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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 |
 "All there and all too long"Being a big fan of Asian cinema and Japanese history, I have longed to view Kagemusha. I guess all the waiting, hampered my expectations. This piece takes place prior to the reign of the Tokugawa period when clans were all battling for control. When Lord Shingen of the Takeda clan dies, the clan quickly substitutes a double to take his place and fool the country of the truth. The double has to convince even his close relations that he is the real thing, otherwise word may spread and other clans will take advantage of the situation. This movie is one of Japanese most famous directors, Akira Kurosawa, biggest pieces. It was supported and co-produc ed by George Lucas (Star Wars fame) and Francis Ford Coppala (famous American director). It was Akira's movies from the 60's that inspired American movies such as STAR WARS, Magnificent 7, and a long list of Western movies. You definitely can see the western influences in the magnificent Kurosawa movie, The Seven Samurai. Back to the movie at hand, I was disappointed. The movie, very beautifully shot with scenery and provided with intelligent dialogue has been weakened by one thing; pace. This movie has an incredibly and brutally slow pace to it. It is a movie running at 3 hours which could have easily been 1/2 the length and still achieved its goal. The acting is superb, characters are amply developed, even though the focus is mainly on 1 person (the double), scenery is spectacular, dialogue is well written, but in the end it just is too long. There really is no reason to justify its length, not even the "artistry" factor can. In the end, all the great movie aspects are there, just stretched out too far. I viewed the 3/29/05 Criterion Collection: Picture and Sound are yes, above par.  "Introductory text cut - a nickpick"I have both the zone 3 and the Criterion versions. I am not going to comment on the story. This version of the movie definitely has superior picture and sound quality. The color is excellent. It also has 20 minutes of additional scenes. However, the introductory text describing the political state which comes right after the film title was cut. Although it does not take away the enjoyment of the movie but I am a little bit puzzled; the LD version, which I also own retained the text. The introductory text explained why these warlords are fighting each other. The Criterion version of the movie, I suspect, contains the same scenes as the zone 2 DVD version available for quite some time. No sure if the zone 2 version has introductory text. "Excellent film, Excellent DVD"This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. Kagemusha or "Impostor" literally "Shadow Warrior" is Akira Kurosawa's third color film and one of his more impressive of the later releases. The film is mostly based on the true story about the death of a warlord which was kept secret for 2 years and the man hired to impersonate him. The film is very impressive and has some excellent sets. The costumes are very authentic also. The film was nearly not made due to budget problems but George Lucas convinced 20th Century Fox to finance part of the film. As Lucas put it, "they owed [Lucas] a favor" because he saved the studio from bankruptcy when he released Star Wars. The release is a double disc box set with some very nice special features. Disc 1 contains the film with optional audio commentary by Stephen Prince, two Japanese theatrical trailers and the US theatrical trailer. Disc 2 contains an interview with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola where they discuss their role in helping produce the film. There is also a segment from the Japanese series "Akira Kurosawa: It's Wonderful to Create" where Kurosawa talks about the film. Also is a slide show of storyboards painted by Kurosawa with the audio of the scene depcited by the storyboard. There is also a side by side photo comparison of storyboard paintings and the scene they depict. The DVD set also includes a large booklet with more storyboard paintings and interviews "At long last!"At last, the full version of this film! I'm confident the DVD will have the usual high quality one associates with the Criterion Collection. I missed the limited run of the full-length version in theaters, two years ago, and am looking forward to this *a lot*. Yes, Coppola and Lucas produced the film and they should be thanked for it. Unfortunately, they also asked Kurosawa to shorten the film, for purely business reasons, thus mutilating the vision of a man they claim to admire. Which tends to mitigate the sincerity of their praise.  "A typical ploy of medieval Japan based on real facts"By using real historic characters like the renowned Takeda Shingen, Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, Kurosawa proves once more that life is usually more dramatic than fantasy, as he recounts the substitution of Shingen with a double during the "golden-age" of Japan's civil wars in 16th century. The characters are very well presented, there are some fine scenes in this colored film like that of Shingen's double galloping in front of the Takeda army during an inspection, under the eyes of the enemies' spies, or that of the sad field of battle of Nagashino where the Takeda clan was finally destroyed, but Kurosawa has streched the film a little bit longer than necessary, putting more than enough combat scenes in it. Although technically sound, I think it can not compare in freshness and powerful images with his older works "The Throne of Blood" or "Seven Samurai". |
