Amazon.com essential video: As critic Roger Ebert observed in his original review of Ran, this epic tragedy might have been attempted by a younger director, but only the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, who made the film at age 75, could bring the requisite experience and maturity to this stunning interpretation of Shakespeare's King Lear. It's a film for the ages--one of the few genuine screen masterpieces--and arguably serves as an artistic summation of the great director's career. In this version of the Shakespeare tragedy, the king is a 16th-century warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai as Lord Hidetora) who decides to retire and divide his kingdom evenly among his three sons. When one son defiantly objects out of loyalty to his father and warns of inevitable sibling rivalry, he is banished and the kingdom is awarded to his compliant siblings. The loyal son's fears are valid: a duplicitous power struggle ensues and the aging warlord witnesses a maelstrom of horrifying death and destruction. Although the film is slow to establish its story, it's clear that Kurosawa, who planned and painstakingly designed the production for 10 years before filming began, was charting a meticulous and tightly formalized dramatic strategy. As familial tensions rise and betrayal sends Lord Hidetora into the throes of escalating madness, Ran (the title is the Japanese character for "chaos" or "rebellion") reaches a fever pitch through epic battles and a fortress assault that is simply one of the most amazing sequences on film. --Jeff Shannon
A brilliant, moving epic Kurosawa may be the first world-class Japanese director that most Americans think of, but many Japanese consider him the most Western of their country's great artists. Old prints of his early works list his name in the traditional order: Kurosawa Akira. We, of course, know him as Akira Kurosawa.
RAN is a good example of that cultural balance. Not only is it an adaptation of KING LEAR -- in fact, it may be the best version of LEAR ever put on film -- but it casts the story in the historical context of 16th century feudal Japan and combines a dynamic, deep focus camera and ferocious battle scenes with the mannered performances of Nô theater. It brings together Lord Hidetora, an arrogant, tragic patriarch; Kyoami, Hidetora's wise and loyal fool; and Lady Kaede, that most cunning villain whose scheming brings disaster to them all. This cross-cultural balance probably shouldn't work but it intensifies, I think, the depth of the tragedy.
Parts of RAN, the plotting and back-room deliberations especially, may seem slow. The alternation of still, almost mediative deliberation with sudden action is a rhythm characteristic of the Nô drama. Kurosawa uses it beautifully.
Stephen Prince's audio commentary describes the background of some of the principal actors but concentrates primarily on Kurosawa's use of the camera and on the social and historical context of the story. I suspect that those who find such academic discussions informative will enjoy Prince's superb narrative. This recent Criterion release is nicely mastered with sharp images, vivid colors, and clear subtitles.
Ran Ran is my favourite Kurosawa film. And thankfully Criterion have made an edition with good transfer and tons of extras. The film is so rich, both visually pleasing and with a moral dimension. Here we follow an elder succesful warrior and clan-leader on a path where he is confronted with dark karma created by his earlier cruel deeds, and the deceitfulness of his nearest allies. The tranquil old age he seeks seems impossible because of the greed and brutality among allies and family members, the same greed and brutality that he himself used to get to the top!
Ran Means Chaos Ran is Kurosawa's final masterpiece and my favorite Kurosawa movie. For me, Ran is more of an experience than a movie. It just seems so "real" to me. Directed when he was 75, the master director presents a cast of thousands and renders a mortal struggle of good and evil, fealty and betrayal, cruelty and kindness, & greed and generosity. An old man who has achieved power through war and treachery, deludes himself into giving up everything he has lived his entire life to accomplish to his ungrateful and ambitious sons. He is no victim. His final act of treachery is to betray himself. Kurosawa uses Shakespeare's King Lear as a loose foundation but combines elements of other Shakespare plays, noh and kabuki theater, and his own unique filmmaking. The result is a movie that is simultaneously familiar and wholly unique. Not Lear, not Shakespeare, not Japanese but completely Kurosawa.
Tatsuya Nakadai, who played the title character in Kagamusha so brilliantly, returns in another great performance as the king who unwisely divides his kingdom. The performances are uniformly excellent but Mieko Harada deserves special mention an evil, crafty Lady MacBeth type. The cinematography was done by longtime Kurosawa collaborator Asakazu Nakai. Ran was his last movie and the movie is beautifully shot as a magnificant epic. I don't usually mention film scores but the score composed by Toru Takemitsu could not be more perfectly suited to this movie. The final effect is that of a majestic, beautifully filmed, haunting, brilliant epic perfectly rendered by an expert cast and crew.
This profound and deeply satisfying film is one of the finest examples of the art of filmmaking in rendering a vision of life in the world. Profound, sweeping, exciting and tragic, Ran may not be Kurosawa's last movie butit is the perfect end to a brilliant career.
My wife has a PhD in Renaissance Literature... with a focus in Shakespeare (her dissertation topic is Memory in Shakespeare's works). I bought this for her when she had not seen it. She went absolutely GAGA for it when she finally did. I am a movie person, and I love Kurosawa. I had seen this, but didn't get the Shakespeare context like my wife did. She's teaching this movie now at her college. This is a brilliant adaptation. See it, study it. It is an artifact, and a vehicle for communication about the differences in Asian vs. Western culture.
Beautiful Print, Dumbed-Down Subtitles The print is beautiful, but the subtitles have been altered. For Saburo to say, "It makes me nervous," instead of "It isn't right," is preposterous, given his character. Why would Criterion even mess with the English translation? Why do all that work just to ruin something?
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