literal crucifixion (for theft) would have been nothing compared to the loneliness at the top where the weight of the world is on the leader's shoulders. Every moment of his existence requires that he sacrifice everything personal to a role that no one can ever fill perfectly, and that is now bereft of the one man who came closest to doing so. The kagemusha doesn't have Shingin's "riding ability" or his wounds or the depth of self-understanding to fill the lord's role and, when he cockily believes he can do so for a moment, he is discovered and thrown out. Neither he, nor any modern man trying to live an identity larger than himself--including the artist who, like the kagemusha, is creating a shadow of the ideal--can replace this feudal ideal which was superseded (literally, massacred at the end) starting over 400 years ago by Christianized and technologized decadence, represented by Nobunaga and Ieyasu. The kagemusha learns slowly, as we do, what the ABSENCE of the irreplaceable Shingin means to his people and symbolically to Japan. Many scenes build up as if to a great battle or political confrontation, and the generals keep the show going, but it is all hollow--the leader is gone. Shingin's ambitious and over-eager son then leads the Takeda clan out of the mountains--to a destruction by western technology reminiscent of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (especially since the historical battle was at a place named Nagashino). The point of the film is to show a lost ideal of the past which can never be regained and without which everything afterward is a shadow, like the kagemusha ("shadow warrior"). The double (like the artist) seems possessed with Shingen's ghost in the last scenes as he watches in horror while the son, in a self-centered Oedipal frenzy, destroys the flower of his people by moving beyond the legitimate limits of his territory and his scope, and the double can only throw a futile spear at the modern weaponry which destroys him. But a shadow identity from a meaningful past is better than none at all (Kurosawa shores these fragments against modern ruins at least as well as T.S. Eliot in "The Waste Land").

njmollo Katsu's KagemushaKagemusha (1980) is unique motion picture. The cinematography and epic scope are at times simply stunning but something still haunts this motion picture, the "what could have been?" In Kagemusha, the lead roles of Lord Shingen Takeda and the thief, were written for the actor Shintarô Katsu but due to an on-set falling out with Akira Kurosawa, Katsu was promptly fired and Tatsuya Nakadai was quickly re-cast. Some have said that Akira Kurosawa wanted to make Kagemusha a comedy. This assumption is strengthened because Shintarô Katsu was famous in Japan as the endearing and comic character Zatoichi, the blind wandering Yakuza. Yet Kagemusha while having some comic moments was never intended to be a film trapped by a single genre. Seven Samurai/ Shichinin no samurai (1954) has many comic scenes but no one would call it a comedy. Kurosawa's life experiences had made him understand that tragedy and comedy were frequent bedfellows. Often in times of stress, disaster or war, humour is a necessary release. Even Kurosawa's darkest films have elements of comedy.The main complaint about Kagemusha is that Tatsuya Nakadai gives a theatrical and cold performance. In Tatsuya Nakadai's long acting career, he excelled in villainous roles. As an actor he retained a certain detachment that suited cold-blooded parts. He could not translate an easily identifiable or sympathetic humanity for an audience, nor could he effortlessly employ humour as Toshirô Mifune or Shintarô Katsu so often did. While Tatsuya Nakadai gives a heartfelt and dramatic performance as the thief, the audience remains an observer rather than an investor in the character.Shintarô Katsu was a talented actor. He had the ability to give each part a striking individuality. His Zatoichi character became one of the most popular in Japan and spawned 26 movies and over 100 television episodes. Yet in other film roles Shintarô Katsu showed his abundant skill by transforming himself so completely that the blind Yakuza, Zatoichi became unrecognisable. Shintarô Katsu's natural charisma can be seen in his superb performance in Hitokiri/ Tenchu! (1969) as a block-headed samurai assassin, Izo Okada. Incidentally, this film co-stars Tatsuya Nakadai as another cold and calculating character, a clan leader that orders Izo Okada from assassination to assassination with heartless efficiency. Shintarô Katsu's character is a murderer and kills on command yet his performance allows the audience to sympathise with his dilemma. When Izo Okada breaks down in a stunning scene of heart breaking grief, the audience is firmly on his side. Playing a ruthless and dim-witted killer could so easily alienate the audience and it is a testament to Shintarô Katsu's talent that the bloodthirsty character becomes so sympathetic.Shintarô Katsu's other famous, or should I say infamous, creation is the character of Hanzo: The Razor, a perverted and sadomasochistic policeman, in a trilogy of exploitation films. The first and the best is called Goyôkiba/ Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice (1972), directed by the underrated and hugely talented Kenji Misumi. Yet again, Katsu plays a thoroughly despicable character that the audience can root for. It is clear that the casting of Shintarô Katsu was an inspired decision and it seems the actor was enthusiastic and excited to be given the chance to play the role. Like Toshirô Mifune, Shintarô Katsu had been making films for his own production company. He had the reputation as an individualist with at times, an unbridled ego. Unfortunately Shintarô Katsu was unable to subjugate himself to Akira Kurosawa. He needed to put aside his own presumptions of being a famous Japanese movie star and submit completely to Kurosawa's direction. This he was unable to do and it resulted in a row that led to Akira Kurosawa firing Shintarô Katsu on the spot.It is a lasting shame that someone as talented as Shintarô Katsu could not reign-in his own ego for the duration of the Kagemusha production because this would have been the first time that Shintarô Katsu, the actor, would have been presented to an international audience by one of the worlds most esteemed directors. He may have been remembered as one of Japan's great leading men rather than the popular yet domestic star in a series of Zatoichi movies.What would have Shintarô Katsu brought to the roles of Lord Shingen Takeda and the thief, Kagemusha? Lord Shingen Takeda would have been much the same as is seen in the final version of Kagemusha. A Lord that is stayed and dignified. The dynamism would have come with Katsu's interpretation of the thief. Here we would have seen the effortless comedy coming from the actor and also the accessible humanity. The audience would have had a despicable yet charming character to empathise with and enjoy.Presumably, there would also be moments of inspired improvisation with Shintarô Katsu experimenting with comedic options or tragic interpretations. This may have caused on-set difficulties but Kurosawa would have accepted differences of interpretation if the actor's motivations were authentically based on the character's motivations and not simply expressions of an actor's ego. Still the filmmaking involved in Kagemusha is so assured and striking that it can arguably be regarded as one of the most beautiful pictures ever made yet what remains is the stunning artistry of the images and not the performances or emotion.Shintarô Katsu would have given the film a much needed heart. As it stands Kagemusha is an Akira Kurosawa movie rather than a Shintaro Katsu tour de force.