Kagemusha

Kagemusha

The Shadow of a man can never stand up and walk on its own.

PG 1980 · 180 min · ★ 7.8 · Action, Drama, History, War

Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa · Written by Akira Kurosawa

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Rent or Buy

Cast

Tatsuya Nakadai Shingen Takeda / Kagemusha
Tsutomu Yamazaki Nobukado Takeda
Kenichi Hagiwara Katsuyori Takeda
Jinpachi Nezu Sohachiro Tsuchiya
Hideji Ōtaki Masakage Yamagata
Daisuke Ryū Nobunaga Oda
Masayuki Yui Ieyasu Tokugawa
Kaori Momoi Otsuyanokata
Mitsuko Baisho Oyunokata
Hideo Murota Nobufusa Baba
Takayuki Shiho Masatoyo Naito
Kōji Shimizu Katsusuke Atobe

Make it a double feature

5h 40m together

Kagemusha

Ran

Both from Akira Kurosawa.

More from Akira KurosawaSee all →

Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai · 1954

MovieActionDrama

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

High and Low

High and Low · 1963

MovieDramaCrime

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

Ikiru

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Red Beard

Red Beard · 1965

Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.

Yojimbo

Yojimbo · 1961

MovieDramaThriller

A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.

Rashomon

Rashomon · 1950

MovieCrimeDrama

Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.

Ran

MovieActionDrama

Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.

The Hidden Fortress

The Hidden Fortress · 1958

The Hidden Fortress

MovieDramaAction

In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains.

Dersu Uzala

Dersu Uzala · 1975

MovieAdventureDrama

A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia’s unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods.

Sanjuro

Sanjuro · 1962

MovieDramaAction

In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.

Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood · 1957

Throne of Blood

MovieDramaHistory

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

A Fistful of Dollars

A Fistful of Dollars · 1964

A Fistful of Dollars

The Man With No Name enters the Mexican village of San Miguel in the midst of a power struggle among the three Rojo brothers and sheriff John Baxter. When a regiment of Mexican soldiers bearing gold intended to pay for new weapons is waylaid by the Rojo brothers, the stranger inserts himself into the middle of the long-simmering battle, selling false information to both sides for his own benefit.

Dreams

MovieFantasyDrama

Eight visually rich vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams—fox weddings and vanished orchards, a soldier’s ghosts, a walk through Van Gogh’s canvases, nuclear nightmares, and a water-mill utopia—meditate on childhood, art, mortality, and humanity’s uneasy bond with nature.

The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven · 1960

The Magnificent Seven

MovieWesternAction

An oppressed Mexican peasant village hires seven gunfighters to help defend their homes.

Kaze no Yojimbo

Kaze no Yojimbo · 2001

Kaze no Yojimbo

SeriesDramaAnimation

George Kodama is investigating an incident that occurred in the small town of Kimujuku over 15 years ago. George is soon caught up in the middle of a bloody gang fight for control of the town.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai · 1999

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

MovieCrimeDrama

A Black hitman who models after the samurai of old finds himself targeted for death by the mob.

More Like This

Battle Drone

Battle Drone · 2018

MovieScience FictionAction

6 mercenaries are hired by CIA to abduct an heir to a republic and take out an arms dealer in Moscow. They get a followup mission in Chernobyl. Treason awaits them.

Baby Assassins 2

Baby Assassins 2 · 2023

Baby Assassins 2

MovieActionComedy

Chisato and Mahiro must pay four years of overdue fees or lose their membership in their assassin guild. They take part-time jobs, but find themselves in the middle of an armed robbery and being hunted by other assassins.

I Wish

Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.

Samurai Assassin

Samurai Assassin · 1965

Samurai Assassin

MovieDramaAction

Japan, 1860. The men of the Mito clan, victims of the Ansei purge, anxiously prowl around the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle with the intention of assassinating Naosuke Ii of Hikone, tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate and responsible for their misfortune.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter