ORIGINAL TITLE Kagemusha
YEAR 1980 DURATION 159 min. Trailers / Videos
COUNTRY DIRECTOR
Japan Akira Kurosawa Akira Kurosawa &
SCRIPT Masato Ide
Shinichiro Ikebe
MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY & Takao Saito Masaharu Ueda Tatsuya Nakadai
CAST, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara, Daisuke Ryu, Masayuki Yui, Toshihiko Shimizu
is very depressing to have to talk about the difficulty they had the great geniuses the history of cinema to create new jobs to advanced ages, which for many meant the death in life. It's something that Billy Wilder commented in his interview with Cameron Crowe, and said he did not trust in experienced hands, but it is preferred to leave a project of many millions in the hands of new directors that would benefit the box office, and many suffered . People like Ford, Hawks, Hitchcock and Wilder himself ended their lives begging for one last movie that always denied, especially if the bleeding was the Austrian master, who lived 20 years without having had the opportunity to get behind the scenes and show that when the truth fat cats are those handling the issue of how best, and not only that, but it was as genuine mediocre remake one of his tapes, Sabrina , shamelessly. Given this it is no wonder the deep depression that engulfed Akira Kurosawa, perhaps, one of five or six more monstrous and talented directors, whose importance in the history of cinema is like the scientist who described a new priest, seeing that a few years after winning the Oscar with the grim Dersu Uzala, could not find who you pay a new movie. Fortunately (or unfortunately, get to know you), Lucas and Coppola appeared and Kagemusha financed, the film that definitely causes a split in his films and has his fervent Occidentalism to a point never before reached, trying to turn an idea into something so Japanese worldwide reach, which means that, despite being a work of great depth aesthetic, whose visual beauty is undeniable, is irregular and can not be the place to meet your great bands, but without However, it can be seen as a preview of his last great masterpiece, it was awesome Shakespearian fresh Ran, which could tack better aesthetics and history here not to make it unbalanced, as is the case The Shadow Warrior , somewhat marred by the density of the staging of Kurosawa and quite incomprehensible in many parts, in addition to the concessions to the Western public, especially in the songs, away from his work at Toho.
And that spirit is the first Kurosawa is hard to see here. We are facing a more pessimistic filmmaker with a message, Sometimes an excessive badness, and wallows in the cruelty of life, erasing the image Capriana leaving the monumental genius Ikiru, song to life with the great Takashi Shimura. Here the light at the end of the tunnel no longer exists, backtracking is not seen as a choice and destiny we mark from the same crib, well seen the example of Shingen's grandson, and the epic is linked to a dark path, since that there is no adventure, the battles are a sign of mental strength and iconic, as represented by the spirit of the leader Takeda and image embodied in the face of his double Kagemusha. Kurosawa, as in the celebrated case of Spielberg, Lucas and The Temple of Doom , seems to convey all the evil that the world has given him all the hypocrisy, and turn this tragedy into an elegiac film that is slowly dying, but not in a pejorative sense, if not that, as in to Once Upon a Time, we see an absolute requiem, the summary of all that spirituality that has always inhabited the Japanese master's films, from Rashomon to Barbarossa, up to a grim epilogue filled with rage, with a depth worthy praise, since, even though their characters do not have any psychological depth, but it is a mere revision of virtues or defects hardly evolve throughout the film, all at full power, opening a range intimate and psychological line of David Lean has already sensed with Dersu Uzala , but nevertheless, this did have the taste of old filmmaker Yojimbo, Sanjuro or Seven Samurai, wonderful arguments in favor of popular movies and evasion. In contrast, the narrative line causes boredom at some time or another, and its density for the most disadvantaged, as Kurosawa over losing that time was full of vitality and style that narrative clarity to stop and turn his film into something slow even cumbersome, what you can do that by promoting the virtues intimate, smother the narrative and make the viewer not only be lost in history, if not lose interest in the film, as the battle sequence in which the power of the Takeda clan leader is tested in assault on the castle and win the fight for their presence, planned so that we never know for sure what happens, and you finish highlighting the visual appearance over the story (such as the spectacular use of the dream sequence in which Kagemusha, copy of the original feared retaliation, Shingen, once it was stopped stealing) when the director was characterized by transparency narrative of his films, leading him to be compared with the larger among the greats, John Ford, allowing the viewer a glimpse of the disillusionment with the Japanese film giant now contemplating life.
Here, despite being based on a true story happened in the endless civil wars between the clans Japanese cinema has always portrayed Japan, and that saves a lot of resemblance to the famous victory of the troops of the Cid in Valencia with the body of this on horseback, the director of Stray Dog brings all the power of Shakespearean literature and builds a drama in which, like the English genius, it attacks the megalomania displayed in Katsuyori, son of the lord, who seeks usurp, by way of Richard III, the throne, prevented his own son, a true heir appointed by Shingen. Within this figure, masterfully described by the pen the script and even better portrayed by the skill of the director in a couple of sequences, we find everything that has always caused the largest declines: ambition. Following this rule, which almost always true, that everything that goes up must come down, Kurosawa exemplifies a perfect portrait of irrationality, as opposed to the ideas that he had passed the wise Shingen. It is especially clarifying the scene in which the child talks to his counselor and this tells him that her late father prevents you from using its emblem mountain, and the magical and terrifying final battle sequence everything is explained why. Immaturity is something hard to cure, and here is the example. As a result, we find another of the strengths of the film, reflection and analysis about the power and everything that entails, the devastation and futility, sometimes it all, and the dangers involved the failure of a ruler. Following these designs of Machiavelli who spoke about good leader, Shingen is presented as a cunning and powerful warlord, perhaps cruel but intelligent and wise and well advised. It is important to the group surrounding the head visible, and counselors can move more than a real king (and that the English know better than anyone that we bundled the mentees in the Baroque was tremendous), and is ignoring the thoughtless Katsuyori, which acts angered by pride and the arrogance of having the largest army in its favor, not to mention that the theme of the four elements is what made America great was her father, can be interpreted as a democratic argument director, if it is true that Kurosawa little or no After talking about facts that were not pertaining to the condition and form of human being. In contrast, the development of Kagemusha is rather weak, and much is wasted that could be the portrait make your search for identity and loss of life to live a lie, because the story focuses more on the areas of power and greed in the real protagonist of her, which ends consumed with his own legend the final battle, after which killed the soul, the container matter rather little, and drifting in the misty and spooky Lake Suwa, thus fulfilling the dictates of fate, and only been postponed while the loyal and kind Nobukado , guide for a masked man who never felt comfortable with his new suit, saved him from being crucified for stealing.
