Kagemusha (1980)

Note des utilisateurs:

7.9/10   

Réalisateur:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Masato Ide (writer)
Akira Kurosawa (writer)

Release Date:

6 octobre 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Drame | History | War

Plot:

When a powerful warlord in medieval Japan dies, a poor thief recruited to impersonate him finds difficulty...

Plot Keywords:

Japan | Warrior | Double | Substitution | Honor

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 19 wins & 3 nominations

Avis des utilisateurs:

incredibly BIG and beautiful but also very sterile

Ensemble

Tatsuya Nakadai	...	Shingen Takeda / Kagemusha
Tsutomu Yamazaki	...	Nobukado Takeda
Kenichi Hagiwara	...	Katsuyori Takeda
Jinpachi Nezu	...	Sohachiro Tsuchiya
Hideji Otaki	...	Masakage Yamagata
Daisuke Ryu	...	Nobunaga Oda
Masayuki Yui	...	Ieyasu Tokugawa
Kaori Momoi	...	Otsuyanokata
Mitsuko Baisho	...	Oyunokata
Hideo Murota	...	Nobufusa Baba
Takayuki Shiho	...	Masatoyo Naito
Koji Shimizu	...	Katsusuke Atobe
Noboru Shimizu	...	Masatane Hara
Sen Yamamoto	...	Nobushige Oyamada
Shuhei Sugimori	...	Masanobu Kosaka

Autre(s) titre(s):

Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior)
Kagemusha the Shadow Warrior
Shadow Warrior
The Double
Kagemusha - Director's Cut (France) (director's cut) [fr]
Kagemusha, l'ombre du guerrier (France) [fr]

Durée:

180 min | Argentina:162 min | USA:162 min

Pays:

Japan

Langue:

Japonais

Couleur:

Couleur (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Son:

Dolby

Classification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 (1998) | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:PG | Sweden:15 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Emplacements De Pelliculage:

Gotemba, Shizuoka, Japan

Company:

Kurosawa Production Co.

Anecdotes:

Shintarô Katsu was originally slated to play the lead role but he was dismissed by Kurasawa after Katsu came to a rehearsal with a video camera and said he wanted to document the experience for an acting class he was teaching.

Guillemet:

Masakage Yamagata: How old are you, sire? Fifty-three, as I remember.
Shingen Takeda: Why?
Masakage Yamagata: And you still behave like a five-year-old child. People gather, scatter, they go left and right following their interests. That is not surprising. But then I find you like this. With such a narrow mind, you must not dream of rulership. Go back to your own domain. You are a mountain monkey. You should be gathering nuts in the mountains of Kai.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Brazil (1985)

incredibly BIG and beautiful but also very sterile

I have seen nearly all of Akira Kurosawa's films, so my opinion shouldn't be completely ignored. Although I am in the distinct minority, I didn't particularly like KAGEMUSHA. Yes, it was big and beautiful and have great scope but it was also emotionally sterile and bore little resemblance to Kurosawa's earlier, more famous works. The same, by the way, can be said about RAN. Both films had relatively HUGE budgets but the dialog and connectedness between the characters was lacking. As a result, I felt pretty bored when I watched both of them--especially this film.

So, if you compare these two movies with THE 7 SAMURAI or YOJIMBO, for example, they seem VERY different. These older films, though not filmed in color, had a greater sense of humanity about them--great importance was placed on the INTERRELATIONSHIPS between the characters AND the camera work was very different, with more closeups and a more intimate feel. So, while RAN and KAGEMUSHA were pretty to look at, I felt much more detached from them and cared much less about the characters. I really think the problem with these two movies, and the reason I like them less than the average Kurosawa film, was that the big budget in these later films actually HURT them, as too much emphasis was placed on effects and dialog was purely secondary.

So, in summary, I am the odd-ball that didn't love this film. You will probably disagree and might be tempted to mark my review as "not helpful", as the reviews on IMDb are generally glowing. But having seen many Japanese films, I can't help but feel there are better films out there waiting to be seen. Most any other Kurosawa film, and films by other great directors (such as THE SAMURAI TRILOGY, the films of Yasujiro Ozu) are more appealing to me. I think the popularity of this film is in part due to its having been seen in theaters by more Westerners than any other of Kurosawa's films--SEEK OUT HIS EARLIER AND MID-CAREER FILMS--they are better and far more emotionally involving.