In this vein, given the confluence of events on the day I write this, I am inevitably reminded of the climax of the Akira Kurosawa masterpiece Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980). The story of the Japanese Takeda clan's effort during the height of the 16th century Daimyo Wars to conceal the death of the clan chieftain, Lord Shingen (Tatsuya Nakadai), for three years, the movie spins out the tale of a thief who was about to be crucified but because of his uncannily close resemblance to the late chieftain is instead recruited by Shingen's brother Nobukado (Tsutumo Yamazaki) to act as his double. The training of the thief is so thorough that he effectively becomes Shingen, much to the humiliation and growing outrage of Shingen's son Katsuyori (Kenichi Hagiwara) who is continually marginalized by Nobukado and the clan generals. A stupid accident reveals the thief as an imposter, finally forcing the clan to publicly acknowledge Shingen's death and hold the long-delayed funeral. The event also catapults the resentful Katsuyori to the chieftainship of the clan. As Nobukado and the elderly Masakage Yamagata (Shuji Otaki), the late Lord Shingen's uncle and senior general of the Takedas, both know too well, Katsuyori's ascension presages the clan's doom, since the young man completely lacks the temperament and wisdom necessary to rule effectively.
Now freed from the shadow of his late father, the imposter, and the generals, Katsuyori is determined to establish his own glory by leading the Takeda army into an immediate attack upon the combined armies of Nobunaga Oda (Daisuke Ryu) and Ieyasu Tokugawa (Masayuki Yui), Shingen's principal rivals for the Shogunate of Japan prior to his death. Katsuyori's march defies Shingen's will that the Takeda clan remain in their domain to guard it and preserve their own power. Marching along the coast, the army is confronted by the sight of a rainbow upon the sea. Making one last attempt to reach Katsuyori, Masakage points to the rainbow as an omen that the Takeda clan should not meet Nobunaga and Ieyasu in battle. Scornfully, Katsuyori declares that the Takeda clan has never been defeated and orders the army forward to Nagashino. There, Nobunaga and Ieyasu are waiting with their army deployed on a ridge, behind a solid log barricade where hundreds of musketeers are lined up and awaiting their oncoming enemy.
Nobukado and Masakage know that the clan is about to be destroyed and there is nothing they can do to prevent it. They cross lances, make their final goodbyes to one another, and ride forth to join their men. Heedless of the strong position on high ground taken up by their enemies, Katsuyori sends the divisions of his army across the open plain toward the enemy line, one by one.
Each division charges the barricade in order, and each division is shot down by the musketeers as they come forward. The carnage is horrendous. Men and horses are slaughtered down to the last of their number without coming anywhere close to the foot of the ridge. Within ten minutes, the mighty Takeda army is annihilated. The remaining warriors retreat to the sea, where they are pursued and finished off by Nobunaga and Ieyasu. With the completion of the final slaughter, the Takeda clan is no more and they disappear from Japanese history. All because of the ego-driven flight of madness by one immature individual, catapulted by a twist of fate to a seat of leadership he did not deserve, and who ended up quickly leading his clan to total disaster.
But hopefully, this will remain just a plot from a movie.
