rec.arts.movies.past-films

[< > added]

On 7-Sep-2007, "SmilyFace"
wrote in message :

> Kagemusha (1980) {Japan} directed by Kurosawa
>
> "Three warlord clans

One of which is the Tokugawa clan, which will go on to unite Japan
under its Shogunate rule for the next few hundred years.

> are battling for control of medieval Japan.
> When the leader of the Takeda clan, Lord Shingen (Tatsuya
> Nakadai), is mortally wounded, he orders that his death be kept
> secret from his enemies. The clan searches for a "shadow
> warrior," an exact double, to take his place. Now, a thief named
> Kagemusha

?? Kagemusha *means*, literally, "shadow warrior". The double is
never named in the film; he's always referred to -- among those in
on the secret, of course -- as "the double (shadow warrior)" or
"that man", sometimes even "the thief".

I'm sure there must be other films where the title character and
main protagonist is never named, but none comes immediately to
mind.

> (Nakadai in a double role) must fight for an empire in
> this stunning film from legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira
> Kurosawa."
>
> This is an amazing film. Nakadai's du[a]l performance is an amazing
> display of acting skill.

Bah. Nothing that Patty Duke didn't do, and better, on her
eponymous TV show. (Just kidding! Nakadai is indeed spectacular.)

> The film of course looks fantastic

Absolutely stunning. What I've always wondered is how Kurosawa
managed to show -- in slow motion and from different angles -- what
seemed to be at least a dozen different downed and struggling
horses right in among thickly strewn dead and dying men, during the
final battle scenes. Maybe Japan ca. 1980 didn't have as strict
animal cruelty laws as the US has today. But I sure wouldn't want
to have been an extra in those scenes.

> (did Kurosawa ever
> make a film that didn't?). The Criterion DVD looks and sounds great.

--
Jim Heckman