"Shadow Warrior" is a Japanese film released in 1980, and its director is Akira Kurosawa, a Japanese film master known as the "Shakespeare of the film world".
Akira Kurosawa is one of my favorite film directors, who has a pivotal position in the world of cinema and has had a profound influence on famous Hollywood directors such as George Lucas (Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Jurassic Park). Unlike ordinary Japanese directors, Akira Kurosawa's approach to film narrative and handling is closer to the Hollywood model, so his films are more acceptable to the Western world, and many of today's classic Hollywood films are remade from several of Kurosawa's works. For example, "Star Wars" was filmed under the influence of "Warring States Heroes", George Lucas even wanted to invite Toshiro Mifune to play an important role in it, Master Obi-Wan, and other similar movies include "The Seven Dragons" ("Seven Samurai"), "Red Dead Redemption" ("Heart Stick") and so on.
The main story of "Shadow Warrior" is based on several anecdote stories in the Japanese Edo period military chronicle "Koyo Junkan". The story takes place in the middle and late Sengoku period of Japan (equivalent to the middle and late Ming Dynasty in China), and takeda Shingen, the daimyō (prince) of the Kai Kingdom, avoids being plotted against, and prefers to use a stand-in known as the "Shadow Warrior" on the battlefield to replace himself. One day, Takeda Shinren, the younger brother of Takeda Shingen, who was often the "shadow warrior" of Takeda Shingen, found a thief who looked exactly like his brother on the execution ground, rescued him, and introduced him to his brother. The thieves were reluctant to serve as shadow warriors, but Takeda Shingen was hit by an enemy's iron cannon (musket) during a siege battle, and in order to stabilize the situation after his death, the temporary former Shingen instructed the Takeda family to keep the funeral secret within three years. After witnessing the danger of the enemy's attack, the thieves took the initiative to ask Mirin to be ordered to serve as a shadow warrior for Shingen during the more than two years after Takeda Shingen's death, causing other countries to mistakenly believe that Shingen was still alive and did not dare to covet the takeda family's territory.
At first, "Takeda Shingen" was a matter of shadow warriors pretending to be, only a few important courtiers of the Takeda family knew about it, even Takeda Shingen's wife and son Takeda Katsurai did not know about it, and during this period, the shadow warrior also realized the importance of Takeda Shingen to the Takeda family, and completely entered the drama to live himself as Takeda Shingen. Unfortunately, on the eve of the three-year period, the shadow warrior revealed his identity during a trial ride on Takeda Shingen's mount, which eventually led to the expulsion of the Takeda family, and the power of the family was also controlled by Takeda Katsurai, the son of Takeda Shingen. The shadow warrior who has lost his identity can only watch as the young and reckless Takeda Katsurai leads the Takeda family to the road of destruction.
Kurosawa
Kurosawa's films have three treasures: narrative, lens and color, of which the narrative structure is needless to say, Kurosawa's film "Rashomon" is the peak of the narrative structure, which has won many awards internationally and successfully promoted Japanese films to the world. In terms of lens language, Akira Kurosawa is good at shooting magnificent epic movies and action movies full of male hormones, "Shadow Warrior" happens to be an epic historical movie, in which the war scenes are even more magnificent, even after watching the movie, there is a feeling of swinging intestines. The last item is color, Kurosawa Akira was limited by technology in the early days, shooting black and white films, but after the birth of color films, people were surprised to find that the director who shot black and white films also used color in color films, as if Kurosawa's previous experience in shooting movies was paving the way for the arrival of color movies.
At the beginning of "Shadow Warrior", Akira Kurosawa uses a seven-minute long shot to explain the background of the story through the dialogue between Takeda Shingen, Takeda Shinren and the thief sitting quietly in front of the camera. It is worth noting that among the three people who are sitting quietly, only the real Takeda Shingen has a shadow reflected on the wall, and the other two "shadow warriors" have no shadow, which also hints at the focus of this film, "shadow".
Another of Kurosawa's strengths is his ability to use static and dynamic lenses very skillfully. After the film's title, Shadow Warrior, the story of the film begins with a scout covered in mud, who enters the city that has been captured by the Takeda army and runs towards the Takeda army stationed in the center of the city. In the city where the scouts were running, the soldiers of the Takeda Army, who had experienced fierce battles, were lying in the city resting, and there were still the remains of many dead soldiers in the city, and the remains and the resting soldiers formed a quiet picture, and this picture was immediately disturbed by the running soldiers and the rapid background music, suggesting that the next plot would usher in a major turnaround. Sure enough, in the later scene, the soldiers of the Takeda Army under the castle of Noda Castle rested under the cover of night, and the soldiers and the flute in the background of Noda Castle once again outlined a quiet scene, but with the sound of a gunshot, this static picture was broken in an instant, followed by another picture of a scout riding a fast horse galloping in the morning fog, accompanied by the soldiers' background line of "What happened", which led to the first suspense of the movie. From the later narrative, it can be seen that this gunshot is actually a hint that Takeda Shingen, who is close to success, "died before he was born", and of course, it is also the real starting point of the story of "Shadow Warrior".
