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| Tatsuda
Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
4.0 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Shingen Takeda
(Tatsuda Nakadai):
Even with this resemblance, Nobukado, he is so wicked as to be
sentenced to crucifixion. How could this scoundrel be my double?
Kagemusha (Tatsuda Nakadai): I only stole a few coins. A petty
thief. But you've killed hundreds and robbed whole domains. Who
is wicked, you or I?
When a powerful warlord in medieval
Japan dies, a poor thief recruited to impersonate him finds difficulty
living up to his role and clashes with the spirit of the warlord
during turbulent times in the kingdom.
 Akira
Kurosawa may have been the director to first bring Japanese cinema
to the international stage with his remarkable work in the 1950s,
directing one success after another, but by the mid-1970s, his
international acclaim no longer offered him the opportunities he sought, and
his increasingly ambitious projects were no longer welcomed by
the Japanese film industry. After spending five years trying (and
failing) to get Kagemusha into production somehow, it
took the involvement of American 'movie brats' George Lucas and
Francis Coppola, who together had enough clout to secure American
financing for Kurosawa's envisioned Japanese historical tragedy.
Co-produced and distributed internationally by 20th Century Fox
(as a personal favor to Lucas after the studio-saving success of Star
Wars), Kagemusha was acclaimed by many as a return
to classic form by its director, but failed to garner the kind
of box office success that would Kurosawa the power he once had.
Clearly the product of a different sensibility from the director's
1950s masterworks, the picture is indeed less accessible than Rashomon, Seven
Samurai or Yojimbo, with less of a sense of humor
and a far more studied, leisurely pace. But Kurosawa has retained
his humanist perspective along with his incomparable eye for staging,
making Kagemusha, along with Ran, the finest
example of Kurosawa's supreme talent in his final phase as a direcctor. |
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Available for Region 2 (in the
UK) as a movie-only release distributed by 20th Century Fox,
and as a Region 1 two-disc Special Edition set from The Criterion
Collection, which is far superior in each and every aspect.
The Criterion release served as the basis for this review.
The anamorphic widescreen
image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 1.85:1. Having
experienced the scratchy, faded and over-saturated print
featured on Fox's Region 2 DVD of Kagemusha, this
newly restored video transfer is nothing short of revelatory. Not
only is the image crisp, clean and remarkably sharp, but
it boasts colors that leap off the screen, finally doing
justice to Kurosawa's memorable color design. Another technical
triumph for the Criterion Collection.
The Dolby
Digital 4.0 sound mix is provides a faithful discrete
presentation of the film's original surround audio design,
with subtle but nicely judged use of the surround channel
for ambience and occasional sound effects, and remarkably
high fidelity throughout.
 Japanese
film scholar and Kurosawa biographer Stephen Prince adds
another entry to his already impressive list of Kurosawa
film commentaries for the Criterion Collection label. His
well-prepared comments provide an insightful and authoritative
guide to the film's backgrounds and many production problems.
The extras on the second disc start off with a newly produced
featurette based on exclusive interviews with Francis Coppola
and George Lucas, who served as executive producers on the
production to help their idol Kurosawa get the film made
and distributed. Their fascinating comments on their participation
offer an interesting perspective on the production, and retell
the film's main history in a nutshell. A 40-minute episode
of Toho Film's series 'It's Wonderful to Create!' goes into
the production history in more detail, and features generous
interview footage with most surviving participants. 'Image:
Kurosawa's Kagemusha' is a video piece that reconstructs
the film using the director's gorgeous storyboard paintings,
many of which are featured prominently in the handsomely
designed booklet, that also includes an essay by Kurosawa
expert Donald Ritchie.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
May 2, 2005
Click
here for IMDB info on Kagemusha.
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