Ran
1985's RAN was the great director Akira Kurosawa's second to last film. It is an epic by many definitions, but interestingly enough, still feels like a small chamber piece. A highly personal, intimate drama. Rather static scenes of familial discord wrap around two large scale battle set pieces, but are not overwhelmed by them. Despite than film's two and one half hour plus running time, I was not impatiently waiting for the carnage. Even with a first act that at times is maddeningly slow. A full hour of dry (but necessary) exposition.
Elderly Japanese warlord Hidetora Ichimnji has decided after much thought to pass on his sixteenth (seventeeth?) century kingdom to his three sons: Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. To the eldest goes the main castle, primary leadership, and the privileges of lordship. The other sons are given the remaining castles and supporting roles. Within minutes of this declaration, the sons are squabbling, leading to Saburo's banishment by his father. Things get markedly worse, especially after the introduction of Taro's wife Lady Kaede, who proves herself no stoic concubine.
RAN is a lament, an elegy for an evil life. Hidetora, despite his almost kindly appearing vulnerability, is revealed by many recollections (including his own) to have been a ruthless warrior who murdered entire families over the decades to secure his castles. Surviving family members, including Lady Kaede, have long memories. Can I say here that the film is essentially stating that "karma is a bitch"? You could see it that way. Several, if not all, characters get what is coming to them. They are always aware of (and commenting on) impending doom. Some of the deaths are huge and ceremonial, others quite ordinary. Most are fleeting, but rarely less than poignant.
Kurosawa, who shepherded the project for many years and co-wrote the screenplay, incorporates many plot elements and themes from William Shakespeare, primarily King Lear but also quite obviously Macbeth. The melding of this, Japanese history, and possible Cold War subtext makes for some significant viewing. The director's views on power and warfare and how they destroy family units courses through every second of this astonishingly visual movie. With a trio of cinematographers, Kurosawa uses the visuals as pure art, but also as pure storytelling. I suspect that even without dialogue and subtitles you could understand what is occurring. It is rare for the medium to be used so stunningly, even when a scene and its actors barely move. As Pauline Kael remarked, it may seem "dead" at times, yet there is an artist's confidence that compels even through the stillness, before the "payoffs."
The cast is perfect. I have to especially note Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede, who attacks her role. It is almost breathtaking when she licks the blood off her brother-in-law's neck, an undeniable act of power.
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