When a powerful warlord in medieval Japan dies, a poor thief recruited to impersonate him finds difficulty living up to his role and clashes with the spirit of the warlord during turbulent times in the kingdom.
For almost a decade before Kagemusha, Kurosawa had trouble getting funding for his films due to having the reputation of being difficult to work with and going way over budgets. The years were tough and he even attempted suicide at one point, but one thing kept him going at that was the love of painting. He painted the visions that played out in his head and the result was beautiful, while also being a window into his dreams and how he saw a particular scene. He became once again very interested in jidaigeki, using his colorful imagination to blend with real life history on the paper. While on a trip overseas he met Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, both huge fans of his, and with their help got all the money he needed to make a film based on his paintings.
With Kagemusha, Akira Kurosawa created yet another historical epic which is a real beast of a jidaigeki film. The battle scenes utilized hundreds of horses and thousands of extras, the picture had five thousand extras in the film's battle sequence finale which depicted the Battle of Nagashino of the year 1575. Real 16th Century costumes and armor were loaned from Japanese museums for actors to wear in the film and these were reportedly important national treasures of Japan. Two hundred specially trained horses were flown in from the US.
The film studio wanted a big star in the lead, but because Kurosawa hadn't been on speaking terms with his former favorite actor Toshiro Mifune he cast Tatsuya Nakadai instead, who's of course been in a ton of his films. Feudal Japan, nightmarish visions and samurai warfare all blend together in this three hour long masterpiece.
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| One of the paintings Kurosawa created in preparation for Kagemusha. |
Genre: Drama/History/War
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