Flick of The Day: Ran

One of the most celebrated Japanese film-makers of all time, Akira Kurosawa has a long and varied career as a director. Due to his westernised style of filming, he was always more popular outside of Japan then in his native land. Along with  Yasujirō Ozu, Kurosawa became the most recognised Japanese director in the west and nearly all of his work received some form of release in the US and Europe during his lifetime and the inevitable American remakes followed. Most notably, his classic tale of feudal Japan The Seven Samurai was the basis for John Sturges cowboy romp The Magnificent Seven while Yojimbo became Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars. Perhaps his best work is this sprawling epic re-imagining of Shakespeare's King Lear and today's flick of the day, Ran. 

Ran

An elderly warlord played by Tatsuya Nakadai is the King Lear of this piece and like Lear attempts to split his long fought for kingdom between his three sons Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. Taro and Jiro flatter to deceive and proclaim this to be a great idea while Saburo sees that this will only cause chaos and treachery. Interpreting Saburo's disagreement as a threat to his authority, he banishes him from the valley. Inevitably the old lord soon falls out with his two sons Taro and Jiro and sets off a brutal and bloody war for control of the kingdom. Across a number of expertly filmed set piece battles, this war plays itself out. Of course the great lord, now left to wander the plains with only his jester for company comes to see the error of his ways and that Saburo had his best interests at heart. 

A distilled version of Shakespeare's classic tale, with far less wordy speeches and much more emphasis on visual imagery. This film is worth seeing for that alone, Kurosawa had an eye for a shot that so many Western directors would kill for. From the natural beauty of the opening scene at a boar hunt to the epic battle scenes with variously coloured armies clashing on fields and castles, this is a feast for the eyes. In one particularly stunning scene, the ambient noise is removed letting the Takemitsu score soar while the combined armies of Taro and Jiro attack the castle which contains their banished father. Arrows, blood and ritual suicide glide by the screen.

All in all, this is one of Kurosawa's best, epic in all aspects including its length which comes in just shy of 3 hours, this is one of those films to see just for the sake of seeing it. The story is a well trodden path at this stage but Kurosawa's unique visual style and a cast of some of the best Japanese actors of their day carry it through. This would be the great master's last epic and it is fitting perhaps that it the tale of Lear.