Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 epic, Ran, is an expansive and tragic masterpiece, well worth experiencing by any and all movie lovers. It is often viewed as Kurosawa’s supreme effort, which is a remarkable assertion considering that Kurosawa produced a body of work consisting of thirty-one films (Rashômon, Ikiru, The Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo), many considered cinematic gems, over a career spanning five decades from the 1940’s through the 1990’s. Ran was produced over ten years during a stage in the great film master’s career when he had obtained full confidence in his command of cinematographic technique. It achieves a poetry of color, motion, and sound that could probably not have been accomplished by any other of the world’s great directors or, even, by Kurosawa earlier in his life.

Concept: Ran is an adaptation of the Shakespeare’s play King Lear, reset in feudal Japan of the 16th century. Kurosawa co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Hideo Oguni and Masato Ide and it is a high quality script. There have been many previous attempts to adapt the story of King Lear across epochs or cultures, and some have failed utterly. What makes this adaptation remarkable and ultimately successful is that the story is fully infused with themes and perspectives of Japanese culture and history, while nevertheless closely following the essential narrative progression of the original. The product thereby transcends cultural boundaries to create a truly multicultural tapestry. It effectively blends East and West – not only in cultural derivation but, as we shall see later, in cinematographic techniques. One strength of Ran is the story itself.

The Story and its Meanings: The story revolves around the Ichimonji clan, which is headed by the Great Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) – the King Lear character. Hidetora, who had consolidated a large territory by a half-century of brutality and conquest, is at the stage in life when one wants to step aside and pass on one’s authority and responsibilities to others. He uses the occasion of a hunting party, in the presence of the heads of the two chief rival clans and his three sons, to announce his plan for transition and continuity. He will retain his nominal title as “Great Lord” but will turn over all authority to his eldest son, Tarotakatora (Akira Terao), while also granting two smaller castle, one each, to his second son, Jiromasatora (Jinpachi Nezu), and his youngest son Suburonatora (Daisuke Ryu). The three sons are called Taro, Jiro, and Suburo for short. Before culminating the arrangement, he demands, in accordance with Japanese custom, ritual assurances of love and devotion from his three sons. One of the paradoxes of Asian culture in relation to western culture is greater ritualized adherence to shows of deference or subservience, which often mask, however, internalized jealousies and hostilities. Insincere displays are readily proffered by Taro and Jiro, but Suburo, who cannot abide hypocrisy, says nothing. Hidetora, to reinforce his concept for the future, conducts a demonstration based on a traditional Japanese legend. He takes an arrow from his quiver and easily snaps it in two. He takes two arrows together and breaks them with more difficulty. Then he bundles three together and illustrates that they cannot be broken. Suburo is having none of it, however, and breaks the bunch of three. He is certain that the promises of filial loyalty will only be honored in the breach. Hidetora, who is inculcated with the formalities of Japanese manners, is shocked by Suburo’s audacity and immediately banishes him. He fails to see that Suburo is the only one of the three sons that is speaking the truth, while the other two offer only false promises and will ultimately betray him. Hidetora lacks the humility to understand that the obeisance of his elder sons is not the same thing as real loyalty. This presents another of the many paradoxes explored in this film – the contrast between Hidetora’s great experience and success as a warrior and his naivety in relation to his own children. One moral of the story is that a father who cannot accurately see the truth of his own children’s characters and manage his children accordingly is doomed to suffer for it. Ran translates roughly as “Chaos” and the inference is that dealing with one’s children ineptly out of blindness ultimately leads to chaos. As the two older sons turn relentlessly against their now impotent father, he is systematically stripped of his power, influence, and personal pride.

Taro is married to the duplicitous Lady Kaede (Mieko Harada), who slyly manipulates him. Her family was destroyed by Hidetora and she is consumed by the desire for revenge through the destruction of the Ichimonjis clan. She succeeds, first, in turning her husband against his father, forcing Hidetora to remove himself to Jito’s castle. After that arrangement also fails, Hidetora takes up residence in the third castle (that had been refused by Saburo) with his small army. Still under pressure from Lady Kaede, Taro declares his father insane and attacks with the aid of Jito. Hidetora escapes the castle with only one loyal assistant, Tango (Masayuki Yui), and his jester, Kyoami (Peter), who provides the films main comic relief. They are left to wander the wilderness while Hidetora grows increasingly insane. Hidetora has paid bitterly for his inability to correctly judge the ambitions of his sons.

Jito, however, also double-crosses Taro, ensuring Taro’s death during the battle. Jito is now in full control of the Ichimonjis clan. He enters Taro’s former castle, which is the clan’s largest, and confronts Lady Kaede. She outwits him, however, by standing up to him, then threatening his life, and finally seducing him.

Jiro’s wife is Lady Sue. Her family was also murdered by Hidetora and, furthermore, her brother, Tsurmaru, though permitted to live, had been blinded by having his eyes gouged out. Tsurmaru now lives as a hermit, devoted to Buddhism. Hidetora, during his direcetionless wanderings, encounters Tsurmaru and is forced to confront the demons of his life of ruthless violence. Saburo, the only son who truly cares about his father, hearing of his father’s plight attempts to rescue him. Hidetora discovers too late that Saburo is the only son whose love is genuine. Saburo’s death follows abruptly on the heels of the brief reconciliation.

Lady Kaede has soon achieved complete domination of Jito. She even demands that he bring her the head of his wife, Lady Sue. In the end she accomplishes the complete destruction of the Ichimonjis clan, avenging her own family’s slaughter. That it also takes her own life is appropriate but of no consequence to her. By the end of the film, virtually every major character has perished horrifically, along with thousands of their soldiers, servants, and concubines, and viewers are left to ponder the pointlessness of it all.

Cinematography and Visual Detail: The cinematographic concept used in Ran is quite extraordinary. There is a sharp contrast between the filming technique used in the battle scenes and the rest. The action scenes are filmed according to western film-making style and special effects, as magnificent sweeping events. The intervening non-action scenes are filmed in what might be called theatrical format, with little movement of the camera or zooming in for close-ups. This corresponds to the traditional Japanese style of shooting. It gives the sense of watching a live play in a theater, which deepens the associations between the film and Shakespearean tragic drama. The camera serves as the “fourth wall”, placing the viewers in the familiar role of theater audience. The settings range from elegant medieval castle interiors to panoramas of the Japanese countryside.

If the non-action scenes have the feel of chamber music, the battle scenes are like movements from Romantic symphonies of great power and intensity. Kurosawa once stated that “There is something that might be called cinematic beauty [that] can only be expressed in a film . . . When it is very well expressed, one experiences a particularly deep emotion while watching that film.” This is what Kurosawa accomplishes here. Each of the sons’ armies has its own color banner and the uniforms of all of the soldiers match that color. The armies are, in effect, color-coded. Ran quite appropriately received an Oscar in the costume category in 1985. There are plenty of bright golds and reds, in particular. The battle scenes are virtually awash in color, creating visual images of great intensity. Even in the opening scene when Hidetora lays out his plan for dividing up his territory among the sons, each is wearing a frock of the color that his soldiers will later wear into battle! Kurosawa’s control of palette exceeds what one encounters in nearly any other film. Kurosawa was, in fact, an amateur painter, and it shows here in his film work. Every battle frame oozes color, such as when a red sunset forms near the peak of a battle scene. Kurosawa used some 1400 extras and 250 horses for the battle scenes of Ran. An amazing aspect of this footage is how intricately these scenes are choreographed. There is no wasted movement. It has as much the feel of ballet as battle. Broad battle panoramas are alternated with close-ups, such as a stunned soldier holding a severed arm in his other hand, so that we don’t ever lose sight of the personal impacts amidst the spectacle.

The sophistication of the make-up in Ran is another exceptional feature. The sinister Lady Kaede, for example wears traditional Japanese Noh make-up, reminiscent of early Japanese theater, that adds to her menacing appearance. It also enables her to reveal her complex emotions to us with the tiniest change in facial expression. Hidetora’s own face becomes increasingly pale white as his insanity deepens and leads inexorably toward death.

Music and Sound: One of the battle scenes utilizes an especially innovative sound technique. As the assault begins, we hear only the sound of the musical score – a haunting elegy. This continues until suddenly a General is hit and, instantly, we hear the cacophony of hoof beats, footsteps of the infantry, the discharge of weapons, arrows whizzing by, and screams of anguish.

