Kagemusha (No Rating)
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Made in 1980, this Akira Kurosawa film is often described as a kind of trial run for the director's later masterwork Ran, but it's not without its own merits. Set during the Japanese clan wars of the 16th century, Kagemusha concerns the difficulties faced by a common thief (Tatsuya Nakadai) who's forced to impersonate the late Lord Shingen (also played by Nakadai) so that his enemies remain unaware of the lord's death. The film's first hour, during which Shingen dies and his generals discuss whether or not to use the lord's double, suffers from sluggish pacing. But once the clan's warriors return to their home castle, and the double begins the process of trying to imitate Shingen's manners and personal style, the film becomes a particularly moving look at the existential melancholy of inhabiting another's life. Indeed, rather than focusing solely on the double's fear of being discovered, Kagemusha also investigates the curious despair that comes from successfully passing for another--a despair that Nakadai communicates with compelling understatement. As always, Kurosawa proves incapable of framing an uninteresting shot, and the battle sequences frequently capture the visual poetry for which he's justly renowned. In particular, the closing battle, which the now-discovered and disgraced double watches in impotent horror, is marvelously imbued with a kind of tragic grandeur. (Derek Nystrom)
Review by Derek Nystrom
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