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Ran translates into English as "chaos". A statement about honor,
ambition, greed and agony with a scene-stealing revenge-minded
Lady Kaede. Every image on the screen vibrates with intensity!
1986 Oscar for Best Costume Design. ~ (9/10 Stars) ~ Epic!

Thank you!

Links with English subtitles added.

kurasawa was the best

P.S. I already met George Romero and George Clinton. Tomorrow I'm going to meet Tom Savini!

Finally pryed Ben off of Madden to watch Ran. It was really good, but it is bassed on King Lear, so of course it was sad. Didnt go to Shrek 2 again, Laura was tired. My cat Karloff is trying to get Ben to give him milk, now Lugosi joined in and they are singing a meow harmony. Tee hee
Naughty kitties! Oh Ben gave them a little. Karly is happy now. Gosi didn't want his! Karly took care of that for him!

Ran

Ran is another battle epic from the man that started it all. Although, it is certainly superior in a technical aspect to Seven Samurai, I felt it was inferior overall to the epic that came out 30 years earlier. Ran didn't seem to have as much heart as Seven Samurai, and I was never as emotionally enganged in the film as I thought I should be. It was still a finely crafted film and a great acheivement.

***1/2/****

My favorite Kurosawa flick to date. The energy he put into this film is total from beginning to end in every aspect. I could find no sign of chincing on anything, anything! Why aren't there more directors today like this? (I'll tell you why, EVERYONE IN HOLLYWOOD HAS A SECRET ADDICTION TO COCAINE, SERIOUSLY.)

More on that later.

The retelling of Shakespeare's "King Lear'' is set in feudal Japan, with the overlord Hidetora as the Lear figure, who starts with everything a man could hope for and ends with absolutely nothing. In place of the king's three daughters in Shakespeare, Kurosawa has placed three sons. It is the one faithful son who defies the old man, by refusing to go along with a false sense of family unity, and so he is banished.

The battle scenes, especially the first are simply amazing. Impressive on any scale and a true dose of eye-candy, I found myself rewinding several times to watch it over and over again.

I researched the film a little and found that Kurosawa built the castle set for $1.5 million, only to burn it to the ground, zero special effects. To add fuel to the fire, his actors had one, count that ONE take to get it right. He obviously nailed it.

All this from a 75 year old filmmaker who was considered washed up at the time. It may sound like a cliche, but it obvious Kurosawa put his very heart and soul into this one.

Its sad there aren't more films like this released these days, they only drift by every so often and the advent of CGI helps half-ass directors cheat in ways Kurosawa never could.

What exciting, groundbreaking, moving films do we have opening in theaters these days? This week its Anacondas, the sequel to Anaconda.......sighhhhhh. :rotten:

Ran (Kurosawa, 1985)

This is the best Shakespeare film I've ever seen. And I don't even like Shakespeare generally. But this movie captured me on every level. The characters, the visuals, the betrayl, the action. Everything was just fantastic.

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