Bella Kagemusha (1980) is a History War Drama film starring Tatsuya Nakadai as Kagemusha and Shingen Takeda and Tsutomu Yamazaki as Nobukado Takeda. It's about a common thief who is about to undergo execution for his crimes. Just before his sentence, he is removed from the execution room, dressed in the King's robe, and brought to the King due to his striking resemblance to the King himself. Only a few close and trusted advisers to the King are aware of Kagemusha's death and the fact that Shingen is impersonating him including Kagemusha's son who struggles with this because he wants to be the King. This film has an amazing an interesting plot, the acting is superb, and the sets are beautiful.This plot is interesting because the main actor plays two different parts so we get to see the actor playing two different personalities. It is also interesting to see how the main character struggles with the newfound duties of King. While the King is injured and at risk of death, Shingen hopes that he stays alive so he will not have to pretend to be King on a full-time basis. The King insists that due to the dire situation in his kingdom, no one must know he is dead for at least three years. He is very upset by the King's death at first and does not want to impersonate him but he is left without a choice as his life depends on it. Will Shingen be able to convince the people that he is Kagemusha and hold up the kingdom in a time of war?The acting is wonderful and will make you fall in love with the lead actor and want to look up the rest of his work. You will be happy to know that Tatsuya Nakadai is still going strong and making new films. His portrayal of both characters- 2 different men with different wants, needs, goals, and backgrounds- excellently. The supporting characters in the film all do a great job as well. The incredible acting makes the film easy to follow and understand regardless of whether or not you know Japanese or have ever been to Japan. I have never been to Japan myself and I can't say how authentic all of the sets were but I did find them extremely beautiful and they had me wishing that I could visit Japan. When Shingen is sitting with the 2 women sitting beside him and Nobukudo is trying to convince him that he is actually Shingen and not Nobuku, they are in a light grey room with different indents and brown wooden borders on the wall with white flowers all over. On the other side, there is a lamp and a window and a design of beautiful flowers. They are sitting on the floor without chairs and their orange bowls are atop small light brown tables with a tiny black stand on a beige rug. It is a very beautiful scene and will make you want to be there laughing with them.I would recommend this film to those who enjoy both war dramas and historical dramas. If you only speak English, you will have to watch this film with subtitles of course, and therefore it requires more of your full attention to understand. If you are willing to put in the time (over 2 hours) that it takes to watch this feature, then you will likely enjoy this film. There is a lot of dialogue that takes places and it fills more of the music than action does, though there are some good action scenes in the film.Shingen must convince Kagemusha's family members that he is him and this proves difficult as Shingen has limited knowledge on Kagemusha's life and family history. He only knows as much as a commoner like him would and anything else he learns while impersonating Kagemusha. While Shingen is speaking with Kagemusha's grandson, his grandson asks him, "Why are you called The Mountain?" and Shingen does not know the answer to this so the other family member who was with them had to quickly answer the question. Overall, I really enjoyed this film because the sets were beautiful and the plot was entertaining and was performed well by the actors.

davidnoparacualquiera i saw the film more than a couple of times,i love it..30 years is plenty of time to prove us that movies of today had a lot to learn from this ones...a lot of things had change in the way of making movies..and not necessary good ones.watch this film with a clear mind,not tired,relax..and enjoyed!the strenght of a mountain.. the essence of human.. the shadow of a warrior. everything in this film is wonderful,the images and score music are so powerful.kurosawa give to us another almost perfect piece of art. the scale of battles scenes in this type of movies are huge and the choreography for the warriors and horses is amazing. this is a pleasure to watch. beautiful and timeless

