Kagemusha [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Akira Kurosawa Akira Kurosawa

Overview

Just as many American studio-era directors found acclaim abroad that was denied them in their home country, by 1980 Akira Kurosawa's reputation outside Japan exceeded his esteem at home. As uncompromising as ever, he found considerable difficulty securing backing for his ambitious projects. Unsure he would be able to film it, the director, an aspiring artist before he entered filmmaking, converted Kagemusha into a series of paintings, and it was partly on the basis of these that he won the financial support of longtime admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Set in the 16th century, when powerful warlords competed for control of Japan, it offers an examination of the nature of political power and the slipperiness of identity. For some time, Shingen Takeda Tatsuya Nakadai has been able to stay removed from the heat of battle by using his brother Nobukado Tsutomu Yamazaki as a double. As the film opens, Nobukado offers another option, having discovered a condemned thief (also played by Tatsuya Nakadai) bearing an uncanny resemblance to the warlord. After he insists on witnessing the fall of an enemy in person, Shingen falls victim to a sniper's bullet, forcing his advisers to present the thief as the fallen warrior. At first awkward in his new position and plagued by dreams in which the spirit of his double confronts him, he slowly grows into the role even as his enemies begin to advance on his kingdom. The winner of the Palm D'Or at Cannes, Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior has also been released as The Double.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/18/2009
UPC:	0715515048415
Original Release:	1980
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	3:00:00
Sales rank:	8,274

Special Features

Audio Commentary by Kurosawa Scholar Stephen Prince; Luca, Coppola, and Kurosawa, a 19-minute interview piece in which Directors George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola discuss Kurosawa and Kagemusha; A 41-minute Documentary on the making of the film; Image: Kurosawa's Continuity, a 44-minute video piece reconstructing Kagemusha through Kurosawa's paintings and sketches; Suntory Whiskey Commercials made on the set of Kagemusha ; Gallery of Storyboards painted by Kurosawa and images of their realization on-screen; Theatrical Trailers and Teasers; ; Plus: A Booklet featuring an essay by Scholar Peter Grilli and an Interview with Kurosawa by renowned critic Tony Rayns

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Tatsuya Nakadai	Shingen Kadeda
Kenichi Hagiwara	Katsuyori Takeda,Katsuyori Takeda
Tsutomu Yamazaki	Nobukado Takeda
Shuji Otaki	Yamagata
Kota Yui	Takemaru,Ieyasu Tokugawa
Hideo Morata	Baba
Daisuke Ryu	Oda
Kaori Momoi	Otsuyanokata
Hideo Murota	Nobufusa Baba
Yasuhito Yamanaka	Ranmaru Mori
Kumeko Otowa	une infirmière
Tetsuo Yamashita	Nagahide Niwa
Kai Atô	Zenjiro Amemiya
Toshiaki Tanabe	Kugutsushi
Norio Matsui	Tadatsugu Sakai
Francis Selleck	Priest
Koji Shimizu	Actor
Shuji Otake	Yamagata
Takashi Shimura	Gyobu Taguchi
Mitsuko Baisho	Oyunokata
Kamatari Fujiwara	Doctor
Jinpachi Nezu	Sohachiro Tsuchiya
Shinichirô Ikebe	Composer

Technical Credits

Akira Kurosawa

Masato Ide

Akira Kurosawa	Director,Executive Producer,Producer,Screenwriter
George Lucas	Executive Producer,Producer
Tomoyuki Tanaka	Producer,Executive Producer
Masato Ide	Screenwriter,Producer
Fumio Yanoguchi	Sound Effects
Francis Coppola	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

Kagemusha was an atypical entry in the canon of Akira Kurosawa, the master of the samurai epic. At the time, Kurosawa was gradually losing his eyesight, and his films were developing an increasingly impressive visual splendor. However, in Kagemusha, the action sequences are much less thrilling than in Kurosawa's other samurai epics. Here his focus is on character development and philosophical discourse. The film swings like a pendulum between stillness and action, an occasionally jarring mix of David Lean-like panoramas with intimate character study. In Kagemusha (which translates as "shadow warrior"), Kurosawa examines the concept of the double as a means to delve into enigmatic and paradoxical philosophical issues of identity, power, self-worth, and leadership. At first, Tatsuya Nakadai appears a little stiff in the essential dual role of warlord and thief, but his performance relies on subtle differences of intonation and gesture to reveal the evolution of his character. As always, Kurosawa's exploration of the values of feudal Japan provokes contemporary audiences to make parallels with modern Japan, a tendency that did not necessarily endear him to his countrymen. In fact, by 1980 Kurosawa was such a persona non grata in Japan that he had not made a film in five years: Kagemusha would not have been made without the financial assistance of George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola.

All Movie Guide - Dan Jardine