Kagemusha

Audience Reviews

View More

Bongo T @BongoT Jul 17 Quite simply the greatest movie ever made. In "The Truman Show", Jim Carey asked "Who are you? And who am I?"- on the surface easy questions but with vastly complex answers. Kagemusha is predicated around the same two questions, except you must ask the question and give the answer yourself. The shadow warrior's identity- his true identity and being, not his job title- changes throughout the film. Or rather, our understanding (and perhaps his) evolves. Was he always the man we see in the final scene- sword in hand, facing down an army- waiting for a chance to show his true nature? Or did he become more than he started as, and if so, why? Magnificent, everybody should see this film at least once in their life and preferably more See more Lou A @thehoundsinthe Jul 7 Great film! I enjoyed it thoroughly! See more Rosana B @RosanaBotafogo 08/24/2024 A palavra Kagemusha significa dublê ou sombra de um guerreiro, aqui temos uma obra japonesa prestigiada e premiada, mas ficcionalizada da morte de Takeda Shingen, em meio a fatos históricos, o que não me agradou muito, curto biografias, mas quase tudo aqui é criacionista. Assisti ao filme alternando e picado, o que o tornou mais longo ainda, e interminável, a criancinha, a netinha do farsante sem dúvida rouba as cenas, apenas ela me cativa… Uma excelente produção entediante e aborrecida. See more Alan g @RT02800715 08/07/2024 A great martial movie, grand in scope and acting but how did they get the dates and armor wrong. The movie takes place in 1574 but Shingen died in 1573. Also his armor is incorrect. Other than that is it a good movie. See more Leaburn O @RT35452347 05/21/2023 One of my absolute favourite Kurosawa films. This samurai film actually has an interesting plot and the battle scenes are epic in scale. See more Ola G @Ollie1972 09/05/2022 During the Sengoku period, Takeda Shingen, daimyō of the Takeda clan, meets a thief his brother Nobukado spared from crucifixion due to the thief's uncanny resemblance to Shingen; the brothers agree that he would prove useful as a double, and they decide to use the thief as a kagemusha, a political decoy. Later, while the Takeda army lays siege to a castle belonging to Tokugawa Ieyasu, Shingen is shot while observing the battlefield. He then orders his forces to withdraw and commands his generals to keep his death a secret for three years before succumbing to his wound. Meanwhile, Shingen's rivals Oda Nobunaga, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Uesugi Kenshin each contemplate the consequences of Shingen's withdrawal, unaware of his death. Nobukado presents the thief to Shingen's generals, proposing to have him impersonate Shingen full-time. Although the thief is unaware of Shingen's death initially, he eventually finds Shingen's preserved corpse in a large jar, having believed it to contain treasure. The generals then decide they cannot trust the thief and release him. Later, the jar is dropped into Lake Suwa, which spies working for the Tokugawa and Oda forces witness. Suspecting that Shingen has died, the spies go to report their observation, but the thief, having overheard the spies, returns to the Takeda forces and offers to work as a kagemusha... Kagemusha won numerous honours in Japan and abroad, marking the beginning of Kurosawa's most successful decade in international awards, the 1980s. In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter ranked the film 10th among 69 counted winners of the Palme d'Or to date, concluding "Set against the wars of 16th-century Japan, Kurosawa's majestic samurai epic is still awe-inspiring, not only in its historical pageantry, but for imagery that communicates complex ideas about reality, belief and meaning." To me this Akira Kurosawa film is not amongst his best work despite the fact it won the Palme D´Or in 1980. It´s a stretched out magnificent looking empty bore that never seems to end with a not that intriguing plotline and with wobbly editing. It´s simply a pretentious and static film in my opinion that never leaves the ground. And adding a feeling that Akira Kurosawa had "lost" a bit of his magic by then, but yet he was "Akira Kurosawa" and could get away with anything in 1980. Kurosawa´s best work was done in the 50s-60s. And in black and white which was a defining visual feature for Kurosawa. Trivia: The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival (tied with All That Jazz). It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and received other honours. In 2009 the film was voted at No. 59 on the list of The Greatest Japanese Films of All Time by Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo. See more Read all reviews

Kagemusha

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING