Ran

Rating:
Summary: Good restoration project - but beware the subtitles
Review: I'd give this DVD of RAN 5 stars for the film itself, a terrific adaptation of Shakespeare's KING LEAR set in feudal Japan.

The restoration, though, rates a little lower at 4 stars. The movie itself has been remastered from a 35mm print, resulting in more vivid colors and greater image detail, although some Kurosawa enthusiasts may be put off slightly by occasional dithering and shimmering glitches that plague some restoration projects such as this. The sound, including the haunting orchestral score, have more presence and depth than in my old VHS copy.

Now for the bad news - this DVD only gets 3 stars for an amateurish subtitling job. It's obvious that the English subtitles were simply lifted from the theatrical release without much care, and too many misspellings abound, including one incident where Saburo was once named "Suburo." (What next - "Subaru?" Will Lord Hidetora watch as his most abrasive son morphs into a Justy and spirits him off to safety?) Fortunately, the subtitles can be turned off.

Overall, 4 stars to this DVD release. A film like this clearly deserves to be treated with much more care and respect when being translated for non-Japanese speakers, especially since Kurosawa has now passed away. If the folks at Wellspring Media want to prove to Kurosawa's fans that they're not "gaijin no baka," they'll offer free replacement DVDs with the errors corrected. But that's just me.

Rating:
Summary: Ran Movie Review for Asian History 4th Quarter Project
Review: "Ran" is a Japanese Samurai movie directed by Akira Korusawa. It is about a powerful Japanese warlord who is nearing the end of his life and is ready to divide his land and power between either his sons or his peers. Hidetora, the lord chooses to divide his belongings between his sons, Taro, Jiro and Saburo Taro and Jiro are the two eldest sons respectively, and they look down on Saburo. They treat him like an ignorant boy. They are do-gooders, and kiss up to their father even when he isn't even listening to them. Saburo has more sense than Taro and Jiro, and he thinks about things before he decides to believe them. He knows how relationships work, rather than how they're expected to. Hidetora gives Taro supreme power and the first castle with its surrounding lands. Jiro gets the second castle and its surroundings, and Saburo gets the third castle and its surroundings. After Hidetora makes this announcement, he presents a metaphor to his sons', which states that a single arrow is weaker than a bundle of three arrows. Taro and Jiro easily accept the metaphor. Saburo, after thinking about it and applies its meaning to real life decides it wouldn't work in his and his brothers situation and defies his father by showing that it's possible to break three arrows together, and says that the sons will not get along if sharing land and power. After this act of disrespect, Hidetora banishes Saburo and this later on sparks civil war between the three sons. Taro (yellow), Jiro (red), Saburo (blue), and Ayabe (black) all eventually go to war for the lands, and in the end Ayabe wins after the deaths of all the brothers.
"Ran" is the Japanese version of Shakespeare's "King Lear". The plot is good, partly because it is based on a great play, but overall, I didn't enjoy the movie. It looked as if Hidetora was wearing a phony mask, or had a very overdone make-up job. The acting was very forced and seemed staged. The way the speech sounded was also forced, and nothing seemed natural to the actors. The fight scenes, which I will admit were cool at first, went on way too long, and were just the same thing over and over again. They became redundant and boring. All of the battles had tons of blood. The blood looked like cheap paint, and it dominated many of the shots. There would be ten men all piled together, looking like they were marinated in paint after a fight scene. Each shot was about a minute long, which seemed like an eternity for most all of them, and it made the movie much longer than it could've been. One thing I liked was to see how everything came together in the end in the deaths of all three brothers and the father, and the victory by Ayabe and his army in the civil war that took place during the bulk of the movie.
Another thing the movie did well was display the life of a Samurai in Japan. Although they were kiss-ups, Taro and Jiro showed great respect, and patience with their father. Saburo showed great thought, and comprehension of situations. Hidetora was very wise and respected. He was a great warrior, which is an inference I picked up when I learned he owned three castles and their lands, all of which he gained through war.
All in all, I didn't like "Ran". If I ever want a story like it again, I'll go ahead and read "King Lear", but if you've already seen or read "King Lear", and want a different point of view from a different society, then "Ran" may be a great movie for you.

