Costing some $6 million, Akira Kurosawa's breathtaking epic of sixteenth-century Japanese clans at war was the costliest Japanese film for many years. But Kurosawa - who has been highly regarded by the West since the Fifties, when films such as Rashomon (1950), Shichinin no Samurai (1954, The Seven Samurai) and Kumonosu-Jo (1957, The Throne of Blood) won international acclaim - found great difficulty financing this project. After the commercial failure of Dodeska-Den (1970), Kurosawa had to turn to the Soviet Union to secure backing for his subsequent Dersu Uzala (1975), which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Despite this success, however, Kagemusha might never have been made if the Americans Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas had not persuaded 20th Century-Fox to buy the international distribution rights in advance. Loosely based on fact, Kagemusha is the story of the events leading up to the destruction of the Takeda clan at the Battle of Naosino. Lord Shingen, head of the Takeda clan was known to have used a kagemusha (shadow warrior) to take his place in battle and so draw the enemy fire, and it is into the historical decline of the clan that Kurosawa introduces his fictional kagemusha: a thief saved from the gallows because of his resemblance to the lord. Through a combination of political manoeuvering and the thief's emotional involvement in the process, Kurosawa examines the nature of power and its embodiment within the workings of the clan and in the fierce external struggle taking place against the enemy. When the thief presides over his first battle he apes the dead lord, sitting enthroned at the unwavering head of his troops - a supremely arrogant display of power that immobilizes the opposition. Later, after the impersonation has been publicly revealed and the the thief ignominiously thrown out, the clan, leaderless and demoralised - is destroyed. It is the apparent rather than the actual presence of Shingen that affects the outcome of the two battles - such is the unfair nature of power. The second important issue examined by the film concerns the interaction between a noble and a common thief. The thief is uneducated, submissive and cowering; Shingen is a proud man whose emblem emboldens him. With some extraordinary acting, Tatsuya Nakadai switches, in his dual role, from thief to lord without any change of costume or noticeable adaptation of mannerism - the thief, at time, becomes Shingen. Indeed the kagemusha certainly comes to believe in the power of his impersonation, for seduced by his deception he dares to test the lord's own horse. However, animals are not so easily fooled as humans and the ruse is discovered. Kakemusha recreates a beautiful and historic episode from life in a feudal clan. Using traditional Japanese costumes, paintings and poetry, a seductive counterpoint is created, as epitomized in the two opening sequences: the static yet rhythmical ceremony of the thief's presentation to the clan - a ceremony steeped in ritual and tradition; and the abrupt scene of a soldier clattering down cobbled steps amongst a sleeping army. Kurosawa has both influenced and been influenced by American cinema. He acknowledges this by consciously taking the best of western films and incorporating their devices and techniques into the traditions of Japan. The result is a film that is accessible to the west yet fundamentally apanese in style and content. Its commercial success in Europe and America (as well as in Japan) is a vindication of Kurosawa's whole approach to film-making. The final battle-scene is the culmination of the contradictions that Kurosawa has set up. With brightly coloured flags indicating the varied functions of the army, the battle-lines are clearly drawn and impressively displayed. The clan's destruction is mapped out with awful logic, both from within (the loss of their leader) and without (the technological advancements in warfare). The final desecration, is perhaps one of the strongest indictments of war to be seen on the cinema screen. 5 STARS OUT OF 5 kagemusha dvds | videos al pacino | michelle pfeiffer yul brynner | christopher plummer | romy schneider the godfather | the godfather part ii marlon brando | james caan | diane keaton | al pacino laurence olivier | clark gable | vivien leigh | leslie howard | alfred hitchcock | robert montgomery | grace kelly olivia de havilland | humphrey bogart| howard hawks| frank capra | charlie chaplin | lauren bacall | fritz lang jean harlow | greta garbo | ava gardner | audrey hepburn | edward g. robinson | john garfield erich von stroheim | wim wenders | madeleine carroll | marlene dietrich | rita hayworth akira kurosawa dvds akira kurosawa videos kagemusha dvds | videos al pacino | michelle pfeiffer yul brynner | christopher plummer | romy schneider the godfather | the godfather part ii marlon brando | james caan | diane keaton | al pacino laurence olivier | clark gable | vivien leigh | leslie howard | alfred hitchcock | robert montgomery | grace kelly olivia de havilland | humphrey bogart| howard hawks| frank capra | charlie chaplin | lauren bacall | fritz lang jean harlow | greta garbo | ava gardner | audrey hepburn | edward g. robinson | john garfield erich von stroheim | wim wenders | madeleine carroll | marlene dietrich | rita hayworth Page created by: ihuppert5@aol.com Changes last made: 2020