The soundtrack blends traditional Japanese music and western symphonic music, emphasizing the cross-cultural aspects of the story. A lot of use is made of a solo flute that provides a shrill reminder of the throes of tragedy. The solemn music in the opening of the film prepares the audience with proper foreboding. There is also skillful use of natural sounds in the outdoor sequences, such as frocks flapping in the breeze.

Performances: Although all of the performances are good, three deserve some special comment. Tatsuya Nakadai in the lead role as Hidetora has the most demanding role, but carries the part effectively through the stages of increasing insanity and from powerful Great Lord to old man in despair. Mieko Harada is extraordinary in the complex role of the villainous Lady Kaede. She must portray her character as essentially evil and calculating but also evoke in viewers just an ounce of sympathy for her vengefulness, given that it is based on the murder of her parents. She manages to slink across the floor with the slippery elegance of a snake. She is also appropriately sensuous as a seductress. Hidetora’s jester, Kyoami, whose gender seems uncertain, was played by a famous transvestite actor known simply as “Peter.” He successfully provides both humor and pathos.

Akira Kurosawa and the Production of Ran: Kurosawa has sometimes been referred to as the Shakepeare of cinema, reflecting his talent for cross-cultural adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. In addition to Ran, he produced Throne of Blood based on Macbeth. Kurosawa was 75 when Ran was completed and his eyesight was failing. He had already suffered through bouts of depression and even a botched suicide attempt, so he had both the wisdom of age and the range of tragic experience to penetrate the psyche of King Lear. It took Kurosawa ten years to complete this epic masterpiece, partly because of reluctance on the part of Japanese investors to support the project. The deal was ultimately boot-strapped by the French producer, Serge Silberman. Ran remains the most expensive Japanese film ever made. The filming was also plagued by personal tragedy for Kurosawa, when his wife died part way through. Kurosawa went through a period when his work seemed out-of-fashion to the Japanese public but emerged to become a venerated “sensei”, or master, for a younger generation of movie-making professionals.

The Bottom Line: It has often been suggested that King Lear is a play that cannot be fully appreciated without a certain amount of life experience in arrears for a reader. I’m not generally convinced that either youth or experience is a consistent advantage in relation to wisdom, believing that some kinds of understanding increase with age but that acuity of insight can also be diminished by excessive indoctrination into society’s conventional assumptions. In the case of King Lear as a character, however, I think there may be a point about age and understanding. King Lear (Hidetora) is at a stage in life when he is looking back over and assessing a lifetime of effort and contemplating transition into a period of greater passivity. Since the focus for youth is looking forward in anticipation of the life that lays largely ahead, the idea of looking back on life may be too far removed from their experience to be fully appreciated. The fear that sometimes emerges at the onset of “old age” that one’s life work may turn too easily and too soon to dust is something that the average young person cannot comprehend. One reviewer of Ran recounted that he found that the film received a less warm reception from an audience comprised of college students than its critical acclaim would seem to warrant. As classic tragedy, the characters in Ran are generally not ones with whom viewers experience great personal empathy, but it is a mistake to judge a film against a concept of film-making that is entirely different than the one that provided the actual creative foundation.

Kurosawa has taken a great story from literature and recounted it in an exceptionally fresh way. Ran was nominated for four Academy Awards, in the categories of Director, Cinematography, Costumes, and Set. It won only the award for Costumes, which it certainly deserved. Many feel that it should also have won, at a minimum, the Best Director Oscar for Kurosawa. It is a long film, with a running time of 160 min. Ran is a glorious achievement, transforming, as it does, the torment of gruesome tragedy into a beautiful work of art.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Japan:

The Ballad of Narayama
The Burmese Harp
Chushingura
Drunken Angel
The Eel
Floating Weeds
Gate of Hell
The Hidden Fortress
High and Low
Ikiru
Kagemusha
Kwaidan
Rashômon
Red Beard
Samurai 1: Musashi Miyamoto
Sanjuro
Sanshô, the Baliff
The Seven Samurai
Shall We Dance?
Stray Dog
The Woman in the Dunes
Yojimbo

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age