Rating:
Summary: I've seen better
Review: The Great Lord, Hidetora Ichimonji (played well by Tatsuya Nadakai), has reached seventy years of age and decides to relinquish his crown. He has decided to give equal power to his three sons to show that cooperative family life is important and possible. His sons are worried that this won't work, until Hidetora shows them that one arrow could be easily broken, but three arrows held together couldn't. One son however is not awed by the little demonstration and spoke up. His name is Saburo and he is banished. He leaves right away but is not forgotten. Soon after Hidetora retires, the two remaining sons quarrel and fight with themselves and other enemies and get in a huge civil war. Hidetora is eventually banished, but finds Saburo, who is kind enough to let Hidetora stay with him. Eventually the war brings down the entire family. Hidetora's other two sons are killed in battles, and Saburo is assassinated. Hidetora then has a heart attack, or something like it, and dies on top of Saburo. It's pretty depressing.
Ran is very well done, but not particularly enjoyable. Kurosawa, the world-renowned director, chose Japan, obviously, to shoot the film. He shot the movie in rural areas where there aren't any buildings or modern roads. The landscape is beautiful when it is peaceful, and ugly during battle. During the peaceful discussions between Hidetora and his sons, the grass is green, the sky is blue and everything seems happy. During the battles, however, everything is gray, ugly and dead. There is no grass, the skies are cloudy and there are many soldiers dressed in dull, grey uniforms.
The battle scenes are amazing. They are extremely long, which is very uncommon in today's films, like Braveheart and Gladiator, where the battles last for about five minutes. The battles actually rage, instead of just start with huge explosions and then end. There are hundreds of extras that seem to be trained as Samurais. The special effects aren't great, because the film was made in 1985. There is way too much blood that looks like red paint. Even though the effects are poor, the battles are very well done. They are easy to follow because the troops have colored flags that indicate which team they are on. The battles are what make Ran the epic that is known as.
Although Ran was very well done, I didn't personally like it. All the shots were long and slow. They lasted for a very long time, and since I have developed a self-diagnosed case of ADD from all the video games I play, I got bored of them. The movie only had about an hour of plot, but it was stretched out into two hours and forty minutes. I got very sick of the talking scenes. The movie would be better if it was half as long.

Rating:
Summary: Kurosawa's final masterpiece
Review: Ran (literally "Madness" or "Chaos"), legendary director Akira Kurosawa's 27th of 30 films, is a masterpiece on every level, with sequences ranging from one of the most overwhelming battles ever filmed to intimate scenes which begin with ritualistic formality but then erupt into volcanic passion. Kurosawa spent ten years meticulously preparing every detail of, and scouring the world for funding for, this magnum opus, a free adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear transposed to sixteenth century feudal Japan.

Kurosawa brings an uncanny balance of psychological insight, thematic density, and visual/aural mastery to his reinvention of Lear. He gives us a developed backstory for Hidetora (although some would argue that Shakespeare's Lear is so dominating a presence, both on the throne and in madness, that he does not need more of a personal history). Tatsuya Nakadai's performance as Hidetora is, in a word, overwhelming. He brings out all of his character's pathos despite the traditional Noh makeup which Kurosawa has only this one actor wear. He begins with a fierce visage resembling the traditional demon mask, "Akijo," but as he descends into madness, his deeply-lined face and red-rimmed eyes tellingly suggest "Shiwajo," the sorrowing old man spirit forced to wander the earth to pay for his sins. What might have been a mere distancing technique in a lesser filmmaker is here shattering, as we are constantly reminded both of Hidetora's artifice and heartbreaking humanity.

Kurosawa also made an intriguing decision not only to expand the role of the Fool into a major character (here named named Kyoami), but to make him both sexually ambiguous and totally beguiling. He is played by the Japanese transgender pop star known simply as Peter. Kyoami is, in a way, the healing opposite of the chaos ("Ran") of the title, as he balances both masculine and feminine energy, great courage as well as flexibility and tenderness. As we see, those qualities are especially important in a rigidly hierarchical society, founded on macho posturing, like the one disastrously promulgated by Hidetora.

Kurosawa's other major addition is Lady Kaede (brilliantly played by Mieko Harada), who exists as a sort of demonic opposite to Kyoami. Although based on Shakespeare's Goneril, she is a much more complex and important character in the film. Her unstoppable vengeance brings down Hidetora's entire family, first as the wife of Jiro the second son, then as the mistress of Taro, the eldest son. Without giving away some of the film's most dramatic plot revelations, let it be noted that what Hidetora did to Lady Kaede's parents, years earlier, provides the reason for her unwavering hatred.

Kurosawa is a visual master - although some people find his style, especially in the later films (including Ran), austere. But for me, his use of image and sound is exceptionally revealing about his subjects and theme. Look at Ran's opening shot. Despite the stillness of four horsemen, on a hill, waiting in motionless silence, there are intense visual dynamics: The contrast of earth and sky, the severely limited number of planes (this effect was created by using a telephoto lens and shooting a great distance from the actors), the tension produced - despite the bright full sunlight - by having each of the riders staring in a completely different direction (plus there was the added mystery of not knowing what they are searching for so intently, since we are not yet aware that they are on a boar hunt). This one image sets up the entire film, both visually and dramatically: Those four warlords, standing at sharp right angles, will soon pull apart not only each other but their entire world.

For a stunning contrast, look at the overtly dynamic first battle, which some people consider the greatest war sequence ever shot (it has inspired many pictures since, including the opening of Saving Private Ryan). Kurosawa films the battle with total silence, except for Toru Takemitsu's haunting score. He makes us view the carnage from a detached, almost omniscient point of view, then suddenly thrusts a new atrocity into the frame. The overwhelming power of this sequence is compounded by the deliberate, ritualistic pacing of the scenes which have preceded it.

Rating:
Summary: Be Very Careful
Review: My star rating has nothing to do with the mertis of the film. It has only to do with the total hatchet job Fox Lorber did in their infamous DVD transfer. By no means buy this version of the film, even though you think you're saving a couple bucks. I agree entirely with the reviewer who said the only thing to do with the DVD and it's case is to use it for a coaster.

The images are muddy and dark. The sound is old 78s quality. It really is a shameful, shoddy piece of work. By all means, order the movie. It's Kurosawa's magnum opus, great in every detail. Just make sure you shell out a few bucks more for the Masterworks edition, or splurge and go for the Kurosawa multi DVD collection.

This review is meant solely for the Fox Lorber 1985 DVD release.
BEK

Rating:
Summary: Possibly The Worst DVD Transfer Ever
Review: Before you read further, I highly recommend the MASTERWORKS edition recently released. Also, I absolutely love this film. You can read everyone else's reviews to reinforce that opinion. But Fox Lorber? A disgrace they are. The whole movie is shifted to the top of the screen, leaving a giant black bar on the bottom of the screen. If that's not bad enough, the bright yellow subtitles are on the very bottom, making your eyes sore from moving them up and down constantly at a larger degree. The subtitles are burned in, so taking them off is not an option at all. The picture is completely not remastered, colors are way-off. It seems their only master was a worn out VHS copy that was at a Blockbuster down the street. To see what i mean by all this, get yourself the MASTERWORKS edition, and compare the restoration demonstration, the old DVD copy is just what the un-remastered material looks like. I warn you, this is better off as a very expensive drink coaster than a preservation of art. Kurosawa rolled in his grave when this was released....

Rating:
Summary: Must-see film
Review: I first saw this film in a movie theater and hearing that this new remastered version was coming out on DVD made me very excited. I was very satisfied with the quality of the image on the DVD, in contrast to some other reviewers. I watched it on my TV, but also played some sequences on my Apple computer LCD display, and I don't see any of the pixellated images or sparkling that some reviewers complained about. Since some also said there was no commentary or other special features (my disk had several special features) perhaps there is more than one disk run out there, or production was uneven.
As far as the film quality itself, it is one of my favorite films, because of the beauty and terror of the scenes, the terrific interactions of the players, in word and expression, and the character of Lady Kaede--she is just magnificent ... no words can adequately describe the character Kurosawa wrote nor the performance by the actress.

Rating:
Summary: Movie wonderful, DVD treatment horrible
Review: There is now doubt about the quality of this film. Ths issue is the substandard encoding or transfer used for this new DVD. Through out the first 40 min. of the film, there are intances of both horizontal and vertical blanking - a static which appears on all vertical and horizontal lines. It is also obvious that this film was mastered from a film print and not the interpositive -- the blacks are fuzzy and the dark scenes look as if they have a scrim or screen over them. I also noted two instances of sound drop outs.

All of these are issues which could have been fixed. It's very sad that greater care wasn't taken with this film, and at the price point which Winstar is charging, they should have at least tried to get it right.

Hey Winstar -- third times the charm.....

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic film, but strange picture
Review: I just got this yesterday and immediately stuck it in the player. I have to agree with the last reviewer; I was disappointed in the the picture on this disc. I was looking forward to it after the distastrous previous edition, but this picture seems both fuzzy and unnaturally colored. The green of the grass seemed unearthly. Many of the colors seem extremely bright. I skipped around in the first commentary track and that sounded very enjoyable, and of course this is one of the most wonderful films ever made, so if you have not seen it, you better. I am surprised to hear praise of this new DVD presentation. It makes me wonder if some discs are better than others?

Rating:
Summary: Still not perfect
Review: Yes, the movie is a masterpiece, though it is only loosely based on King Lear. There is no Edmund, no Edgar, no Gloucester, and the "king" Hidetora's tragedy stems in part from his past murders and cruelties, and not, like Lear's, from mere pride, stubborness and anger. The older Fox-Lorber DVD has somewhat washed-out color and framing problems. But at least on my equipment this Masterworks DVD has color that is too bright, with bleeding, sparkling, strobing, and a generally very "hot" image, not at all film-like. The disc does look great on my laptop computer's LCD screen, but a small screen is not how one wants to watch an epic. Buy this DVD if you don't already have the Fox-Lorber version, but don't spend the money just to replace the Fox-Lorber; this isn't enough of an improvement.