Kagemusha

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.

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.

Kagemusha stands as a crowning achievement in artistry by the hands of Akira Kurosawa—a sprawling, epic poem elevated by the enchanting and meticulously crafted score of Shin'ichirō Ikebe.

One of my absolute favourite Kurosawa films. This samurai film actually has an interesting plot and the battle scenes are epic in scale.

I Love this movie. It is a Classic.

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.

Obviously it is visually stunning but the narrative is just as compelling. Kurosawa is playing with classic themes of identity here and the historical setting works well for this.

Hwooow! Holy shit I can already tell this is going to be a slow paced movie. Better buckle up. Ok that shot of the warrior running down the steps and jumping over the other solders that are sleeping was incredible. Supremely exciting and impressively shot, and performed as well. Beautifully colored movie. The way the movie is shot with all the myriad of colors, lighting, cinematography and costuming makes it feel astoundingly nostalgic and magical. It feels like something I've seen before, but I know I've never seen it. And the locations! Omg the locations and the temples are gorgeous. Another thing: Were there like no girls alive during this period in Japan? Lol. I always feel like there's only one or two women that might pop up and the rest of the population are just men. You can definitely tell the movie was made in the 80's because of the overall aesthetic and colors/patterns used for the costumes - and I think that's great! It adds some flavor to it. Wow, that shot of the snowed up mountain in the background where they're carrying Shingen in the little cart was incredible. Definitely an epic sort of movie, considering the ridiculous amount of extras and the three-hour runtime. Wow that was fucked up how they kicked the impersonator out once they had no use for him and the mistresses along with the soldiers realized it wasn't their lord. They basically cast him out, while it was raining and everything. My gripe with this movie is that I wish the pacing was faster and I wish the movie was shorter and got to the point quicker. With that being said, this is Kurosawa's most lavishly colored movie he's ever made. That scene of the dream with all the vivid and bright colors was breathtaking. Not my favorite Kurosawa movie by any stretch, but still a pretty good one. I would not watch it again though lol.

Mr. Kurosawa joked that it was a costume practice for Ran, but it actually was a story for a king, an empire, and a mentally troubled beggar. And that STRANGELY makes a mature film that blasts into something not necessarily very significant but gives goosebumps once we are in it, once we are the face of the beggar. There are obviously messages as we get in the mastermind's films. But it was worth the three hour time and it is a necessary film(not necessarily for everybody).

With Kagemusha, Kurosawa dives more into targeted Japanese history than the more universal philosophy that would define some of his higher-profile epics; he's not at his most accessible thematically, but he is clearly secure in his dedication to extraordinary production value and visual design. This film feels so vivid and practically well-executed that I feel bad that I haven't given it a higher score - the sets, costumes, and choreography are all top-notch and orchestrated on a massive scale. The problems come more in the moments of human interaction, as the atmosphere is never really there to impart the sense of importance in the film's primary deception - a former thief turned lookalike of a deceased noble to preserve his authority. You never get the tension that you'd expect based on the stakes that are presented, as the script chooses to focus on many other (historically accurate) figures on the periphery of the narrative rather than embracing the potential for class conflict, satires of manners, or 'means to an end' reflections as much as might be expected from the director of character-driven pieces like Rashomon. That, and for a film that steps forward so confidently in its visuals, it seems a particularly odd choice to compose a final battle devoid of direct payoff, showing waves of galloping cavalry only to cut away to reaction shots at the moment that they are supposed to actually meet enemy forces. (3.5/5)