KAGEMUSHA (1980)
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa.
Written by: Masato Ide & Akira Kurosawa.
Directors of Photography: Takao Saito & Masaharu Ueda.
Edited by: Keisuke Iwatani.
Music by: Shinichiro Ikebe.
Released by: Criterion Collection.
Language: Japanese with English subtitles.
Country of origin: Japan 180 min.
With: Tatsuya Nakadai, Daisuke Ryu & Masayuki Yui.
Rating: PG.

DVD Features: DISC ONE - Audio Commentary by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa. Trailers. New, restored high-definition digital transfer. New & improved English subtitle translation.
DISC TWO - “Lucas, Coppola and Kurosawa,” a 19-minute interview with George Lucas & Francis Ford Coppola on Kurosawa and their roles as executive producers of Kagemusha. A 41-minute documentary on the making of Kagemusha, part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create. “Image, Kurosawa's Continuity,” a 43-minute video piece reconstructing the film through Kurosawa's paintings and sketches. A series of Suntory Whisky commercials made on the set of Kagemusha. A gallery of storyboards painted by Kurosawa and images of their realization on-screen.
A 48-page booklet featuring a new essay by scholar Peter Grilli, a reprinted 1981 interview with Kurosawa by renowned critic Tony Rayns, and biographical sketches by Japanese film historian Donald Richie.

With the final installment of Star Wars finally in theatres, perhaps it is good timing to take a look at Kagemusha by George Lucas' true "master," Akira Kurosawa. This 1980 epic film takes place in 16th century Japan during the Warring States period when three warlords, Shingen Takeda, Nobunaga Oda and Ieyasu Tokugawa, vigorously fight to unify the country. In such a time, the Takeda clan inadvertently loses their leader Shingen (Tatsuya Nakadai) when he is wounded from a sniper shot. Fearing the fate of his leaderless army and state, Shingen appoints a petty, nameless thief, also played by Nakadai, to impersonate him before he dies. The film follows the rueful fate of a simple man in power as he grows from being reluctant to endearingly loyal to the deceased leader during his three years of impersonation.

This uncut 180-minute version takes not only patience but a genuine appreciation of Kurosawa's love of sustained tension and slow, lingering camera work. Yet the DVD restores Kurosawa's signature shots of vibrant colors set against the Shakespearean psychological meditation of a ruler. Though the pacing of the film is no Star Wars, it is difficult to envision many contemporary cinematic war scenes without the work of this Japanese auteur.

DVD extras: The audio commentary by Stephen Prince offers great insight into Kurosawa's direction, as well as the background of Japanese culture needed to fully grasp this often opaque historical film. The 43-minute video piece that reconstructs the film through Kurosawa's sketches and paintings also invites fan to appreciate Kurosawa the artist, in which his original vision of the film is depicted in bold, watercolor strokes. There is also a chapter of camp, where Coppola and Kurosawa give a comically awkward performance for a Japanese Suntory Whisky commercial on the set of Kagemusha, à la Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. But the treasure for Kurosawa fans is definitely the 41-minute making-of documentary. How everyone from the leading actor to the horse trainer can recall certain quotes or sayings by Kurosawa after all these years speak not only of the director's uncompromised passion, but his continuing influence on the Japanese film industry. Marie Iida
May 26, 2005