In his late color masterpiece KAGEMUSHA (THE SHADOW WARRIOR), director Akira Kurosawa returned to the samurai film and to a primary theme of his celebrated career%u2014the play between illusion and reality. Sumptuously reconstructing the splendor of feudal Japan and the pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a soaring historical epic that is also a somber meditation on the nature of power. The Criterion Collection is proud to present KAGEMUSHA for the first time in its full-length version.