Kagemusha (The Criterion Collection)
by Akira Kurosawa
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Hideji Ôtaki, Jinpachi Nezu, Ken'ichi Hagiwara, Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu YamazakiDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Brand: Image Entertainment
Producer: Akira Kurosawa
Writer: Akira Kurosawa
Producer: Audie Bock
Producer: Francis Ford Coppola
Producer: George Lucas
Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka
Writer: Masato Ide
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 162 minutes
Published: 2005-03-01
DVD Release Date: 2005-03-29
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Kagemusha (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: The Master does it again
Summary: 5 Stars
Akira Kurosawa is arguably Japan's most prolific film maker. His creative inspirations have resulted in such classics as The Seven Samurai, Red Beard, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, and Ikiru. His films have seen many remakes, including The Magnificent Seven, Last Man Standing, and A Fistful of Dollars. Star Wars characters R2D2 and C3PO are based off of Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. In a time when film was being revolutionized by such directors as Bergman and Felinni, Kurosawa soon became the third treasure of film. While Bergman explored existential philosophical elements in such films as Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal (Kurosawa would later explore existentialism in Ikiru), Kurosawa was making ready use of his own major sets, talented actors, and vast storylines that soon earned him worldwide recognition. In a career that included nearly thirty films, Kurosawa became a legend.
Life, however, was not always easy for the film director Francis Ford Coppola soon called The Master. Kagemusha, or the Shadow Warrior, is a testament to that.
Kagemusha literally translated is Shadow Warrior. Other than a really neat title, it also means Replacement. Which is exactly what this film is, a kind of twisted Prince and the Pauper fable set in the Warring States time period in Japan. I won't go into details about the general storyline- I recommend you IMDB that or look into Amazon's own description, but I am going to attempt to remain as objective as I can be, in hopes of convincing readers to at least see the film without imposing too much of my own personal bias into the topic.
As was previously stated, Kagemusha is more than simply a film. To Kurosawa, it meant the return from a five year hiatus of depression and lethargy. I believe he even tried to commit suicide, though don't quote me. At this point, the seventy-four year old director was without funds, and his attempt at a comeback was easily refuted by every movie studio he approached with the screenplay for Kagemusha. After the flood of samurai and martial arts epic films in the 1960's and 70's, movie companies were burnt out on the samurai concept. Kurosawa was told the film would gross little or no money, despite the seal the film would have on it from the director who made samurai films famous. Dejected, Kurosawa seemed without any resources, until two unlikely film makers came to his rescue. Colleagues Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas loaned Kurosawa the million and a half dollars he needed to launch his film. Signing on as assitant producers, these two brought Kurosawa back into the spotlight, and can be accredited for having laid a foundational hand in helping the director regain enough prestige to soon after create two of his most well-known films, Ran and Dreams.
Now, the film.
The response from many critics on Kagemusha focuses around one summarization: is the film good? Beyond- it's wonderful. But is it one of Kurosawa's better? No. While Kagemusha is in itself a brilliantly done film, it doesn't seem to live up to the standard of other Kurosawa samurai films, such as Rashomon(Which was later remade as Hero) and Throne of Blood. Francis Ford Coppola even commented on this himself, saying it is very difficult for a director to reinvent themselves in a genre that they are familiar with. As to whether or not Kurosawa had done this with Kagemusha, Coppola had no answer.
What makes Kagemusha a brilliant film? To begin, the story is phenomenal. The description on the back of the DVD says it's a meditation on power, and in this respect I believe they were entirely correct. While Ran, which came after Kagemusha, deals with the ideas of power corrupting, and the results it may have on a family or kingdom, Kagemusha deals with obsession and the nature of power itself. It's entirely philosophical in approach, yet it follows the basic Kurosawa model: "A good film must be interesting and enjoyable." Enjoyable it is, as Kurosawa's artistic eye comes out in beautiful display. When the screenplay for the film was originally rejected, Kurosawa painted watercolors of all of the scenes he envisioned. Many scenes within the film appear to be mirrored creations of those ideas, a still painting come to life. At one point in the film the protagonist suffers from a nightmare in which he is trapped in a lake of blood. The setting for this dream sequence is in a gigantic model canvas of a painting all in red. Another scene involves a messenger running through courtyards of soliders. Each new courtyard's soliders are arrayed in different colors of armor (One courtyard's men are all in deep green, while another in dark purple, and yet another in fire red); later in the film, as the troops march to war, the colors almost seem to mesh into one of Kurosawa's paintings. This technique was later used in Ran, but in a wholly original style for each of the two films.
That's another aspect of Kurosawa's films that make them so enjoyable- very few of the storylines have any similarities to one another. The characters are always well developed, the stories themselves original. From the crime thriller Stray Dog to the poignant scenes of Madadayo, Kurosawa always manages to keep a streak of originality in his works. Even the philosophical themes are different in each one- compare Kagemusha's reflection on power to Throne of Blood's. Both deal with the same topic; however, their approaches are entirely different.
What, then, made Kagemusha less of an acheivement in the eyes of critics and viewers alike? I honestly couldn't tell you. Perhaps they were expecting the epic battle sequences that Kurosawa was famous for; there is entirely nothing wrong with that. Who wouldn't want to see a colored version of the fight with the bandits from Seven Samurai, or Toshiro Mifune as Macbeth watching a forest of spears come alive? With respects to Kurosawa, however, there was purpose in everything he did. A director as meticulous as The Master, especially in his later years, viewed all of the elements- sebtextual and on the surface- of his story with a close eye. People looking for the superbly epic bloody battles he was famous for would do well to view Ran or Yojimbo, and probably want to save Kagemusha for when they are in a more reflective mood. To all who refute this, I am not saying Kurosawa does not deal with war in the film. The whole movie's basic storyline focuses around war; however, it is the fighting that he lays off of. Consider why his battle sequences rarely take place in the daytime, or why they are so short (usually less than a minute in length). However, look and see why he spends nearly ten minutes simply filming a march, or another long sequence detailing the after effects of war and battle. Kagemusha, unlike Ran, does not deal with the glory of battle; rather, it reflects on the horrors of war. In many senses, Kagemusha seems to lay the foundation for Ran. Even the lead actor, who played the double in Kagemusha went on the play King Lear in Ran(You will have to forgive me, I am terrible with remembering the exact names. Ran, by the way, is King Lear set in fuedal Japan, with the three daughters changed to three princes instead. The same is true with Throne of Blood being Macbeth.)
Is Kagemusha worth seeing? Absolutely. By any standard it is a superb film. Is it worth buying? I thought so, but remember I am a major Kurosawa fan. People who do not enjoy foriegn films so much, or have not had good introduction to Kurosawa would be recommended to either see some of his more mainstream films, or watch with the knowledge that better Kurosawa works are out there.
Summary of Kagemusha (The Criterion Collection)
In his late color masterpiece Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior) director Akira Kurosawa returned to the samurai film and to a primary theme of his celebrated career?the play between illusion and reality. Sumptuously reconstructing the splendor of feudal Japan and pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a soaring historical epic that is also a somber meditation on the nature of power. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Kagemusha for the first time in its full-length version.Similar DVD Movies
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