Kagemusha

Kagemusha (1980)
a film by Akira Kurosawa

I have been looking forward the Kurosawa films in the list. Among them I can find some of the first films I watched and teach me to love movies. Kagemusha is an amazing epic film, it shows battles filmed beautifully amazing recreation of the costumes, weapons, flags, helmets and every detail from the time of the daimyos. But beyond the shell of impressive scenes and lavish costumes there is a thoughtful story and far from just watching men running on horses this story delivers artful images and a touching story.

I really like Kurosawa's sense of humour. In the tense and serious atmosphere these characters can laugh loudly and even when I felt Lost in Translation on the jokes, I ended up laughing too. I can go forever praising the way in which this film is piece of art, it mixes in an awesome way the music, the image and the characters, the composition of every scene seems to be as epic as the story itself, and it is mind blowing to see how Kurosawa can master so deeply the narration and the cinematography. But in the end what got me was the laugh of the characters, this serious warriors laughing loudly in the screen made them believable beyond the epic and really enjoyable. It makes me think is not about how crude the battle is shown, or how detailed are the army movements on the screen, it is maybe about seeing the battle through the eyes of the character which connects with the audience, and that works great in this movie.

The scene of the dream is a piece of art alone. The blue face of the Shingen in his armour over the beautifully coloured background is an image that still linger in my mind. What really impresses me is how this film is so rich in many levels, the personal story of the impersonator is really interesting, while the images are beautifully constructed and can be commented forever. The 10 year old in me wants to become a samurai and own a katana, ride a horse (my personal favourites are the riders with the centipede flags) and charge in battle. The grown-up in me is still dazzled by the images and the colours and the the cinematography and narrative and... and forget about that, I want to be a samurai!