larma7 This one is known by many to be a 'warm-up' to "Ran". Perhaps that should have been a warning, as I wasn't a huge fan of that film. But still, I remained interested in this one and it looked good. But lordy did I find this one a big, beautiful, empty bore. I mean, sure, the visuals are crazy good at times, lovely colors, and it is just in general a great looking movie. Excellent design and all. But at the same time I sort of feel that's all that was to it.The performances here aren't nearly as stilted or obnoxious as some in "Ran", and in fact I really like Tatsuya Nakadai in this. The problem here is that I don't think anyone involved was given much interesting material to work with. It isn't that I don't think there is an interesting story to be told here, but I sort of see this movie as a missed opportunity. Instead of focusing more on developing the character of the impersonator, too much time is spent on scenes of rival sides scheming and questioning if Shingen is alive or dead. Things seem to only be addressed on the surface and the character interactions are never given enough time to breath. More importantly, this might not be as much of a problem if the film didn't move at such an excruciating pace. Some films are deliberately paced a certain way and some films are slow-burning, but this one just feels slow, period, and without much of a purpose most of the time.Additionally, I often found that scenes and drama were laboriously set-up within the story, then those scenes slowly unfolded, and then there is little actual pay-off. Take for instance the section of the story where the one Clan leader decides to send a priest carrying medicine as a supposed "gift" to Shingen, but really they want to find out if Shingen is actually alive or not. This is thoroughly explained by the Clan leader. Then when the priest arrives, Shingen (or the impersonator) and his fellow leaders discuss how they KNOW what the other Clan leader is up to, and how they must hide it! Then when the scene actually HAPPENS there ends up being little to no tension and nothing actually comes of it. It's just completely frustrating to watch! Scenes go on forever and sometimes the film just feels dead. All of a sudden then we'll cut to a scene of rousing music as men on horse-back prepare for battle. It felt like it all had no real flow at all. Even the battle scenes were really disappointing -- the ones at night were very hard to follow.I will admit that the movie can be a stunner at times. That ending is really something, but even then it feels like the film is shouting "LOOK HOW EPIC AND TRAGIC I AM!!!!" Sort of like "Ran", really. But in retrospect, this film makes me appreciate "Ran" even more, for where that movie sort of falls apart for me in its later stages, at least it had a little umpf to it. "Kagemusha" feels like it never actually gets off the ground. Kurosawa is a great filmmaker, but I can't get behind this one.

sboom2009 Another samurai epic by the master of the genre Akira Kurosawa; which, I find to be a mostly fulfilling attempt.The film follows the life of a peasant thief named Kagemusha who happens to look like the warlord of the Takeda clan Shingen. He is found by Shingen's brother Nobukado where he is trained to be Shingen's third body double in case of emergency. Of course this fate is realized when a assassin's sniper rifle finds Lord Shingen during a battle. Shengin remains alive for a while to let his men know that he wanted to be alive three more years for it was his goal to capture Kyoto and if he should die he would want it kept a secret so his clan would not go into disarray. Unfortunately Shingen passes from his wound and it is decided by the his cabinet that Kagemusha must pretend to be Shingen for three years (this secret is even kept from Shingen's family).It is important for his double to keep his persona for if his enemies were to suspect lord Shigen dead then they wouldn't have fear of attacking, but knowing that he may still be living made them second guess their attacks and kept the clan safe. It also helped to protect the clan from itself for the warlords replacement was a mere boy and a son who is blanketed by his father's shadow who is trying desperately to find himself(which is a major theme of the film).Their are many themes in this film of which to talk about but the most important one is finding ones self. Shingen's son Katsuyori is very lost even before his father's death. His son is the next in line to become leader of the clan ,which; brings him much embarrassment for he has felt his father was not fairing of him making him want to distance himself from Shingen's lore. These feelings later in the film become cataclysmic as certain discoveries are made. Kagemusha himself is lost between loyalty to his master and still knowing himself ,which; he is not able to be under the circumstances. There is a point in the film when he takes the persona too far it has dire consequences, but it puts things back in perspective for him where he finds what he truly loves.The first two hours of the film are phenomenal, but the battle sequences once began got a little confusing at times especially a scene at night where you're not sure who the friends or enemies are. I didn't fully understand the sequence until it had ended and I felt it was the weakest part of the film lasting I believe between 15-20 minutes. I wasn't a big fan of the ending also it felt a little rushed to me for Kurosawa ,which; I find to be out of character for him, but I will say the films final shot was magnificent.To Conclude I would say that despite the weak final act the rest of the film was very entertaining with an interesting premise and strong characters. If you are a Kurosawa fan you will love it as I did, however; it is definitely not in the category of Seven Samurai, or Roshomon. Visually astounding(the nightmare sequence was my favorite) at times and maybe a little confusing at others in the end it is to good of a film to pass up on even if it has its flaws.