Ran

Rating:
Summary: God Does Not Play Dice, Neither Did Kurosawa Sensei...
Review: Another artistic masterpiece from the Japanese " Grandmaster of Quality Filmmaking " to whom the word " average " is unknown and never included in his dictionary, and whose drive for perfection is widely appreciated and praised by worldwide professional filmmakers as well as serious film-heads.

Ran ( Chaos )- the Shakespeare' s King Lear adaptation- concerns itself with conflicts among 16th century Japanese royal fraternity aesthetically interpreted into the dark side of human beings- greed, betrayal, revenge, wrath, et al- and the outcomes which lead to tragedy and calamity to all parties involved.

The film promises to create a " Uniquely Altered Body Chemistry " in each and every of viewers with the intensive, poignant Plot, sublime Cinematography, relevant, beautiful Scores, fine Performances, grand Art Production and, of course, the " Perfectionist " Kurosawa Sensei' s ( master ) first-classed Direction.

Let your " feelings " and " emotions " be your pilots on the wonderful journey to such a " Majestic Audio-visual Experience. " Watch, Feel and " Listen to " this masterpiece- it " SPEAKs " to you.

For your information, when was the last time you watched a film that you could naturally impulsively refer to as " One of A Few Best " you have ever experienced no matter what event / occasion that film is for ? ( Well, that seems to be for " my " information, I reckon, LOL ) ... shinhandsomemichael.

Note: If you love epic films like Dances with Wolves, the 03-star Braveheart, et al, you will love to see more from the Grandmaster ( of Filmmaking ). Therefore, kindly check out Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, etc.

