Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior)

Kagemusha does not mean “The Shadow Warrior” as the subtitle implies, but “double person” or “twin person.” It is director Akira Kurosawa’s twenty-seventh film and like Ran is a thematically profound work derived from Shakespeare. This film was financed by Fox at the urging of George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, who are credited as executive producers of the international version. Its success paved the way for his later masterpiece, Ran. Kagemusha is set in the late 16th century and centers on the Takeda clan, one of three armies battling for control of Japan at the end of the country’s feudal period. It stars Tatsuya Nakadai in the demanding double-role of Lord Shingen, the all-powerful clan leader, and Shadow Warrior, his “kagemusha,” who ultimately puts both his own future as the disguised leader and the future of the Takeda clan’s samurai warriors in deepest jeopardy.