Runtime: 180 minutes
Directed by: The legendary Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara, Jinpachi Nezu, Hideji Otaki
From: Toho/Akira Kurosawa Productions... and 20th Century Fox, as Lucas and Coppola are such fans of Kurosawa, they asked Fox to help when the movie ran out of money
“Psychedelic Akira Kurosawa scenes” is a phrase I love being able to say.
Now that everything is back to normal (Saturday night I caught up on everything I missed out on when I was out of town for Thanksgiving) my schedule of watching motion pictures should likewise not be disrupted... at least until I am out of town again right before Christmas but I'll explain that in a few weeks. For now, it wasn't difficult for me to pick another Akira Kurosawa picture to view; including this it's been 11 of his films watched and the “worst” I rated as very good and he has several legendary pictures. Of course I haven't seen his earliest work, although one day that'll change. In the meanwhile, finally crossing off one of his major pictures off the list seemed a wise choice, & it was.
In a three hour runtime that never was dull even w/ its measured pace, a thief who is the spitting image of a Lord in late 16th century feudal Japan is hired as a decoy-after all, “Kagemusha” literally translates as “shadow warrior”-but when the actual Lord dies & he decrees before passing away that his leaving the mortal world MUST be hidden for three years, that is a real pickle of a situation for that clean. Rivals start to suspect the truth and the decoy starts to love the job...
Hindsight speaking, it is not a surprise this is often gorgeous visually. A painter since his youth and someone who always had detailed storyboards, all the years it took to finance this meant he had the time to create lavish drawings that brought to life the script he co-wrote. Subsequently, several scenes are quite striking w/ their usage of multiple colors. A dream sequence is a real kaleidoscope of different shades/shapes but that (literally) colors a few other moments. Of course all the other aspects are great (acting, action beats, the score, the rural Japanese scenery, etc.) but it's the visual aspect which was the standout for me. A thrill for Lucas and Coppola must have been getting 20th Century Fox to give the production money after it ran out of money-as Kurosawa productions were wont to do-which is why Fox distributed this outside of Japan.
While I do prefer some of the director's other films and the movie being on the dry side at times is something even I can admit, overall it was a lengthy journey I enjoyed being on.
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