Rating:
Summary: Words are meaningless
Review: This film is a true expression of the power of the visual medium. Without a doubt in my mind this is Kurosawa's best film and an unsurpassed masterwork of drama that is also one of the best films ever made. I could go on forever, but only the movie itself can communicate the greatness of this picture.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most important movies in the last 20 years
Review: Akira Kurosawa's ingenious blend of Shakespearean drama, traditional Japanese art, and an examination of the perilous nature of life in the modern political world radiates masterfully restrained tension from the very first scene. As the opening credits hover over a landscape rendered with colors more reminiscent of traditional Japanese painting than of modern cinematography, horse-mounted warriors in expressive, finely-crafted period costumes look down from a hill. They see many paths surrounding them in the distance. The subdued yet anxious music urges us to wonder, which path will they take? The following sequence, a montage of a pig hunt led by the menacing (and seemingly all-powerful) Lord Hidetora that reaffirms Kurosawa's stature as the world's greatest film editor, gives us a hint in the direction of this movie's shocking and dramatically unsurpassed ending. Ran is one of Kurosawa's eight masterpieces (the others being Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, Red Beard, and Dreams; however, I haven't seen Madadayo or the uncut version of Dodesukaden yet and they may make ten). Anyone wishing to have even the most basic understanding of what cinema is and what it will become in the future MUST see these movies. Kurosawa made three basic types of movies: experimental narrative (Rashomon, Dodesukaden, Dreams); personal dramas (Ikiru, Red Beard, Madadayo); and action epics (Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo). Ran is the culmination of the development of the latter. It integrates a grand scope into a tightly controlled and simplified structure, displays extraordinary technical ability in everything from a small, perfectly formed circle of scheming people to an endless stampede of attacking horses and their felled riders, and creates characters and especially places that exhibit a Dostoevskian polyphony (for those unfamiliar with the work of the master of voices and choices, this means that they seem to exist as objects independent of their creator). While Ran has a plot based on Shakespeare's King Lear and is costumed and acted in a style similar to Japanese Noh theater, one need not be familiar with either in order to understand it. The simultaneous descent of the land and Hidetora's mind into a state of ran (chaos) is made clear and crisp by the careful psychological composition of the frames and the sharp poignancy of the sounds and dialogue. By the last shot, we forget that its just a movie, forget that we're not in 16th century Japan, and we are surrounded by doubts about the integrity of our world. However, Kurosawa's movies, and Ran especially, work on a three viewing principle. All of the above can be absorbed the first time around, but Ran is so lush with images, sounds, and philosophies that even as the movie's beautiful soundtrack plays and the credits begin, it immediately invites us to see it again. The second viewing suggests another layer of meaning. Clouds and the sky, which bring up clear associations of god, feature prominently in many shots and sequences. Before Hidetora has the dream that causes him to make the strategic mistake of dividing his kingdom among his three sons, there is a cut to a brief shot of clouds moving across the sky. In the superb montage accompanied only by music that depicts Taro and Jiro's forces storming the Third Castle where their father, Hidetora, and his entourage are, there is another short cut to light streaming from the heavens just as the soldiers stream through the castle's broken walls. Finally, the shot where one of Jiro's soldiers on horseback announces preparations for the war that will eventually destroy the Ichimonji clan is framed almost entirely against a background of unmoving clouds in the sky. The image of Buddha is shown twice: once before the aforementioned attack on the Third Castle, and again as part of the ultimate desolation of the movie's ending. All of these instances call up images of god at precisely the most hopeless and nihilistic points of the movie. Also, the sound of the high-pitched Japanese flute is heard thrice: once when the still powerful Hidetora kills the pig at the beginning of the movie, once when Hidetora's is driven insane anew by the memories brought up by the blind Tsurumaru's playing of his flute, and once at the end of the movie when Tsurumaru stands alone at the edge of the cliff. This indicates a chain of harm, but if Hidetora caused the pig to suffer and Tsurumaru brought up memories for Hidetora that made him suffer, who, then, is causing Tsurumaru's suffering? Several times the movie brings up the abuse of power. Hidetora orders his men to destroy a peasant village, but after he discovers that the peasants were not insulting him, we don't see him reverse the order. Jiro abuses his brother Taro's weakness and takes over the kingdom from him. Also, Lady Kaede, instead of responsibly helping to govern the land over which she is queen, deliberately strives for its destruction. These actions and their results move up in magnitude until we are left with the final question: who is responsible for the destructive forces that run wild in this whole world? After the second viewing, one is left with the very serious issue of divine guilt. The third viewing of Ran, though not as forceful as the first two, brings further reward. We begin to pay close attention to the compositions, and see how they change from harmony to disharmony as the movie moves along. The backgrounds are carefully positioned so that a variety of deliberate symbols and spaces appear behind the heads of appropriate characters. We start hearing the small background noises of animals and artillery that make all the difference. Kurosawa makes expert use of new sound technologies, as the positioning of sound from appropriate speakers in Dolby Stereo is just right, and every gunshot and clap of a horse-hoof is recorded with individual crispness. Yes, there are some movies better than Ran, but I can count them with my fingers.

Rating:
Summary: This is "art"
Review: Yes I hate saying that because everything is called art these days when its not but this is. Every Kurosawa film is beautifuly made but this one takes the prize. "Ran" is as Roger Ebert called it "A glorious achievement". "Ran" is Akira Kurosawa's version of William Shakespear's "King Lear". I should say its more loosely based on "King Lear" but the film is so great that one shouldn't bother with that. Tatsuya Nakadai does a peformance that will blow you away. He can bring the physical and emotion to the roll and does it as great as seeing any british shakespear actor like Ian Holm do the roll. Since times have changed since "Seven Samuari" Kurosawa can use more blood on the screen to bring the horror of war and betryal more to life. There is about a 30 minute war scene that is one of the most beautiful scenes I've seen in a film. Kurosawa like Stanley Kubrick does not settle for the lowest. Everything is perfection. The costumes, the sound, the picture, the acting etc.... The ending is breathtaking and will get you thinking about life. I reccomend reading "King Lear" before you see it, to see what he did with the text. It also shows how universial Shakespear is. This may be Kurosawa's best film.

Rating:
Summary: Visually stunning, and proof that Shakespeare is universal
Review: Some things are universal. Many worshippers of middle English literature say that about Shakespeare, and in a way they're right: what Shakespeare wrote about (the doubts of leaders, the avarice of merchant-barons, the laughability of petty concerns) is common to every culture throughout history. People are people.

