About this episode

The episode discusses Akira Kurosawa's film Kagemusha, exploring themes of identity and power through the story of a thief who becomes a body double for a warlord.

We close House of Kurosawa with Kagemusha (1980), where a thief becomes body double for a dying warlord and learns pretending to be powerful is harder than having it. Made with support from George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, Kurosawa crafted a meditation on identity and performance. The color is stunning, the battle sequences are chaos, and the film asks whether anyone can tell the difference between a real leader and a convincing fake. It's slow, beautiful, and punishing cinema about impostors and power.

Topics covered

• identity
• performance
• impostors
• power
• film analysis
• Japanese cinema

Keywords

• Kagemusha
• Akira Kurosawa
• identity
• performance
• impostors
• power
• Japanese cinema
• film analysis

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Kagemusha

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