dir. Akira Kurosawa
writ. Masato Ide, Akira Kurosawa
feat. Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomo Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagawara
Kagemusha begins with a scene that foretells of the emotional heart of the film to come. The viewer is tossed into a tense exchange between warlord, Shingen Takeda, his brother, and Takeda's doppleganger, the thief. The thief mocks the lord and his brother as they threaten his life, setting up the uncertain nature of identity that the film will explore. While Takeda has the luxury of using his double at his convenience, the thief must suffer the pains of being viewed as an all-powerful lord one moment, then mere property the next. Once Takeda dies, Kagemusha takes his place, though remains the puppet. Nevertheless, he treats his subjects and concubines better than the real lord and ascends to a kind of programmed nobility.
Naturally, he becomes accustomed to the role, the power and luxury coming easily over time, and when he is ejected suddenly, no longer wanted or needed, he suffers horribly, his life stolen from him a second time. And though he has every reason to hate those who have done this to him, his spirit has joined with the people he ruled, if only by proxy and he can't stand to see his old army defeated. So he raggedly throws his defenseless body at the enemy, finally giving his life just as a devoted leader would.
