rec.arts.movies.past-films

> From: "Lincoln Spector"
> Organization: AT&T
> Newsgroups: ,
> Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2007 11:03:36 -0700
> Subject: Re: Kurosawa's Kagemusha
>
>
> "Jim Heckman" wrote in message
> news:13e77g7oml9ng50@ ...
>> [< > 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".
> "Shadow warrior" is an artful translation--one done, I believe, by 20th
> Century Fox's marketing folks. In the initial discussions about Hollywood
> financing, Kurosawa's translator (whose name I don't recall) translated the
> title, Kagamusha, as "Samurai Double," and that was the title given in the
> original American press releases.
>
> Someone at TCF rightfully released that a grand epic shouldn't sound like a
> B movie, and instead called it "Kagamusha: The 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.
> Plenty, including the current indie hit Once.
>
> I might add that, despite the visual beauty, I really don't care for this
> movie. It's lifeless, cold, and boring. Even Kurosawa made the occasional
> turkey.
>
I like "Kagemusha" better than you do (if only because I took my loved one
to it on our very first date and we're still going strong more than 26 years
later), but it does have problems, one being that Kurosawa wrote the film
with Katsu Shintaro (of "Zatoichi" fame) in mind for the lead role. Katsu,
one of the most egotistical and headstrong actors who ever appeared before a
camera, was fired by Kurosawa on the first day of filming for what I suppose
could be called gross insubordination. A replacement was urgently needed,
the studio (Toho) stipulated that a major star had to be cast, and Nakadai
Tatsuya was available.

In "Kagemeusha" Nakadai's makeup and costuming and general appearance, and
at times even his body language, seem to have been meant for Katsu. In
almost all of his roles, even those set in the modern era, Nakadai has a
uniquely elegant, almost feline physical presence, which is almost
completely suppressed in "Kagemusha". He seems to be trying to play a burly,
bulky peasant and doesn't really succeed, at least physically; the much more
coarse-looking Katsu, of course, would have been ideal. In retrospect,
Mifune Toshiro might have been able to play the role, but by 1980 he would
have been too old (60-- Nakadai was 10 years younger), and in any case he
and Kurosawa never fully healed the rift that appeared between them after
1965's "Red Beard".

Over the years Nakadai developed an unfortunate tendency to occasionally
chew scenery unless kept under tight rein by the director. In this sense
Kurosawa seems to have exerted minimal control over Nakadai during the
making of "Kagemusha" (and even less during "Ran", made five years later),
and his performance-- and the film-- suffers for it. As for Kagemusha's
coldness, this was characteristic of Kurosawa's work following his suicide
attempt in 1971. Although he recovered physically, the attempt seems to have
done lasting damage to his spirit, and he almost completely abandoned his
profound idealism and optimism about the human condition. The closing scenes
of both "Kagemusha" and "Ran" are among the most bleak and hopeless in the
history of cinema.
GMW