In this case, Kurosawa has chosen "King Lear" as his template. The plot summary is simple: an aging benevolent king has decided to divide his kingdom amongst his sons. However, they are not all worthy of his trust, and are not content to take one third of his kingdom when each could have it all. And their treachery is the ruin of them all.

What sets "Ran" apart from other adaptations of "King Lear" is its stunning visual beauty. "Ran" is simply breathtaking. The colors are most intense than life itself, yet they fit the mood. The armies are casts of hundreds, if not thousands, and are beautifully choreographed (can a medieval battle be compared to a dance?). The actors are larger-than-life.

In fact, it is the presentation of the actors that prevent a five-star rating. The acting style is very much "over the top". This is in keeping with traditional Japanese kabuki theater, but most American audiences will find this style heavy-handed (dare we say, Shatner-esque? "My... sonsdon't... under...STAND me. Spock.") and it might interfere with an American audience's experience of the film. And, since despite my attempt to be "worldly" (whatever THAT means), I remain American, it matters.

At least, to me.

Nonetheless I recommend "Ran". It illustrates vividly what makes Kurosawa special, and its choice of Shakespeare is a bridge-building tool that can help someone new to Japanese film make the transition. If a viewer finds nothing else in this film but the flawless cinematography, that is more than enough. "Ran" is a masterpiece by a master filmmaker.

Rating:
Summary: a sublime epic
Review: The scope of this film is awesome..it has everything in large quantities. Gorgeous panoramas, a great looking cast, brilliant acting, war, intrigue, murder and revenge, all brought together by Kurosawa's magical vision. I've seen this film dozens of times and still find it captivating!

Rating:
Summary: Kurosawa last masterpiece
Review: Made at - for Japan - a staggering cost in 1985, Kurosawa's "Ran" comes closest to catching the director's decidedly black mood at the time (considering the derisive response in Japan to Dodeskaden [inspiring an attempted suicide], the grudging acceptance of Dersu Uzala, which had to be made in the Soviet Union if at all, and the passive response to Kagemusha - the Japanese critics' usual treatment of anyone so rash as to look for financing outside Japan [see Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses]), "Ran" was another of Kurosawa's long-cherished projects. That it made it to the screen relatively intact (Kurosawa even forced the otherwise independent composer Toru Takemitsu to accept his temperature-gauge and compose a pseudo-Mahlerian score) is one of those miracles of international film-production that arrives maybe once in a generation. That Kurosawa took Shakespeare's cue and painted a picture of medieval Japan (read: the modern world) that is uncompromisingly dark and pessimistic is perhaps not entirely surprising. The film feels like a last testament, even if Kurosawa would go on to make three more uncharacteristically tired films - Dreams, Rhapsody in August and Madadayo [Not Yet]. The darkest testimonial from a grizzled filmmaker at the height of his powers, "Ran" is indispensable to any serious study of Kurosawa's oeuvre.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: After watching The Seven Samurai, I was enthralled by Kurosawa's incredible work, but I worried that I'd see his best already. I never would have expected Ran to take my breath away, but that's what happened. The film's dazzling colors against a stark landscape, the piercing music against long interludes of silence and the dizzying plots that weave together seamlessly and tragically very quickly hypnotized me. Overall, though, it was Tatsuya Nakadai's genius portrayal of the aged warlord Hidetora that made this a masterpiece. Here is a character whose very expression and stance allows one to see the depths of his soul. Brilliant.

Rating:
Summary: this was the best movie i have seen
Review: this movie is the best account of samurai i have seen it is the best

Rating:
Summary: Breath-taking!
Review: I grudgingly rented this movie on the recommendation of my brother (who's taste in movies runs toward Conan the Barbarian and First Blood.) For once, my brother turned me on to something worth watching. I was captivated. I became an Akira Kurosawa fan instantly. Loved Kaede-finally a female role with teeth.