Kagemusha (1980) on Netflix
In 1571, Nobukado Takeda spares a thief from crucifixion because the man's face matches his brother Shingen's, and proposes him as the warlord's double. Rival lords contest the road to Kyoto.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.9/1041,374 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the Sengoku period, Shingen Takeda is the daimyō of Kai province, one of three lords disputing the conquest of Kyoto alongside Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Shingen's brother Nobukado has spared a condemned thief whose face matches the warlord's, and the two agree that the man can serve as a kagemusha, a stand-in for the lord. While his army besieges a Tokugawa castle, Shingen is shot, orders a withdrawal and makes his generals keep his death secret for three years, leaving his rivals to wonder why the Takeda pulled back. Nobukado then brings the thief before the clan's generals and proposes that he impersonate Shingen full-time, while Shingen's son Katsuyori waits for a leadership that his father's decree delays.
Cast
- Takayuki Shihoas Masatoyo Naito
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Kagemusha (1980)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- When Toho Studios could not afford to finish Kagemusha, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola persuaded 20th Century-Fox to cover the budget shortfall, receiving the international distribution rights in return; Coppola and Kurosawa also appeared together in Suntory whisky commercials to raise money for the production.
- Akira Kurosawa originally cast Shintaro Katsu in the title role, but Katsu left before the first day of shooting ended; Coppola said Katsu angered Kurosawa by bringing his own camera crew to record Kurosawa's methods. Katsu was replaced by Tatsuya Nakadai, who played both the decoy and the lord he impersonated.
- According to George Lucas, Kurosawa used 5,000 extras for the final battle sequence, filming for a whole day, and then cut the footage down to 90 seconds in the final release.
- Kurosawa wrote a part in Kagemusha for his longtime regular actor Takashi Shimura, and it was the last Kurosawa film in which Shimura appeared; his scene as a servant who accompanies a missionary and doctor to meet Shingen was cut from the foreign release, and the Criterion Collection DVD restored it along with about eighteen more minutes.
