Kagemusha
The Shadow of a man can never stand up and walk on its own.
Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans.When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler.
- Director
- Akira Kurosawa
- Signature
- Craft · Drama · Action
- Worldwide
- $4M
Who's in it
Cast
The billed ensemble, with character names. Open any performer for their Nutevio filmography.
14 billed performers
The Nutevio profile
Movie DNA
How Kagemusha actually feels to watch, measured on the twelve traits our editors track across every Nutevio title.
Perfect if you enjoyed
Story overview
What It's About
Spoiler-free. Read the analysis below for the full argument.
Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord.
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
Checking regional listings…
The numbers
Box Office & Release
Kagemusha returned 0.7× its budget worldwide.
- Budget
- $6M
- Opening weekend
- —
- Domestic gross
- —
- International gross
- —
- Worldwide gross
- $4M
- Release date
- Apr 26, 1980
- Runtime
- 3h 0m
- MPAA rating
- —
- Language
- Japanese
- Country
- Japan, United States of America
Figures from the verified production record. Fields we cannot source are left blank rather than estimated.
Watch
