Certificate:

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Release Date: 6 October 1980

Main Cast:

Tatsuya Nakadai … Shingen Takeda / Kagemusha

Tsutomu Yamazaki … Nobukado Takeda

Kenichi Hagiwara … Katsuyori Takeda

Due to reviews, I expected great things of this. Although I enjoyed it, I can’t say that it gripped me. I found it somewhat plodding, and 3 hours of a rather thin plot was stretched to the max. Although I will concede that such time was needed to portray the story effectively.

It looks great, and has a real feel of 16th Century Japan. It’s a very ’sweeping’ epic, and the central performance by Tatsuya Nakadai is very good. Obviously, I can’t comment on the acting, as I am unqualified to judge non English speaking actors.

If you are a film lover or a fan of this period of Japanese culture, then you’ll get something out of this. However, if you are a ‘blockbuster junkie’, then don’t bother.

This is a very simplistic review, and I’m sure that many people will disagree with me. And, in turn, I would not disagree with them. This is just a personal view, and I am in no way rubbishing Kagemusha

The best thing to do is to watch and judge for yourself.

Rating: