This film was proposed by our members Jess Chen and Alex T, who writes: 'This wouldn’t fit in with the Japanese Golden Age season obviously, but an excellent late career epic for Kurosawa and a great precursor to Ran (1985). Would love to see it in the cinema as I have never had the opportunity to!'

When a warlord dies, a peasant thief is called upon to impersonate him, and then finds himself haunted by the warlord’s spirit as well as his own ambitions. In his late colour masterpiece Kagemusha, Akira Kurosawa returns to the samurai film and to a primary theme of his career - the play between illusion and reality. Sumptuously reconstructing the splendour of feudal Japan and the pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a historical epic that is also a meditation on the nature of power.

Presented in the original, 181 minute, Japanese cut.

Please note, the screening on Monday 6 May is our Free Members' Screening, and the screening on Wednesday 15 May is a general public screening.

Cast:
Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara