Anniversary of the Shadow Warrior
On April 23, 1980 in Tokyo, Japan, the premiere of Akira Kurosawa's film "Kagemusha 影武者 (Shadow Warrior)" took place.
At the premiere of the film in Tokyo, almost the entire elite of American cinema was noted. Irwin Kerschner, James Coburn, Francis Ford Coppola, Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn, William Wyler, Peter Fonda, Terence Young, and other, less well-known filmmakers were seen. Such an interest of American film makers in the Japanese film, even if shot by one of the leading figures in world cinema, was an out of the ordinary event. But had a fairly simple explanation.
Initially, the budget of the picture was $ 6 million (equivalent to the current approximately $ 23 million). But even before the start of the filming process, it became clear that the Toho film company, which at that time was in a difficult financial situation, would not be able to finance the production of the film in full. And then Akira Kurosawa turned for help to his American friends and colleagues, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Colleagues agreed to “put in a word” to the Twentieth Century Fox film company and had every reason to get a positive decision, since shortly before that, George Lucas’s film "Star Wars" brought a huge profit to its creators and distributors: with a budget of $ 11 million, the box office exceeded 775 million dollars. And the distributor was Twentieth Century Fox. And, indeed, consent for funding the Akira Kurosawa film was obtained, but provided that the exclusive rights to distribute the film in the United States were obtained by Twentieth Century Fox.
Akira Kurosawa got the opportunity to start filming, but then another snag arose. The fact is that Shintarô Katsu was originally planned for the role of Shingen Takeda, and Tomisaburô Wakayama, the brother of Shintarô Katsu, was planned for the role of Takeda's double. But almost on the first day of filming, Shintarô Katsu was fired. And the conceived scheme collapsed.
There are two versions of the reasons for this dismissal. According to one that was put forward by Coppola, Shintarô Katsu came to shoot with a movie camera, supposedly in order to capture the secrets of the directing skills of Akira Kurosawa, which the great Master could not allow. And Katsu was immediately fired. Well, and his brother left the set himself as a sign of solidarity.
But there is another version, according to which, American producers put in front of Kurosawa additional condition for obtaining financing, namely: the actor with an international name should play the main role. American viewers will not go to an unknown or poorly known actor, and, as a result, the costs will not pay off. Shintarô Katsu was a fairly well-known actor, but only in Japan. Outside of the Land of the Rising Sun, this actor was known only to fans of Japanese cinema and fans of a series of films about Zatoichi, most of which played Katsu. For the American film distribution, Katsu was not prestigious enough.
Kurosawa was recommended to offer the leading role to Toshirô Mifune. At the same time, the "recommenders" did not take into account the fact that Kurosawa and Mifune, who jointly created 16 films together, had not been in a relationship for more than 10 years. Their discord began on the film "Red Beard", where Kurosawa made the condition that Mifune should grow a beard, paint it red (it’s not clear why, since the film is still black and white. But these are the whims of geniuses.) And not shave off during the entire filming period, i.e., two years. Because of this requirement, Mifune could not act in parallel in other films, as almost all actors around the world do. That is, the role in "Red Beard" caused significant damage to the financial well-being of Mifune. But after this film, Mifune’s career and finances sharply went uphill, he became the most sought-after actor not only in Japan but in the USA. And Kurosawa, on the contrary, was going through difficult times in the 60s and 70s. So difficult that sometimes he was close to suicide. Be that as it may, these circumstances did not contribute to the restoration of good relations between once good friends and colleagues.
In short, Kurosawa had to look for an actor who, by fame and acting, would be comparable to Toshiro Mifune. And Tatsuya Nakadai was recognized as such an actor. He agreed with the proposal of Akira Kurosawa, in several films of which he played back in the early 60s. Moreover, without even reading the script. True, this consent cost him friendship with Shintaro Katsu, who after that simply stopped talking with Nakadai.
Of course, the involvement of Tatsuya Nakadai in the film meant a major change in the filming process, as he had to play two roles. This change, of course, led to a complication of filming and, of course, to a rise in price. However, a number of "recommendations" received from American producers also contributed to an increase in film production costs. So, for example, for filming in battle scenes from the United States, more than two hundred female riders were brought along with their specially trained horses. Authentic military armor of the 16th century, which had the status of the national treasure of Japan, was borrowed from the museums of Japan. Etc. As a result, the budget of the picture has grown to almost 11 million dollars.
Regarding box office of the movie, various sources cite different data. The most reliable, in our opinion, are the following figures: in Japan, the film raised about 13 million dollars, in the United States - another 4 million dollars. We do not have data on film fees around the world, but this is not important either, since without them it is clear that the cost of producing a film has fully paid off.
If the financial success of the picture can be assessed as moderate, then the festival success of the film was literally stunning. Just a month after the premiere, Akira Kurosawa’s film won the Palme d'Or of the Cannes International Film Festival (paired with Bob Fosse’s film “All That Jazz”).
The next year, 1981, the European triumph of the film "Kagemusha 影武者 (Shadow Warrior)" continued. The film itself obtained the French César Award as the Best Foreign Film, and its director - Akira Kurosawa - was awarded Italian David di Donatello Award as the Best Foreign Director and the other as the best foreign producer. In the UK, the film received two BAFTA nominations. In one - for best directing - it won, and in the nomination for the best film it lost to David Lynch's film "The Elephant Man".
And in the United States, the successes of the film by Akira Kurosawa were a little more modest. The film was nominated for both major American film awards, but in a competition for the Golden Globe in the category Best Foreign Film lost to the film "Tess" by Roman Polanski, and the Academy Award in the same category from Akira Kurosawa sensationally "took away" Vladimir Menshov's film "Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears". And this event, literally, brought to hysteria, judging by the text of the review, the New York Times film reviewer Vincent Canby, who called the Menshov's film frank hack against the backdrop of "Kagemusha". So strong were the expectations of American film critics that the Oscar in the nomination Best Foreign Language Film would be awarded to a Japanese film created with American money.
In this regard, I would like to note that similar expectations, apparently, were inherent in the Soviet leaders of the cinema industry. And that is precisely why Vladimir Menshov was not delegated to Los Angeles to participate in the Oscars, and not because Menshov was supposedly "restricted to travel abroad," almost a "victim of the regime." Just no one expected such a decision from the members of the Academy of Film Academy. And to send a famous Soviet cinematographer to the United States only to play the role of an extras - as they say, "the Soviet have their own pride." And the figurine was eventually handed over to the culture attache of the Soviet embassy, which was present at the ceremony simply by virtue of its official duties.
And about the masterpiece of Akira Kurosawa, the same Vincent Canby in his review literally the day after the premiere of the film in New York wrote:
"Kagemusha" is probably the director's most physically elborate, most awesome film, full of magificent views of lines of mounted soldiers slowly crossing grand landscapes or galloping along seashores, against sunsets of a magnificence that seems to foreshadow the end of the world. "Kagemusha" is majestic, stately, cool and, in many of its details, almost abstract. It appears very much to be the work of a director who, now 70 years old, is no longer concerned with the obligations of conventional drama or even with moral questions. He is, instead, contemplating history, not as something to be judged but, rather, acknowledged and, possibly, understood."
69% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users around the world rated "Kagemusha 影武者 (Shadow Warrior)" with ratings from 8 to 10.
Based on the success indicators listed above, the movie's rating according to FilmGourmand was 10.484, which ensured it a high 22nd place in the Golden Thousand.
