Released in 1980, Kagemusha marked a return to filmmaking for Japanese Filmmaker Akira Kurosawa who, by that time, was a living legend. It had been five years since he’d made a film (though he had worked briefly on Tora! Tora! Tora! before exiting as the director of the Japanese language segments over creative differences) and he was having trouble financing it. Two filmmakers then at the top of their game (Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas) swooped in to make sure he had the financing he needed and the result is this haunting and beautiful film.
Kagemusha tells the story of a thief who becomes the double for his feudal lord, Lord Shingen, after he is killed and swears his loyal retainers to secrecy for at least three years. The thief is thrust into a very difficult political situation and is under the constant strain of being under constant watchful eyes. Any slip up would mean certain doom.
The film is told in an exceedingly economical style, most of the action takes place off screen. Although I’m sure budgetary considerations were part of the reason for that, it makes for a very compelling style-choice. We’re as distant from the actual violence as the lords, generals, and retainers. We see the march to battle, but too little do we see the effects and it creates a disconnect in the attitude towards the wars we hear are being waged and the level of the inner turmoil in the individual characters.
The broader themes of the film deal with the idea of living in the shadow of another man. Both the fallen lord’s brother, Nobukado, who served as his double for a time, and the thief have to live in the shadow of a great man who isn’t even among the living. Though I may be far off the mark, it felt to me as though Kurosawa himself were the thief, living in the shadow of the man he used to be. At that time in his life, he was quite stressed, unable to get films off the ground. He hadn’t directed in years. The film is so full of somber sadness that it would be no stretch to think that he thought of the filmmaker he used to be as Shingen, and his current plight that of the thief, hoping to stay in the castle just long enough to serve the dead lord and make a movie worthy of his reputation after his confidence had been shaken.
I really wish Kurosawa had been more prolific in that era, sure, he still had Ran ahead of him, but in the ten years between 1975 to 1985, he made only one movie: Kagemusha.
As for this edition of the film, Criterion has spared no expense in putting together a very clean, beautiful transfer of the film that has all of the detail and vivid color that you would expect from one of Kurosawa’s most vibrantly photographed films. And just to make sure, I broke out my DVD version of Criterion’s Kagemusha just to look at the difference, to be sure that this was, indeed, the definitive version I needed.
The Blu-ray blew all of my expectations out of the water. Though there was a lot of film noise and grain, the level of detail and the depth of the color were far superior. This is a very good reason to jump onto the Blu-ray bandwagon with your Kurosawa pictures. And as someone who has bought every Kurosawa release Criterion has had to offer since the advent of DVD, I can tell you, I was looking for any excuse I could find NOT to re-purchase all of my Kurosawa films.
But I really couldn’t find one.
Add to the pristine picture and sound quality a batch of extras that I devoured in one sitting along with the movie and you’ve got what I would call the definitive version of Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha.