Ran

This film perfectly adapts my favourite play of all time, and somehow the plot isn’t even the most incredible part. The word ‘beautiful’ gets thrown around a lot when people talk about movies, but Ran truly is beautiful in every sense. There were multiple times throughout the film when I thought to myself ‘this is the most beautiful shot I have ever seen in any movie ever’.  This film more than any other seems like some mythical creation that I as a mortal could never even dream of recreating. The sheer scale, detail, and polish required to produce this film seems otherworldly. Furthermore, as if being a visual masterpiece wasn’t enough, Ran manages to not only capture the themes and ideas that make King Lear so good, but also to add its own themes to the story in an entirely new cultural and religious context. I’m in awe of Akira Kurosawa. TLDR: The film is so damn good it makes me want to learn Japanese so I don’t need subtitles and can entirely focus on the visuals, and Memento is on thin ice for the ‘favourite of all time’ title.