Ran

One of the many reasons why I started doing movie reviews in the first place was my growing knowledge of film and arthouse cinema especially during last year and among a few films that turn me on to this kind of cinema is Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai which I absolutely adored but ever since then, Kurosawa has always been on the watch list more then actually on the watched and reviewed list so let's change that. Today we are covering Kurosawa's last samurai film, his perfect and bloody swan song to the subgenre he helped to innovate and mastered, we are talking about his 1985 epic, Ran. Inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear, the film follows Tatsuya Nakadai as the Great Lord Hidetora, a aging samurai warrior and emperor who hands over his empire to his 3 sons, Taro (played by Akira Tereo), the eldest gets to rule and owns the first castle while Jiro (Played by Jinpachi Nezu) takes command of the second castle while his third son Saburo (played by Daisuke Ryu) quietly commands the third castle, a choice The Great Lord is reluctant by but then Taro's wife, the evil Lady Kaede starts to manipulate him into banishing his father and soon a family driven war erupts between all three, leading to betrayal, greed, deaths and much hunger and thirst for power. A astonishing picture, Kurosawa's Ran is a true testament to the director's genius that every frame shows the decades of hard work, love, passion and skills Kurosawa has as well as being a flawless and profounding exercise and statement on the meaningless and crumbling nature of war. Its almost shocking that the budget for this film was only 11,500,000 million dollars, yes it is a lot and not a low budget at all but if compared to today's billions of dollar budgeted films, Ran make those look like cartoons. All that millions of dollars is obviously on screen all the way through and it makes for a truly exciting and thrilling experience but even without talking about the scale of the film, the story is what I believe make it truly work. I dare say you can't get bored by Ran especially at the end. Everything about the film feels large, brutal and uncompromisingly raw especially thanks to Kurosawa's always masterful and sharp direction. Every frame, composition, movement looks stunning and effortlessly crafted and thought out, the film truly feels like pure magic, something that shouldn't be able to grace the screen yet there it is! Theres a youtube channel called the Beauty of which compiles the most beautiful clip from a single film, I believe if they ever do Ran they should just upload the whole film. It is that mesmerising and striking to look at. The way Kurosawa plays with everything in the frame feels like he truly doesn't waste anything, the colors, the lighting, the sets, the costumes, the cinematography everything, the film truly feels and look like one giant dance where everything is so well calculated it is flawless cinema making. Hands down one of the best and most beautiful directing I've seen but only is Kurosawa a excellent storyteller behind the camera but also behind the script chair as well. The story is endlessly and absorbingly massive, epic, heartbreaking, thought provoking and utterly majestic in its scope and emotion! It's super engaging, captivating and not boring in the slightest bit, like all of Kurosawa's best works it is expertly written and perfectly structured and paced throughout as well as being just such a powerful story. I always hated in war films when they glamourized it too much or make it seem fun which is why I love Ran so much, yes the war scenes are a spectacular sight to be hold but it's also a truly horrific one, the first true battle scene truly feels like something out of hell and the way Kurosawa directs make it seem almost like the soldiers are going down some volcano nearby, like going into the fiery depths of hell. The rest of the battle are also really well done and yes they look stunning and well choreographed all the way through but in the context of the story, they feel breathtakingly haunting and scary, the visuals throughout makes war really feel like an inescapable and meaningless hell that's covered in a sea of disgusting yet beautiful blood. The story at the very core is about family and how much we can underestimate who truly loves us and who truly cares about us, the way Kurosawa puts it into the plot doesn't feel even the slightest forced but utterly perfect and even unchangeable. One of my favorite scenes in the film is actually the scene where the Great Lord announces his departure from being the Empire and choices who is going to take his place, in this 10 to 15 minute long scene, not only is it expertly directed and filled with endless tension but how Kurosawa writes and directs really shows us all of their characteristic in the nutshell as well as expertly building up false expectations. The other characters are all also well thought out and memorable in their own right which is hard to do in a film this massive yet Kurosawa pulled it off as well as the actors who gave such amazing and passionate performances from Tatsuya Nakadai's excruciatingly painful and torturous performance as The Great Lord, having your children betray you and try to kill you over some meaningless power is a hard thing to convey and requires a unearthly amount of skill, inner power and acting experience to pull of but Tatsuya Nakadai really goes out of his limits here and delivers one haunting performance you just can't forget, his appearance and arc throughout the film feels like a man literally going throughout hell for what he does all those years as a warrior. Other standout performances includes Mieko Harada who is just deliciously wicked and evil in her role as Lady Keade, definitely one of those performances that you just love to hate but at the sametime the script and Harada make her believable and give her a reasonable reason on why she would do what she does even if we don't agree by it and that's what usually makes for a great villain and here it is no exception, despite having a short screen time she certainly eats it up. Masayuki Yui is also really good as Tango, a warrior who despite being banished by the Great Lord earlier in the film decides to help and dedicate himself to the Lord and although he wasn't anything too eye catching he certainly adds a level of believability and weight to the film and make us really believe The Great Lord despite his bad deeds in the past is at the very least honorable. All the cast members are all great in their own right and adds further dimension and world to the film. Ran is a truly wonderful film, its disturbing, scary, heartbreaking, epic, unrelenting, unsettling, powerful, dramatic and highly memorable and profounding, although the first act is a bit slow, when things get going it really does, remaining endlessly suspenseful, action packed, thought provoking and timeless in its depiction and message of war and its destructive and needless impact on people and society. Ran is certainly up there as one of Kurosawa's best films, if you are a new comer to Arthouse cinema and doesn't want to watch a black and white, foreign, 3 hour long epic like Seven Samurai (which btw is a terrible terrible terrible idea because you should definitely watch Seven Samurai or Rashomon first but) if you atleast want alternate that's in color and shorter but still very much epic and breathtaking then Ran is definitely for you! If you love Kurosawa and haven't watch this yet it's a must! But seriously though Seven Samurai is a perfect starter, highly recommend watching that one first then Ran but both films are great neither way so pick your masterpieces and have a wonderfully bloody and profounding time.