Similar shots such as this combination of static and dynamic pictures form a sharp contrast, giving the audience a great sense of impact, as well as the plot of attacking Takatenjin Castle in the middle of the film and the decisive battle scene at the end of the film. During the Takeda army's attack on Takatenjin Castle, the enemy believed that Takeda Shingen was dead and sent troops to fight, only to see Takeda Shingen sitting quietly under the "Sun Wu Banner", so they immediately turned their horses and retreated. In the final battle scene at the end of the film, there is no line, no background music, only the picture of the Takeda Army charging (dynamic) and the sound of horseshoes, as well as the sound of enemy troops standing still in the position (static) and the sound of iron cannon fire. After the total annihilation of the Takeda army, Takeda Shinryo looked at the tragic situation of the battlefield with tears in his eyes (static), and the battlefield was already a sea of blood, leaving only a few dying soldiers and warhorses struggling (dynamic). Reluctantly picking up a spear, the Shadow Warrior launched a final charge (dynamic) towards the enemy position alone on the battlefield full of corpses, and with several echoing gunshots, the Shadow Warrior became the last soldier of the Takeda Army to die, falling into the stream (static) on the battlefield, and also announced the end of the movie "Shadow Warrior".
The use of color in the movie "Shadow Warrior" also left a deep impression. The director borrowed the Takeda family's military flag "Wind Forest Volcano" and divided the Takeda family's army into four parts in four colors: black (wind), green (forest), red (fire) and purple (mountain), and may not understand why the director did this during the movie, but when he saw the end of the film, he found that this was the director's preparation for the final battle scene at the end of the film.
The first wave of attacks by the Takeda Army was an army with a black "wind" flag, which symbolized solemnity and solemnity, which implied the great power of the Takeda family, which dominated Eastern Japan, and attacked enemy positions like black clouds pressing down on the city.
After the failure of the first offensive, it was followed by an army with the green "forest" banner, which was marching step by step, and the spears lined up among the soldiers swayed slowly like the woods in the wind. The army flying the green flag in the film is not like the "black flag" with "black armor" and "red flag" with "red armor" like the other two attacking armies, but uses a combination of "green flag" and "black armor". Green is usually the color that symbolizes life and vitality, while black, in addition to solemnity and solemnity, also symbolizes pessimism, and the combination of the color of life and the color of pessimism also hints at the fate of the defeat of this army.
The third wave of the Takeda Army's offensive, and the last official offensive launched in the film except for the Shadow Warriors, this time the attacking army was a red-armored cavalry wearing a red "fire" flag, and the Takeda Army burned into the enemy's position with a fiery force. The red color here symbolizes violence and blood, and the reckless and tyrannical Takeda Katsurai lost his mind after the first two offensives were frustrated, and launched a final wave of attacks on the enemy army despite the obstruction of his courtiers, in exchange for only blood and countless soldiers killed in battle.
The army with the purple "mountain" flag is not the army that charges forward, but the army responsible for guarding the Takeda Army, which symbolizes nobility and also implies that this army is guarding the "big mountain" of the Takeda family. With the death of Takeda Shingen, Takeda Katsurai's ability was not enough to become this "big mountain", and after the defeat of the Takeda army, these flags also fell vertically in the empty Takeda Army's main line, implying that the "mountain" that the Takeda family could rely on was already a cloud of smoke.
Finally, when the shot warrior ran to the flag of the "Wind Forest Volcano" drifting in the stream, the flag of the Takeda soldiers in the picture appeared white that had not appeared during the charge, and the white originally symbolized holiness, but here it means reality and parting. The former Takeda family used the above-mentioned four romantic colors of black, green, red, and purple to traverse Japan, but in the face of emerging forces, they could only succumb to reality and become a tragic heroic epic passed down by word of mouth in later generations.
From an audience's point of view, the film "Shadow Warrior" is full of advantages, the only drawback is probably that the length of the movie is too long, the full version is 179 minutes long, a full three hours, even if it is an edited version, there are 162 minutes, enough for the audience to sit on the ass pain. However, if you sit quietly and enjoy the film, you will find that these 179 minutes do not actually have any superfluous shots and plots, and each plot has its own deep meaning. Of course, there are some deep meanings that only Japanese people and those who are familiar with Japanese history and culture can appreciate, so there will be a 162-minute clip for foreign audiences to cut out this part of the content.
From a historical point of view, in order to pursue artistic creation, "Shadow Warrior" has fictionalized many plots, and the script has made extensive references to folk legends and stories. Although the historical Takeda Shingen also died shortly after the capture of Noda Castle, the cause of his death was not a gunshot wound, but tuberculosis or lung cancer. Although after Takeda Shingen's death, the Takeda family also concealed the death secret as in the movie, but the historical story is not as legendary as the movie, takeda Shingen's death soon spread throughout Japan, and the enemies of the Takeda family also learned that Shingen was dead and attacked the Takeda family. Takeda Katsurai, the son of Takeda Shingen, although Takeda Shingen has some spare resources, he is not an arrogant and clumsy disciple like in the film, and supports the Takeda family after takeda Shingen's death. In reality, the Takeda family's army is not divided into four parts as in the movie, and the decisive battle at the end of the film is also artistically processed, and in history, the Takeda army actually launched a total of five waves of offensives during the Nagashina War, of which the second and third waves of offensives were samurai wearing black armor and red armor.
However, the most important part of a movie is to tell a complete and logical story, and from this level alone, "Shadow Warrior" has done it, and it is a rare masterpiece. As for the discrepancy with historical facts, we do not have to be too harsh, because the story film itself is different from the documentary film, and people who are really interested in history will never learn history from the film.
Text author: Sanae Hojo
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