Kagemusha - 1980

 Halloween 2025 features Akira Kurosawa and Pier Paolo Pasolini in a decidedly non horror focused review sesh!

I dunno man I been craving it so what can I say?  Kagemusha I believe I have ofter confused for other later Kurosawa fare, specifically Ran and Madadayo.  Things I saw in my youth that I don't remember and in the case of Ran,  another Shakespeare adaptation among many in Kurosawa's filmography.

Kagemusha stars Tatsuya Nakadai, a long time collaborator with Kurosawa and a veteran actor as the high Lord Shingen, the "mountain" leader of a large warrior clan in oldtimey Japan.  His position is a crux point and a controversial one, other clans are clearly inferior to him in either power or status, and he employs his brother as a double occasionally for security purpose.  They find another double, a lowlife on death row, and begin to court him as a stand-in, right at the time Shingen is killed watching the flute performance at the enemies castle.  Now, the initiate has to stand in as the other clans begin to start a conflict.

The Japanese title for this is The Shadow Warrior, a really good name, relevant to a great speech and theme in the film about stepping into a position of power, but also about how much the position is only a placebo, and it essentially means nothing and has no power.  Kurosawa adapts King Lear here, a book I have not read so I cannot compare.  But it's all about hiding and subterfuge with notions of power and the power behind being a good person or not, with some political turmoil intrigue thrown in for tension.

The major takeaway here I thought of during it however is this:  Toshiro Mifune is really underrated as an actor.  In my rewatch of Drunken Angel, High and Low, Seven Samuari and Throne of Blood, it is really incredible just how much screen he can hold and how magnetic his presence is.  Nothing against Nakadai here but this movie would be elevated to an all timer if it was Mifune.  

The thing is that there are moments when Shingen is supposed to be funny, cowardly, acting a part, a fool, a leader, its a dynamic and intense ass performance, and it takes a true genius to pull it off.  Kurosawa lenses it and readies it for that genius, and well.... it falls just a tad flat for me.  It could also be this fairly thin story and 3 hour length is a little bit daunting, but Kurosawa and Mifune can overcome that.  

This is a good later period entry from Kurosawa and its a good character study.  I give it basically a 3.5 towards 4, but honestly let's just say 3.5 here.