Kagemusha - The Shadow Warrior DVD 1980 Kagemusha az Árnyéklovas - 影武者 / Directed by Akira Kurosawa / Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kinechi Hagiwara

UPC 5996255737417

MADE IN EU

REGION 2 PAL DVD

Audio: Japanese 4.0, Polish 2.0 mono

Subtitles: English, Hungarian, Arabic, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Portuguese, Icelandic, Polish

Runtime: 152 minutes

English Summary:

Kagemusha (影武者, Shadow Warrior) is a 1980 jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa. In Japanese, kagemusha is a term used to denote a political decoy. It is set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class criminal who is taught to impersonate a dying daimyō to dissuade opposing lords from attacking the newly vulnerable clan. The daimyō is based on Takeda Shingen, and the film ends with the climactic 1575 Battle of Nagashino.

In Japan's Sengoku period, Takeda Shingen, daimyō of the Takeda clan, meets with his brother Nobukado, and an unnamed thief whom the latter met by chance and spared from crucifixion due to the thief's uncanny resemblance to Shingen. The brothers then agree that he would prove useful as a double, and they decide to use the thief as a kagemusha, a political decoy. Later, Shingen's army has besieged a castle of Tokugawa Ieyasu. One evening when Shingen visits the battlefield he is shot by a sniper who has mapped Shingen's previous movements in the camp. Mortally wounded, he orders a withdrawal and commands his generals to keep his death a secret for three years. Shingen soon dies with only a small group of witnesses. Meanwhile, Shingen's rivals Oda Nobunaga, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Uesugi Kenshin each contemplate the consequences of Shingen's withdrawal of his army still not knowing of his death.

Nobukado presents the thief to Shingen's generals, proposing to have this kagemusha impersonate Shingen full-time. At first, even the thief is unaware of Shingen's death, until he tries to break into a huge jar, believing it to contain treasure, and instead finds Shingen's preserved corpse. The generals then decide they cannot trust the thief and set him free. Later, the Takeda leaders secretly drop the jar with Shingen's corpse into Lake Suwa. Spies working for Tokugawa and his ally Oda witness the disposal of the jar and, suspecting that Shingen has died, go to report the death. The thief, however, overhearing the spies, goes to offer his services, hoping to be of some use to Shingen in death. The Takeda clan preserves the deception by announcing that they were making an offering of sake to the god of the lake. The spies follow the Takeda army as they march home from the siege. Although they suspect that Shingen has died, they are later convinced by the kagemusha's performance.

Hungarian Summary:

A 16. századi japán történelmet a vissza-visszatérő polgárháborúk, a hatalomra törő klánok egymás ellen indított harcai jellemezték. Takeda Singen herceg klánja hatalma megóvása érdekében hadicselhez folyamodik: egy "árnyékharcost", vagyis "kagemusát" bérel fel és állít vezére helyébe a harcmezőkön. Ez a hasonmás egy gazfickó, akit csupán a klán urához való tökéletes hasonlósága ment meg a kivégzéstől. A kagemusa mindinkább belejön szerepébe, és a klán seregei győzelmet győzelemre halmoznak parancsnogsága alatt. A herceg fia, Kacujori azonban ezt nem nézi jó szemmel, s végül eléri, hogy elkergetik az udvartól. Ezzel azonban megkezdődik a nagy hatalmú nemzetség pusztulása: hadseregük a végső véres ütközetben megsemmisítő vereséget szenved.

Japanese Summary:

天正元年、その勇猛を恐れられる武田信玄とその軍勢は、東三河で野田城を攻め落とそうとしていたが、ある夜、信玄は城内から狙撃され、上洛の野望叶わずして死す。自己の死は秘匿し、幼い嫡孫（竹丸）が成長するまで3年は動かずに領地を固めてほしい、との遺言を託された信玄の弟・武田信廉と重臣らは、信玄の死を内部にも明かさず、死刑寸前のところを信廉が拾ってきた、信玄に瓜二つの盗人を、信玄の影武者として立てることとする。盗人は盗み癖を見せて逃げようとしたため一度は解任されるものの、信玄が死んだこと、かつその死が織田信長や徳川家康の間者にばれたところを目撃すると、以前対面した折に受けた信玄の威厳や、助命の恩義を思い出し、自ら影武者になることを重臣たちに土下座して願い出る。

信玄として屋敷へ戻った影武者は、嫡孫竹丸や側室たちとの対面を危ないところを見せながらも果たし、やがては評定の場においても信玄らしく振舞って収めるなど、予想以上の働きを見せていく。しかし信玄の存命を疑う織田信長や徳川家康は、陽動作戦を展開しだす。それに対し諏訪勝頼は独断で出陣し、武田家内には不協和音がもたらされる。勝頼は側室の子ゆえ嫡男とはみなされず、自身の子、竹丸の後見人とされており、かつ、芝居とはいえ下賤の身である影武者にかしずいて見せねばならぬなど憤懣やる方なかった。

Cast / Szereplők:

• Tatsuya Nakadai as Takeda Shingen (武田 信玄) and the Kagemusha (影武者)
• Tsutomu Yamazaki as Takeda Nobukado (武田 信廉), Shingen's younger brother.
• Kenichi Hagiwara as Takeda Katsuyori (武田 勝頼), Shingen's son and heir.
• Jinpachi Nezu as Tsuchiya Sohachiro (土屋 宗八郎), chief bodyguard for Takeda Shingen and the Kagemusha.
• Hideji Ōtaki as Yamagata Masakage (山縣 昌景), the Takeda's most experienced general.
• Daisuke Ryu as Oda Nobunaga (織田 信長), one of Shingen's chief rival for control of Japan.
• Masayuki Yui as Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川 家康), Nobunaga's strongest ally.
• Kaori Momoi as Otsuyanokata (お津弥の方), one of Shingen's concubines.
• Mitsuko Baisho as Oyunokata (於ゆうの方), another one of Shingen's concubines.
• Hideo Murota as Baba Nobuharu (馬場 信春), one of the chief generals in the Takeda Clan's army.
• Takayuki Shiho as Naitō Masatoyo (内藤 昌豊), another important general in the Takeda Clan's army.
• Kōji Shimizu as Atobe Katsusuke (跡部 勝資)
• Noburo Shimizu as Hara Masatane (原 昌胤)
• Sen Yamamoto as Oyamada Nobushige (小山田 信茂)
• Shuhei Sugimori as Kōsaka Masanobu (高坂 昌信)
• Takashi Shimura as Taguchi Gyobu (田口刑部)
• Eiichi Kanakubo as Uesugi Kenshin (上杉 謙信), Shingen's other chief rival for control of Japan.
• Francis Selleck as Priest