Ran

— Criterion Challenge — #Film 2. (Directed by Akira Kurosawa) “ And yet all we did was tell the truth” “He gives away his house, He gives away his lands, He now holds a new title: 'Lord of the rice fields' a scarecrow!” If I worked as hard as I did finding workable subtitles and a decent torrent for this in any other aspect in life, Jeff Bezos would suck my toes on the daily.  Seeing Kurosawa work with colour again and he didn’t disappoint; the colour palette is next level, by the opening sequence alone I had a feeling I’d like this. The costumes, the masses of soldiers and people in every shot, the choreography and movement, wow it’s mind blowing.  I will admit, I fell out during some of the more duller parts, mostly because of the length and That Japanese Cinema often feels the need to feed the viewer with exposition before any type of action, this movie does that sometimes. Also gotta give a shout-out to the amazing extras in this as well, the stunts performed are pretty crazy at times, the fight scenes were something else, the logistics must’ve been out of this world. Every single component to the script from the start to the end, the battle sequences, the costumes, the camerawork, I mean come on!  Man I wished we had a larger selection of films like this, this is some of the best cinema I have ever seen.  The shot of Lord Hidetora slowly leaving his castle in disbelief and shame.. then the following scene where they find him on the windy hill completely mad…  Why make movies anymore?