Who else thinks that this movie is Kurosawas best movie, maybe even better than Shichinin no samurai, Rashomon, Ran or Yojimbo? I've watched it maybe 5 times, and it's just getting better and better. I hold this as one of the greatast (samurai) movie ever.
shareYes, I too think this is one of his best if not one of the best samurai movies I've ever seen.
1. 7 Samurai
2. Kagemusha
3. Ran
Though Roshomon is tough to compete with because of it's shear beauty.
I surprise myself in that I haven't seen Throne of Blood yet but that will soon change. I have nearly every one of Kurosawa's Samurai films except ToB. So glad that Criterion is handling these releases.
Yes, I'm glad almost all of Kurosawas films are out on DVD now, although I can't find Ikiru...
shareI never usually respond to these rankings of movies..because its all so subjective to each viewers tastes.......but I'm sorry man...as poetic as Kagemusha was...nothing compares to Seven Samurai dude...everything else takes a distant second...I would put Ran and Rashomon in line, then Ikiru and Yojimbo and then Red Beard...but that's me.....but any Kurosawa film stands above and beyond IMHO..
share[deleted]
My favorite Kurosawa film is most definitely DERSU UZALA. I love it all, but that one is just too perfect to pass up.
share[deleted]
this is my favorite kurosawa film... period. i think it edges out 7 samurai.
i don't consider this a samurai pic though... yomibo and sanjuro, and 7 samurai are what i consider samurai films.
this is a feudal warlord pic... samurai sprinkled here and there but not committed to the warriors like in other films. this is about power and keeping a throne and position.
that all aside i love this movie
I'd have to say that Kagemusha is definitely not Kurosawa's best movie; however, it is definitely my favorite Kurosawa movie.
I'm not sure why but for some reason I just LOVE this film + I think it's cause it takes it's time (especially the 3 hour version)
Best: Nein!
Favorite: Ja!
you are so right. the movie is well paced and takes it's time to set up scenes and it really pays off.
i disagree on one thing... i think this is right up there for contendership of best picture from akira, but i agree on this is my favorite kurosawa movie though.
It certainly deserves honourable mention for best, definitely the best dream sequence I'll grant that, but I think that the major area Kagemusha falls short is the music. The older movies were much better in the music department.
Yojimbo rules musically, Ran probably is better for use of colour and costume, Dersu Uzalla and lots of others are better for story, but dawg gone: I absolutely love Kagemusha anyway + so much so that it is easily my favorite Akira movie.
I agree with flap, one of his best but - the silent sequence in Ran???? I've never seen anything in film that had more of an impact. Spielberg came close in Saving Ryan's Privates, but no.
Speaking of, did any of you see "Stray Dog" (or Nora inu) his 1949 Japanese film? Black and white with one scene of bright red clothing cut into a few frames. And I never heard Steven acknowledge that he used that in "LIST"... Although, they only print the bs anyway.
[deleted]
The end of "Kagemusha" was haunting and the exploration of what it means to be a leader was nicely done.
But my favorite Kurosawa film by far is "Ran". It had many of the elements of "Kagemusha" but went even further. (Tatsuya Nakadai is a fantastic actor.)
But if I could only get just 2 Kurosawa films on DVD it would be those two.
Have a good one, BB ;-)
it's just in my humble opinion - IMHO -
This one is my favorite. I already had Ran, and I wasn't expecting it to come close because of all I had heard. I knew that it would be good still, so I bought it. As it turns out, it's one of my absolutely favorite movies. You get a good glimpse of life as a madman with Ran, but this one has themes that come much closer to us all.
share*SPOILERS*
I saw Ran before I got a chance to see this one. I loved Ran, but when I began watching Kagemusha, I thought it was 10 times better until it reached the near end of the film. I didnt like the ending, nor did I like how the battle scenes were played out. Yet my favorite scene had to be when he was in the armour sitting still at the battle front during the night, and all his protectors were standing gaurd. The enemies fright at seeing him alive. It was classic cinema, but the overall feel of the movie felt incomplete, and my appreciation for Ran felt greater than before watching this film. At first I had hoped that I'd like this one more.
roshomon, seven samurai, & ran are definitely in the top five. don't forget 'the hidden fortress'. if you haven't seen it yet, give it a look.
also, 'stray dog'; it's nowhere near a masterpiece. but if you like cinema noir, then you might dig kurosawa's version of it.
that is all.
[deleted]
I've always held that Kurosawa is a bit overrated. I'm a big fan of Kurosawa's, and I like his films very much, so that shouldn't be misconstrued as criticism, but when people talk about him as one of the five or so greatest directors who ever lived, I just don't see it. Watching "Kagemusha", however, I saw it.
Kurosawa made 30 feature films. Prior to "Kagemusha", I had seen 27 of them, so it's not like I wasn't familiar with his work ("Dreams" and "Madadayo" are the only two remaining that I haven't seen). I've always felt that Kurosawa was a master storyteller who lacked the formal, intellectual, and general artistic faculties of many of his contemporaries to whom he's often compared. His gifts lie elsewhere, in his emotional honesty, his juvenile simplicity (that's both praise and criticism), his deeply humanist sensibilities, and his incredible gift for telling a story. These are his greatest assets. Other talents -- for instance, Mizoguchi's magnificent formalism and visual poetry -- simply are not where Kurosawa excels, any more than Ôshima excels in the department of human warmth and compassion. All filmmakers have their strengths and weaknesses. In "Kagemusha", however, I was blown away by the sheer formal brilliance of Kurosawa's filmmaking, which is something I didn't previously know him to be capable of. I've never seen it in his cinema before. "Ran" might be the only exception, but I saw it some time ago, and on a television that didn't allow for full appreciation of its aesthetic and visual master-touches.
"Kagemusha" is to me, without question, the best of the 28 Kurosawa films I've seen. The only other film I might place on par with it is "Ikiru", which is great mostly for its content (versus "Kagemusha", which is great mostly for its form). "Kagemusha" is also, in my opinion, undoubtedly the greatest samurai film I've ever seen. And I've seen a good many. Kurosawa's "Ran" and Kobayashi's "Harakiri" really are the only other two I can mention in the same sentence (or paragraph, more accurately) with "Kagemusha".
This movie was brilliant to an extent I had no idea Kurosawa had in him. And I'm sorry to the many people this statement will undoubtedly offend, but "Seven Samurai" looks like child's play by comparison. "Kagemusha" makes "Seven Samurai" look like the respectable but mediocre cinema it truly is.