Kagemusha (1980)

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Masato Ide (writer)
Akira Kurosawa (writer)

Release Date:

6 October 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Plot:

When a powerful warlord in medieval Japan dies, a poor thief recruited to impersonate him finds difficulty...

Plot Keywords:

Japan | Double | Warrior | 1570s | Rites

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 19 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Tatsuya Nakadai	...	Shingen Takeda / Kagemusha
Tsutomu Yamazaki	...	Nobukado Takeda
Kenichi Hagiwara	...	Katsuyori Takeda
Jinpachi Nezu	...	Sohachiro Tsuchiya
Hideji Ôtaki	...	Masakage Yamagata
Daisuke Ryû	...	Nobunaga Oda
Masayuki Yui	...	Ieyasu Tokugawa
Kaori Momoi	...	Otsuyanokata
Mitsuko Baisho	...	Oyunokata
Hideo Murota	...	Nobufusa Baba
Takayuki Shiho	...	Masatoyo Naito
Kôji Shimizu	...	Katsusuke Atobe
Noboru Shimizu	...	Masatane Hara
Sen Yamamoto	...	Nobushige Oyamada
Shuhei Sugimori	...	Masanobu Kosaka
Kota Yui	...	Takemaru
Yasuhito Yamanaka	...	Ranmaru Mori
Kumeko Otowa	...	Takemaru's Nurse
Tetsuo Yamashita	...	Nagahide Niwa
Kai Ato	...	Zenjiro Amemiya
Takashi Ebata	...	Monk
Hiroshi Shimada	...	Jingoro Hara
Yutaka Shimaka	...	Jingoro Hara
Toshiaki Tanabe	...	Kugutsushi
Yoshimitsu Yamaguchi	...	Salt Vendor
Eiichi Kanakubo	...	Kenshin Uesugi
Akihiko Sugizaki	...	Noda Castle Soldier
Yugo Miyazaki
Masatsuga Kuriyama
Norio Matsui	...	Tadatsugu Sakai
Jirô Chiba		(as Jiro Yabuki)
Yasushi Doshida	...	Kazumasa Ishikawa
Takashi Watanabe
Nobaru Sone	...	Heihachiro Honda (as Nori Sone)
Eihachi Ito
Senkichi Ômura
Takashi Shimura	...	Gyobu Taguchi
Kamatari Fujiwara	...	Doctor
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shû Nakajima
Francis Selleck	...	Priest (as Francis Seleck)

Directed by
Akira Kurosawa

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Masato Ide		writer
Akira Kurosawa		writer

Produced by
Audie Bock	....	assistant producer
Francis Ford Coppola	....	executive producer: international version
Akira Kurosawa	....	executive producer
Akira Kurosawa	....	producer
George Lucas	....	executive producer: international version
Tomoyuki Tanaka	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Shinichirô Ikebe

Cinematography by
Takao Saitô
Shôji Ueda		(as Shoji Ueda)

Art Direction by
Yoshirô Muraki

Costume Design by
Seiichiro Hagakusawa

Makeup Department
Yoshiko Matsumoto	....	hair stylist
Shigeo Tamura	....	hair stylist
Junjiro Yamada	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Akira Fujita	....	unit production manager
Toshiaki Hashimoto	....	production manager
Toshiaki Hashimoto	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ishirô Honda	....	second unit director
Hideyuki Inoue	....	assistant director
Takashi Koizumi	....	assistant director
Fumiryo Okada	....	chief assistant director
Takao Okawara	....	assistant director

Art Department
Aki Saburagi	....	assistant art director
Hatsumi Yamamoto	....	property master

Sound Department
Ichirô Minami	....	sound effects editor
Mamoru Yamada	....	assistant sound recordist
Fumio Yanoguchi	....	sound recordist

Camera and Electrical Department
Naomi Hashiyama	....	still photographer
Satoshi Kurikihara	....	assistant lighting technician
Tamio Matsuo	....	assistant camera
Kazuo Miyagawa	....	consultant: photography
Asakazu Nakai	....	consultant: photography
Takeji Sano	....	lighting technician

Editorial Department
Yoshihiro Iwatani	....	assistant editor
Tome Minami	....	negative cutter

