Kagemusha
“The Shadow of a man can never stand up and walk on its own.”
A feudal epic presenting the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. The impostor becomes comfortable living his life among nobility, but his responsibilities to his station grow more demanding the longer he occupies it.
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Cast
45 people
Tatsuya Nakadai
Shingen Takeda / Kagemusha
Known for
Ran
Harakiri
Tsutomu Yamazaki
Nobukado Takeda
Known for
Tampopo
Departures
Kenichi Hagiwara
Katsuyori Takeda
Known for
Over Your Dead Body
Jinpachi Nezu
Sohachiro Tsuchiya
Known for
Ran
Angel's Egg
Hideji Ōtaki
Masakage Yamagata
Known for
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons
The Funeral
Daisuke Ryū
Nobunaga Oda
Known for
Ran
Graveyard of Honor
Masayuki Yui
Ieyasu Tokugawa
Known for
Ran
Dreams
Kaori Momoi
Otsuyanokata
Known for
Memoirs of a Geisha
Ghost in the Shell
Mitsuko Baisho
Oyunokata
Known for
Dreams
Hanzawa Naoki
Hideo Murota
Nobufusa Baba
Known for
Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion
Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs
Takayuki Shiho
Masatoyo Naito
No other roles listed
Kōji Shimizu
Katsusuke Atobe
Known for
Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.
Akira Kurosawa Director · Masato Ide Screenplay Shinichiro Ikebe Composer
Worldwide gross $4M · Budget $6M · United States release October 10, 1980
Box office
Budget
$6,000,000
Worldwide gross
$4,000,000
Gross vs. budget
0.7×
Production
TOHO
Production
20th Century Fox
Production
Kurosawa Production
Production
20th Century Studios
Studio
Japan · United States
Produced in
Languages
Original title
影武者
Original language
Japanese
Spoken on screen
Japanese
Release dates
Japan · April 23, 1980
Premiere · Tokyo
Japan · April 26, 1980
Theatrical
United States · October 10, 1980
Theatrical · 𝟭𝟲𝟮 mínutєѕ
United States · January 1, 1981
Physical · Magnetic Video #1109 [𝐕𝐇𝐒📼ˣ²] / [𝛃𝓮𝒕𝓪🖭ˣ²] | 𝟭𝟱𝟵 mínutєѕ
Belgium
April 26, 1980 · Theatrical
Denmark
November 17, 1980 · Theatrical
Finland
October 24, 1980 · Theatrical
France
October 1, 1980 · Theatrical
Germany
October 28, 2011 · Physical · Blu-Ray
Greece
December 5, 2006 · Physical · DVD
Italy
January 26, 1981 · Theatrical
Netherlands
October 13, 2007 · Physical · DVD, Blu ray
South Korea
December 12, 1998 · Theatrical
Sweden
October 30, 1980 · Theatrical
July 21, 2004 · Physical · DVD
September 19, 2012 · Physical · Blu-ray
United Kingdom
November 13, 1980 · Premiere · BFI London Film Festival
December 7, 1980 · Theatrical
October 17, 1986 · Physical · VHS
June 3, 2002 · Physical · DVD
March 17, 2014 · Physical · Blu-ray
March 8, 2021 · Physical · The Criterion Collection Blu-ray
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Some details come from TheTVDB.