Kagemusha

kurosawa paints a picture with the armies. the colours are not just decoration, they’re information. each clan dressed in their own palette. their banners and armour moving across the frame like strokes of paint. the wide shots have meaning also. they’re geometry. showing order, hierarchy, and the pressure of keeping everything in place for a man who is dead, unbeknownst to most. the thief. a nobody asked to become a somebody. who slowly, without meaning to, becomes more of a warlord than then shingen ever was. he starts using his power and ends up reaping its consequences. a man with no name, no clan, no right to care, dying for something that was never his and a legacy he was never part of. my interpretation of the film is that kurosawa is trying to say that identity is simply repetition. do something long enough and it eventually becomes who you are.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ play sport for long enough, your an athlete. draw for long enough, your an artist. lead an entire army for long enough, and your a warlord.