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
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?
One of Kurosawa's Greatest Films This reimagining of Shakespeare's King Lear by legendary director Akira Kurosawa is a fine addition to the Criterion Collection. Majestic in scope, Ran is Kurosawa's last epic masterpiece. The film is set in sixteenth-century Japan and evinces the folly of war as well as how treachery, greed, and a lust for power destroy a family. A special edition double-disc set, the second disc offers a number of first-rate supplements, including A.K., a 74-minute film on Kurosawa by Chris Marker, a 30-minute documentary on the making of Ran, and a 35-minute video piece reconstructing Ran through Kurosawa's paintings and sketches. An excellent 28-page booklet featuring an insightful essay by film critic Michael Wilmington and interviews with Kurosawa and composer Toru Takemitsu is also included. This film -- particularly this Criterion Collection edition -- is a must for any Kurosawa collector.
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