RAN (1985)

A.K.A.: Revolt

Country: Japan

Genre(s): Action / Drama / Epic / War

Director: Akira Kurasawa

Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai / Mieko Harada / Jiro Masatora Ichimonji

Plot

When an elderly Japanese warlord bequeaths his territories and powers to his eldest son, he unwittingly sets off a series of events that lead to betrayal, assassination, madness, and war.

What I Liked

*spoiler alert*

Taking Shakespeare’s “King Lear” as his inspiration, Japan’s most revered director, Akira Kurasawa, takes samurai war epics to mythic proportions.  None of it feels historically accurate and it is full of familiar archetypes, but it does have the power of universal truth behind its story.

Ran” is a visual masterpiece of the first order.  The colors are vibrant, the scenery awe inspiring.  Elegance pervades every scene, even the battles, which are shot in vibrant color and with stylish choreography usually reserved for the best musicals.  Many of its most violent and terrible moments are accompanied not by gruesome sounds but by immaculate silence, a choice that renders these scenes beautiful while somehow simultaneously accentuating the terror and waste of war.

Indeed, much of “Ran” seems to be fascinated with waste.  Not just waste in war, but with how many of its characters seem to have wasted their lives, particularly Lord Ichimonji, who has brought terror upon his realm for generations and is now paying the spiritual and physical prices for his actions.  Still others have wasted their lives in pursuit of power or revenge.  The film’s closing moments bring to the forefront just how much has been lost, never to be regained, and all for purposes that ultimately prove either unattainable, unsatisfactory, or unfathomable.  This blind, almost instinctual, pursuit of tragedy on the part of every character makes the film increasingly more fascinating as the story develops from its simple, quiet beginning to its inevitable, catastrophic conclusion.

What I Didn’t Like

Says the book on which I have based this project, “Of the 1001 films one must see before dying, Ran is certainly in the top ten.”  As much as I admire the film, I can’t bring myself to agree with that statement.  If there is a flaw, it is in character development.  Only two of the film’s roles, that of Lord Ichimonji and of Lady Kaede (played to perfection by Mieko Harada), have any sort of depth to them.  The rest of the main characters are either without personality or are nothing more than archetypes undeveloped beyond the necessity of their part in the story.  The filmmakers seem to have sacrificed opportunities for developing a more personal story to pursue mythic proportions and epic grandeur.  Again the characters of Ichimonji and Kaede are exceptions.  Their characters, while certainly having many moments of exaggerated melodrama, also have moments of subtle, barely contained fury that help make the film all the more interesting.  Too bad the same complexity couldn’t be given to other characters.

Most Memorable Scene

*spoiler alert*

There are plenty of moments in “Ran” that amaze the eye.  I’ve already written about the stunning battle scenes, which are masterpieces.  But perhaps the most moving moment of the film comes when Lord Ichimonji loses the one son who can provide any hope for the future of the country.  Here everything that has happened before reaches its result and the audience is left, like Ichimonji himself, with a few final moments to reflect on the meaninglessness of it all.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5