Kagemusha Movie Review

Kagemusha (1980)

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Written by: Akira Kurosawa
Directed by: Masato Ide, Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer

Plot
A thief with an uncanny resemblance to a warlord is hired as a double. When the warlord dies, the thief must become the warlord.

Verdict
Visually stunning in image and composition, Kurosawa never fails to deliver a stunning epic. It's a bit slow and the camera shies away from the many battles, I'm guessing a budget issue. It's an intriguing tale of duty and honor at the end of the feudal era in Japan.
Watch it.

Review
This is part The Prince and the Pauper mixed with Kurosawa's typical period movies. The story is good, with a thief who looks just like a warlord, Shinjen. The thief was saved from execution and pressed into service for military advantage. Nakadai does a great job, in a dual role no less. He gets to play Shinjen and the thief and later the thief trying to impersonate Shinjen, but always on the verge of slipping out of the impersonation.

The thief has to pretend to be someone he's not while the generals have to accept an ignorant imposter in a ploy to win the war. The warlord's son feels contempt at having a thief promoted above him. Despite a number of close calls, the thief maintains the illusion until he gets too arrogant. He had to have gone from having nothing to having everything, but it's hard to enjoy it when you're just acting the part. He has to maintain the facade at all times.

Kagemusha - A sprawling Kurosawa epic.

It's technically big with many extras, but it lacks the action during battle. We see a few marches and the staggering after effects of a battle towards the end, but not the action in the moment.
It did seem strange seeing samurai with rifles. It's not how movies usually depict samurai, but this movie is set at the end of the feudal period.

 It's well directed as Kurosawa's films always are. It doesn't just look good, every frame is expressive. This feels similar to Kurosawa's films like The Seven Samurai (1954)  or Ran (1985), though I'd probably rank The Seven Samurai and Ran above it.

The score often feels out of place, completely divorced from the tone of the film. It turns out that Kurosawa had never worked with the composer before. I don't always notice music, but many pieces stuck out and not in a good way.

It's not a happy ending, but it is a really good ending. It's a tale of redemption, well the hope of redemption. The thief wants to regain what he never really had.