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Kagemusha - Criterion Collection Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki Director: Akira Kurosawa Number of Items: 2 Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 180 minutes Studio: Criterion Collection Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2005-03-29 Buy from Amazon |
 "Masterpiece"This is truly a masterpiece. Combining colorful imagery, history, great battles, and present-day emotions, this ranks as one of Kurosawa's best. The story is about a dying warlord who is replaced by a Kagemusha (double) to pose as him. The film examines human cruelty in a different way, just as all Kurosawa films do about how hard and painful it is to "become" a different man and pose as him, etc. . . This is a stunning work of art but not as good as Kurosawa's following epic, Ran, which is one of the greatest films of all time. "Astonishing"If it were possible for someone to construct a list of Kurosawa's best films this one would be near the top. Helped by a unforgetable performance by Tatsuya Nakadai, a dazzling use of color, and Kurosawa's camera floating above all the deceit and mayhem like an angry God, Kagemusha is a film for the ages and a blueprint of what action films can be. The closing sequence with Kurosawa killing men and horses is slow motion while an agonized Nakadai looks on is absolutely glorious and inspiring. A Must See! "a moving movie-going experience"This was the first of Akira's movies that i have seen...iwas taken to see it by my mother who recognized my critical film watching nature as a youngster. I was thirteen when i saw this, and never stopped searching for more of Kurosawa's movies, and have seen many (and include several as the best movies of all time) but you know what they say about "the first time"...i can't really say too much about the film that already has been told, but i will say this...as a thirteen year old boy i felt kind of funny weaping openly at the fact that i was witnessing sheer genious...not at the scenes, the beauty of the film, or the plot (although when the shadow warrior twirled his mustache, i did tear up along with the servents!) but at the fact that film making could transcend the mediocre nonsense that we hollywood mass consumers have come to accept as good or even great cimema...i only felt that grateful for a film-makers achievements for two other movies; the seven samuri and the recent masterpeice "life is beautiful".... "A Different Kind of Perfection from the Mature Kurosawa"QUESTION for starters: where can one find the ORIGINAL version of Kagemusha? (if only for the edited scenes with Takeshi Shimura!) Kagemusha is simply breathtaking. The opening sequence challenges any doubts and skepticism about the subtle yet powerful capabilities for theatre conventions in filmmaking - it is a fascinating long take/meeting of minds and gigantic themes (!) the movie later develops. Much has been said about Nakadai's melodramatic performance in this film, but for me it was only fitting with Kagemusha's ornate and formal compositions. This is not a Kurosawa-epic in the tradition for realism in the likes of Seven Samurai. Artifice reigns supreme here. Kurosawa opted for this with the most awe-inspiring indulgence in form, contrasting it with a most chilling (mauve) theme about reality-vs-illusion. At the end I can't help but miss the super-human yet human-like, life-affirming yet wickedly contradictory heroes portrayed by Mifune in earlier-Kurosawa, but it's a different kind of pleasure and learning experience with Kagemusha. A difference of evolving style that justifies why Kurosawa was truly a sensei of cinematic arts. "Epic film with phenominal surreal images."Wow, what a movie experience! "Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior)" is my favorite film from direct Akira Kurosawa, which is saying one heck of a lot when one considers "Rashomon", "Seven Samurai", and "Ran". I sat riveted to the television screen during the entire presentation. It is a story of a petty thief who, because he looks very much like the great Warlord Shingen, is given the chance to redeem himself and play the great Warlord's double. The heart of the film is the inner change and new found strength that progresses through the thief as he learns to become the Warlord. Awesome in its imagery, "Kagemusha" will mesmerize you and move you. Between 1 and 10, this powerful Kurosawa classic gets a 10. With his passing, along with Stanley Kubrick, the world has lost two great treasures. |
