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22

I feel like I just witnessed color in film for the first time.
There is a lot to love about Ran. It's way of finding heart and beauty in a story fueled by hatred and tension is one of my favorite aspects, I suppose. But then there's the color. And the editing. And everything else.
I'm just really glad this wasn't my first Kurosawa and that I've unintentionally been building my way up to this. Because while it does stand alone as a fantastic piece of filmmaking, there's something really special when putting this in the context of his other work. Ran puts every skill Kurosawa has mastered throughout his career to the test. As a result you get what is easily his best work and an experience that is so good, to call it overwhelming would be an understatement.

7

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

11

Chaos.

Yet, there is hardly anything chaotic about Ran. A certain degree of harmony is always present, regardless of what is depicted on screen, be it war, manipulation, betrayal, or masssacre. A field trampled over by horses yet undisturbed, soldiers marched and chanted in an orderly fashion, a battlefield filmed in silence. Even the fire and smoke seemed geometrically symmetrical.

Everything just looks so... calculated. Organized. Every prop, down to each speck of dust, is exactly where Kurosawa wanted them to be. The position of the actors, where they'd look, where they'd put their hands, even the mountains at the background, the flowers, the clouds, are all adjusted to fit each frame perfectly. Kurosawa had full control over his film, like a painter would have over his painting.

Now, that is something.

16

I find it the hardest to rate the 5 star films, especially when they are epics.

It is much easier to rate films like Raging Bull simply because while there are a lot to praise, mostly the praise falls on the director, camera and acting.

In films like Once Upon a Time in America and now Ran, the film has so much, especially when they are 2 1/2 hours or longer.

Its a little funy that while so many of his films have been Americanized [(Maginifcent Seven (Seven Samurai), Star Wars (Hidden Fortress), Yojimbo (A Fistfull of Dollars)], Kurosawa went and adapted William Shakespeare's King Lear.

Kurosawa took Shakespeare's play and mixed it wiuth the samurai genre to create a…

27

As someone who has been watching films for almost a decade, I rarely get 'that' emotion anymore. That emotion is the one you had after watching what you now consider to be the film that got you into films. Ran was able to supply me with that feeling today.

To be honest, I was completely captivated from beginning to end, and it may be the most riveting, compelling, and tantalising epic I've ever watched. Obviously, the imagery is the most stunning aspect. The use of colours, the frequent use of wide perspectives, and the outfits make you feel as if you're there as an observer. It is completely surreal, and there was not a single moment when I wasn't utterly awestruck.…

Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★★ Liked

"It was bound to happen eventually."

The natural elements overrun and invaded by bodies & blood red. War is unnatural, turning kings into fools & fools into kings.

2

if Kurosawa made a 3 hour film of just clouds and grass I’d probably watch it every day

12

In honor of the American Cinematheque’s Bleak Week Festival, I will be dedicating the entire month of June to what I’m calling Bleak Month, which will be my personal dive into cinema that dares to confront suffering, loss, madness, and the bitter, enduring consequences of human foolishness. Kicking things off is Ran, Akira Kurosawa’s magnum opus of despair. It’s not just a good preview of what’s to come—it might be the definitive statement on cinematic bleakness. It’s a profound and devastating tragedy. It’s the kind of movie that doesn’t just depict the fall of a man, or a family, or a kingdom, but also suggests that all human efforts toward order are illusions, doomed to be consumed by chaos.

Ran…

25

Shakespeare within the Japanese mountains. Ran, a relocated retelling of King Lear, is possibly the greatest film adapted from Shakespeare. This is Akira Kurosawa at his most ambitious and most mature, making cinema his tool to tell an epic and deeply human story of greed and deceit. People acted out this tale hundreds of years ago, and Ran maintains a melodramatic and theatrical sensibility, whilst capturing all its moments on film. It is classical storytelling confined by the rules of modern cinema, but if Kurosawa is setting those rules, there's no limit on how creative it can be.

The cinematography in Ran is astonishing, and every frame could be a painting (some quite literally, given Kurosawa's pre-production process). This is…

Review by Matt Singer ★★★★★ Liked

On this viewing, it occurred to me that this movie has essentially the same message as It’s a Wonderful Life, but the story is inverted. Instead of a poor man who discovers the meaning of true wealth after a lifetime of sacrifice, a rich man discovers the meaning of true poverty after a lifetime of ruthless self-interest. The fact that these are two of my favorite films is perhaps not a coincidence, and probably very telling of my tastes and personal beliefs.

5

The prevailing emotion in this film is anger. Rage, hatred, loathing. It is such a bitter, angry film that even the clouds in it seem to seethe with it. What we see is the tale of a proud, powerful man whose rule is so absolute he cannot fathom the fall he is about to experience, and what we see is the fall of a man whose past has done nothing but maim, murder, and malign those around him. He has forged his fate a thousand times over in warfare and conquest. When he demands his sons split evenly the kingdom he has created, he naively believes his authority will persist beyond his willingly ceding that authority.

This is not King…

5

O céu que nada protege. O peso do céu é uma ilusão que assombra as ações humanas. Nada deuses, o silêncio desses é ensurdecedor, anuncia suas inexistências ou ao menos sua real preocupação com o que é terreno. Kurosawa impõe esse peso do início ao fim com um filme hiper-dialetico mas, sobretudo, humanista, de uma paisagem laicizada.