Kagemusha (1980)

Original title

影武者

Directed by

Akira Kurosawa

Genre

drama film, war film

Country

Japan

Runtime

2h 59m

Rated

PG

Rating

7.8 of 10 from 743 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A petty thief is forced to impersonate a powerful warlord after the warlord dies, to keep their enemies from attacking. The thief struggles to maintain the deception as the clan's fate hangs in the balance.

epicsolemnvisually strikingmeditativetensehistoricaldramaticmeasured

What happens

Kagemusha (影武者; Shadow Warrior) is a 1980 Japanese epic jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It is set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class petty thief who is taught to impersonate the dying daimyō Takeda Shingen to dissuade opposing lords from attacking the newly vulnerable clan. Kagemusha is the Japanese term for a political decoy, literally meaning "shadow warrior". The film ends with the climactic 1575 Battle of Nagashino. Kagemusha was released to critical acclaim. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival (tied with All That Jazz). It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and received other honours. In 2009 the film was voted at No. 59 on the list of The Greatest Japanese Films of All Time by Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• The Revolt (1980)
• Shogun's Ninja (1980)
• Kage no Gundan: Hattori Hanzō (1980)
• The Young Rebels (1980)
• The Night of Martial Law (1980)
• Yojimbo (1961)
• Tekkihei, Tonda (1980)
• Harakiri (1962)