Ran

In a mad world only the mad are sane. Been waiting way too long to watch this in a cinema but fuck me it was worth every second. Ran is a beautiful tragedy taking the thematic identity of King Lear but creating a challenging sense of bleakness from within the Shakespearean play. It becomes more than a simple recollection, building its own theatrical style. Through the masterfully directed scale, the overall sense of meaning and emotions are never lost, through incredible tonal control. At heart, it’s a simple family tale, yet from the reasonably straightforward dynamics, Kurosawa brings unbelievably complex questions and ideas. Ran works simultaneously as an intricate exploration of the tragedy of war, a study on the nature of man and how it never changes, the hopelessness of enforcing peace, how greed corrupts the mind, and the insanity of modern society. All of these ideas and more are constructed through some of the best pace control of all time. Through every scene, Kurosawa takes the exact amount of time needed to create his vision, making what becomes a flawless experience through and through, and not one second of the film could be made any better. In terms of visuals, without a single doubt Ran has by far the best of all time. The contrast with the beauty of the screen and the eerie music builds a haunting experience, which tests the viewers’ humanity, which achieves the exact thematic goal intended. A woman in front of me would shake her head in despair through every violent scene, which to me illustrates exactly what Ran does psychologically. Even to the most casual viewer, with no sense of media literacy, the idea of the evil of man would still get across. The best example of this goes without saying. The castle attack. No content is particularly disturbing, but the contradicting nature of the scene makes it hard to watch at times. I think it may be the most impactful cinematic experience I’ve ever had. This scene defines 2 main ideas of the film perfectly; tragedy and chaos. I believe the detail of every moment of the film is excellent too, with astonishing sound design, and framing that is so well done it seems unreal to look at. Kurosawa states this to be his greatest film, but I’d go one further, this is the greatest film of all time. This may seem like an overreaction off of initial thought, but I’ve never been so sure about that statement before now. I genuinely cannot imagine anything topping this.