Music Department
Kotaro Saito	....	conductor

Transportation Department
Isamu Miwano	....	transportation

Other crew
Audie Bock	....	assistant to producer (international version)
Francis Ford Coppola	....	presenter
Masa Furugawara	....	scene shifter
Toshi Hasegawa	....	horseback riding instructor
Shinobu Hashimoto	....	production advisor
Hiroaki Honda	....	acting office
Ishirô Honda	....	directorial advisor
Ishirô Honda	....	production coordinator
Ryû Kuze	....	instructor: samurai etiquette
George Lucas	....	presenter
Teruyo Nogami	....	assistant to producer
Teruyo Nogami	....	script supervisor
Donald Richie	....	subtitle supervisor (US version)
Donald Richie	....	subtitler (international version)
Takao Saitô	....	production advisor
Tamihei Shirai	....	horseback riding instructor
Ishirô Honda	....	creative consultant (uncredited)
Michael Rich	....	assistant to director (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Kurosawa Production Co.
• Toho Company
• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (in association)

Distributors

• Toho Company (1980) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1980) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Fox (1980) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Abril Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Fox Video (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Svensk Filmindustri (SF) (2004) (Sweden) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Toho Special Effects Group

Other Companies

• Ehime Castle  
• Iga Ueno Castle  
• JAL  
• Kumamoto Castle  
• Kyoto Costumes  costumes
• Mimatsu  costumes
• New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra  orchestra
• Toho Recording Center  sound re-recording
• Toho Sound Effects Group  sound effects
• Toho Studios  sound stages
• Tokyo Concerts  orchestra

Also Known As:

Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior)
Kagemusha the Shadow Warrior
Shadow Warrior
The Double

Runtime:

180 min | Argentina:162 min | USA:162 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 (1998) | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:PG | Sweden:15 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Gotemba, Shizuoka, Japan

Company:

Kurosawa Production Co.

Trivia:

To secure part of the funding required to make the film, Akira Kurosawa teamed up with the Suntory Whiskey company to create advertisements for the drink on the set of "Kagemusha". These advertisements are included as extras on the Criterion edition DVD.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Obvious bald caps on nearly every adult male character in the film.

Quotes:

Masakage Yamagata: How old are you, sire? Fifty-three, as I remember.
Shingen Takeda: Why?
Masakage Yamagata: And you still behave like a five-year-old child. People gather, scatter, they go left and right following their interests. That is not surprising. But then I find you like this. With such a narrow mind, you must not dream of rulership. Go back to your own domain. You are a mountain monkey. You should be gathering nuts in the mountains of Kai.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences (2006) (V)

incredibly BIG and beautiful but also very sterile

I have seen nearly all of Akira Kurosawa's films, so my opinion shouldn't be completely ignored. Although I am in the distinct minority, I didn't particularly like KAGEMUSHA. Yes, it was big and beautiful and had great scope but it was also emotionally sterile and bore little resemblance to Kurosawa's earlier, more famous works. The same, by the way, can be said about RAN. Both films had relatively HUGE budgets but the dialog and connectedness between the characters was lacking. As a result, I felt pretty bored when I watched both of them--especially this film.

So, if you compare these two movies with THE 7 SAMURAI or YOJIMBO, for example, they seem VERY different. These older films, though not filmed in color, had a greater sense of humanity about them--great importance was placed on the INTERRELATIONSHIPS between the characters AND the camera work was very different, with more closeups and a more intimate feel. So, while RAN and KAGEMUSHA were pretty to look at, I felt much more detached from them and cared much less about the characters. I really think the problem with these two movies, and the reason I like them less than the average Kurosawa film, was that the big budget in these later films actually HURT them, as too much emphasis was placed on effects and dialog was purely secondary.

So, in summary, I am the odd-ball that didn't love this film. You will probably disagree and might be tempted to mark my review as "not helpful", as the reviews on IMDb are generally glowing. But having seen many Japanese films, I can't help but feel there are better films out there waiting to be seen. Most any other Kurosawa film, and films by other great directors (such as THE SAMURAI TRILOGY, the films of Yasujiro Ozu) are more appealing to me. I think the popularity of this film is in part due to its having been seen in theaters by more Westerners than any other of Kurosawa's films--SEEK OUT HIS EARLIER AND MID-CAREER FILMS--they are better and far more emotionally involving.