Kagemusha (影武者, Kagemusha?) is a 1980 film by Akira Kurosawa. The title (which means "Shadow Warrior" in Japanese) is a term used for an impersonator. It is set in the Warring States era of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class criminal who is taught to impersonate a dying warlord in order to dissuade opposing lords from attacking the newly vulnerable clan. The warlord whom the kagemusha impersonates is based on daimyo Takeda Shingen and the climactic 1575 Battle of Nagashino [1].
Synopsis
Takeda Shingen and his brother meet the kagemusha, a spared criminal.
The film opens as Shingen's brother, Nobukado, introduces a thief whom he spared from crucifixion, believing the thief's striking resemblance to Shingen would prove useful.
Shingen's army has besieged a castle of Tokugawa Ieyasu. When Shingen visits the battlefield to hear a mysterious nightly flute player, he is shot by a sniper. Mortally wounded, he orders his generals to keep his death a secret for three years. Shingen later dies while being carried over a mountain pass, with only a small group of witnesses.
Nobukado presents the thief to the generals and contrives a plan to have the kagemusha impersonate Shingen full-time. At first, even the thief is unaware of Shingen's death, until he tries to break into a coffin and finds the corpse.
Shingen's corpse, located within a large jar-like coffin, is disposed of at the bottom of Lake Suwa. At the time of burial, spies witness the disposal of the jar, and suspect the Shingen has passed away. However, the Takeda clan continues to cover up Shingen's death by saying they were making an offering to the god of the lake.
The kagemusha trying to fool Shingen's grandson.
Synopsis
Takeda Shingen and his brother meet the kagemusha, a spared criminal.The film opens as Shingen's brother, Nobukado, introduces a thief whom he spared from crucifixion, believing the thief's striking resemblance to Shingen would prove useful.
Shingen's army has besieged a castle of Tokugawa Ieyasu. When Shingen visits the battlefield to hear a mysterious nightly flute player, he is shot by a sniper. Mortally wounded, he orders his generals to keep his death a secret for three years. Shingen later dies while being carried over a mountain pass, with only a small group of witnesses.
Nobukado presents the thief to the generals and contrives a plan to have the kagemusha impersonate Shingen full-time. At first, even the thief is unaware of Shingen's death, until he tries to break into a coffin and finds the corpse.
Shingen's corpse, located within a large jar-like coffin, is disposed of at the bottom of Lake Suwa. At the time of burial, spies witness the disposal of the jar, and suspect the Shingen has passed away. However, the Takeda clan continues to cover up Shingen's death by saying they were making an offering to the god of the lake.
The kagemusha trying to fool Shingen's grandson. Spies working for Tokugawa and his ally, Oda Nobunaga, follow the Takeda army as they march home from the siege. They suspect that Shingen has been replaced, but are later convinced by the kagemusha's performance.
Returning home, the kagemusha successfully fools Shingen's concubines and grandson, who seems to prefer the substitute. By imitating Shingen's gestures, the kagemusha appears to take on the attitude of a zen master, and is able to awe even the bodyguards and wakashu who know his secret. When tested, he relies on the clan motto, which identifies Shingen with an unmoving mountain.
One of the tests comes when Tokugawa and Oda Nobunaga launch an attack against Takeda territory. Shingen's son, Katsuyori, launches a counterattack against the advice of other generals. The kagemusha is forced to lead reinforcements to the Battle of Takatenjin, and inspires his troops to victory.
In a fit of overconfidence, the kagemusha attempts to ride Shingen's unruly horse. When he is unable to tame the beast, he is revealed as an impostor. The thief is driven out of the palace as Katsuyori, despite being disinherited, takes over the clan.
The aftermath of the Battle of Nagashino.Katsuyori leads an ill-advised attack against Oda Nobunaga, who controls Kyoto, resulting in the Battle of Nagashino. Wave after wave of cavalry and infantry are cut down by volleys of musket fire, effectively wiping out all the Takeda (though in reality, the clan continued under Katsuyori's leadership for years after the battle). The kagemusha, who has followed the Takeda army, witnesses the slaughter. In a final show of loyalty, he takes up a lance and makes a futile charge against Oda's fortifications. The final image is of the kagemusha's bullet-riddled body being carried down a stream.
Production
George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola are credited at the end of the film as executive producers in the international version. This is because they convinced 20th Century Fox to make up a shortfall in the film's budget when the original producers, Toho Studios, could not afford to complete the film. In return, 20th Century Fox received the international distribution rights to the film.
The Criterion Collection (2005) Kurosawa originally cast the boisterous comic actor Shintaro Katsu in the title role. Katsu left the production, however, before the first day of shooting was over; in an interview for the Criterion Collection DVD, executive producer Coppola states that Katsu angered Kurosawa by arriving with his own camera crew to record Kurosawa's filmmaking methods. It is unclear whether Katsu was fired or left of his own accord, but he was replaced by Tatsuya Nakadai, a well-known actor who had appeared in a number of Kurosawa's previous films. Nakadai played both the kagemusha and the lord he impersonates.
Kurosawa wrote a part in Kagemusha for his longtime regular actor Takashi Shimura, and Kagemusha was the last Kurosawa film in which Shimura appeared. However, the scene in which he plays a doctor consulting with Shingens advisors was cut from the western release of the film. The Criterion Collection DVD release of the film restored this scene as well as approximately another twenty minutes worth of footage which had not been seen previously in the west, most notably a scene where Uesugi Kenshin makes his only appearance in the film.
According to Lucas, Kurosawa used 5000 extras for the final battle sequence, filming for a whole day, then he cut it down to 90 seconds in the final release. Many beautiful special effects, and a number of scenes that filled holes in the story, landed on the "cutting-room floor."[citation needed]
Awards
At the 1980 Cannes Film Festival, Kagemusha shared the Palme d'Or with All That Jazz. Kagemusha was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Art Direction and Best Foreign Language Film). The film won the César Award in 1981 for Best Foreign Film.
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