Ran

'Even the good are caught in the chaos others create, look at what pride and revenge leave behind' *Pure, silent devastation. * At its heart, Ran is about what happens when power, ego, and pride tear everything apart. Based loosely on King Lear, Kurosawa has injected his own style into a more universal, chaos (ran literally meaning “chaos” in Japanese), and how humans create it. It’s asking us to look at the mess humans make through pride, revenge, blindness and decide whether we want to keep repeating that cycle. Hidetora may have also been my favourite part of the film. When it would swap to his view it would make for an unnerving but also hysteric and laughable commentary that was being shown. Hidetora’s downfall, sad yet may have been deserved, was ultimately a play about how power corrupts not just others, but yourself. He built his empire through violence and control, and when he finally tries to step back, he expects peace. Direction and cinematography? Unreal. Kurosawa made battles look like dance. Even the quiet scenes had tension. I wasn’t bored for a second. Felt like theatre, war, and poetry all rolled into one. My only issue was some parts of the battles were replayed or the same scene otherwise I would've given it full stars.