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Beautiful images Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" is a complicated film, and sometimes difficult to like. Kurosawa's preference for long shots and medium shots over closeups, very little cutting in dialogue scenes, and long pauses make for a slow, deliberate pace. It often feels like we're watching bits of story happening in real time; this applies to the battles as well. But these are not deficiencies. The pace (similar to the later "Ran") gives the film an almost meditative quality that you might not expect given the war setting. "Seven Samurai" it certainly is not, but it is well worth the effort. This film contains what is, to me, one of the single most beautiful images I've seen in film. At sunset, two solders of the Takeda clan are discussing whether Shingen has been killed. The image is only in silhouette against a blazingly orange-red sky, with the air full of dust as a long procession of soldiers and cavalry slowly marches by. Beautiful. The Criterion edition of this film is Kurosawa's original full-length version, not the shorter international version previously available on VHS and laserdisc in the USA. I'm eagerly waiting to see the longer version, which I'm told restores a small role played by Takashi Shimura (one of my favorite of Kurosawa's regular actors) previously excised from the international version.