Ran

The sturdiness, timelessness and longevity of William Shakespeare’s work is so strong that his stories have been catalogued and performed for centuries after his death, whether that be on the stage or as a film. While there have been several Hollywood features that have portrayed these iconic stories in a very impressive light, one of the more interesting examples is when they’re portrayed by a different country, as his work is universal enough in their themes and simplistic enough in their premises that they can be showcased by different ethnicities and cultures as long as the main components still ring through. This potential was something that acclaimed Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa, must have noticed, as even with a portfolio of films that already labelled him as one of the great filmmakers, he would create three movies that took inspiration from famous Shakespeare stories; 1957’s Throne of Blood (which was based on Macbeth), 1960’s The Bad Sleep Well (which was based on Hamlet) and the 1985 film, Ran, which was based on King Lear, and seemed to do the best out of the three.

In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord named Hidetora Ichimonji (played by Tatsuya Nakadai) decides one day to divide up his kingdom amongst his three sons; Taro, Jiro and Saburo (played by Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu and Daisuke Ryu), with Taro becoming leader and being awarded the First Castle, and Jiro and Saburo being gifted the Second and Third Castle (although Saburo is banished for speaking out of line towards his father). Although Hidetora still believes himself as true ruler despite abdicating his title, he quickly learns his mistake when Taro and Jiro turn on him and banish him from the castles, forcing him to survive out in the wild along with his court fool, Kyoami (played by Shinnosuke Ikehata). As Taro and Jiro continue to force combat against their father, all spurned on by Taro’s Wife, Lady Kaede (played by Mieko Harada) who holds resentment against Hidetora for murdering her family in the past, the former ruler is forced to confront all his wrongdoings and see the violent future that is ahead for this kingdom.

Being Kurosawa’s last film epic as well as the most expensive Japanese film at the time with a budget of ¥2.4 billion ($11 million), Ran was nonetheless another monumental success for the filmmaker and is cited as one of the greatest movies ever made.

Being a Japanese French co-production (as were many of Kurosawa’s films made during the 1970s and 1980s), Ran was a long time in the making, with Kurosawa originally conceiving the idea in the mid-1970s, but financial backing would not be secured until the early 1980s when French producer, Serge Silberman, agreed to help out. Despite how clear the comparisons are between this film and the story of King Lear, the film also takes from real world history as well, with Kurosawa being inspired by the story of the Sengoku-period warlord, Mōri Motonari, who also had three loyal and talented sons, and flipping it to present a hostile probability if things didn’t go so peacefully (he actually didn’t even know what King Lear was until pre-planning on the film had already started). This is for the best as it’s nice that the movie isn’t a one-for-one portrayal of the Shakespeare story as it can stand on its own two feet, not feel bogged down by an expected direction, and can inject its own sense of culture not only through the acting style, cinematic look, and choice of themes, but in its overall atmosphere and presentation. Ran is an odd movie that feels unlike any film you would see from Hollywood, as there’s a retro style present that would normally come across as outdated and limiting, but through a truly outstanding directing job by Kurosawa, it comes together close to flawlessly.

Ran is slow-moving and seems more interested in intense and mournful discussion points rather than any grand scale combat or conflict, but it very rarely feels dull or poorly utilized, every scene reeks of oppressive dread that only grows worse and worse as the film continues (the ending shot is hauntingly beautiful, but poignantly tragic at the same time), and the movie (and by extension Kurosawa) is able to do this even with fairly simple material. The script written by Kurosawa along with Hideo Oguni and Masato Ide is solid from a narrative standpoint but doesn’t have much nuance to it from an analytical standpoint. Every line of dialogue is blunt and upfront about what it represents, the characters are mainly defined by a single attribute or desire, and the visuals are often presented stylishly but not in a very unique or different manner, it’s a very straightforward picture in terms of its content. However, considering it has a lot of similarities to the work of Shakespeare (stories that are basic from a surface level but have room to be dissected and find areas of complexity within) this film is pretty much the perfect portrayal of that mentality. The dialogue doesn’t house any interpretation, but the film allows raw emotions to speak much louder than any monologue, and the film has an almost barbaric gracefulness to it that combines grizzly violence with picturesque imagery in a way that touches the heart and soul more so than the mind.

The characters feel like roles you’d see in a traditional Shakespearean play (the king himself definitely feels like a complicated yet tragic figure akin to someone like Macbeth or Hamlet), and the manner in which the film handles these otherwise archetypal characters is quite clever. Like the rest of the film, they aren’t that complex and are more defined by unseen past history rather than any portrayed events, but you do get a sense of complexity from their emotional states, some of that unexplored history (which does assist in building up a literal ‘body’ of tragedies that will come back to haunt them) and the acting which is rather striking when it needs to be. You can feel the film has a lot of inspiration from the style of Japanese Noh theatre (which is a classical form of Japanese Dance-Drama that’s existed since the 14th century) through the way the movie uses silence, its choice of music, and even the way the actors emote and express, which can be a little over dramatic and jarring, but never feels hammy or out-of-place. The two actors that feel like they adopt this style are fittingly the best, being Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede and Tatsuya Nakadai as Hidetora.

While the role of Lady Kaede is certainly small and the character isn’t much more than a woman trying to get revenge by manipulating the situation around her through sexual desires, Mieko Harada is so good at playing this role with a faint but bitter delivery that can often explode into truly disturbed territories which really shows the psychosis of this person in a very entertaining manner. On the other hand, Tatsuya Nakadai does such a great job taking this figure of Hidetora who at first looks untouchable and ambivalent, and stripping him down to a senile, mentally broken mess, over the course of this journey. His acting is manic, his facial expressions are incredibly gripping, and his look is very striking (both before and after his mental spiral). The rest of the acting is certainly good but doesn’t reach the same heights. All the sons are well acted (with Daisuke Ryu being the strongest, but is also shown the least) yet aren’t written well enough to be that interesting, and characters like Kyoami, a general named Kurogane (played by Hisashi Igawa), a blind impoverished former lord named Tsurumaru (played by Mansai Nomura), his sister, Lady Sue (played by Yoshiko Miyazaki) and a loyal servant to Hidetora named Tango (played by Masayuki Yui) ironically have more to work with than the leads, but sadly aren’t written that well.

This is a film that allows its visuals and music to do most of the talking and relies on its atmosphere and visuals to get across what it’s trying to say (mainly since when it is verbally expressed, it feels a little forced). Seeing a battle devolve into a mindless massacre with grotesque imagery right out of a war film illustrates the point of mindless destruction far more than any character stating it, the locations being filmed in (whether real castles or lush open fields) are effectively vast and have this great presence that feels familiar to a film epic, the cinematography by Takoa Saito, Masaharu Ueda and Asakazu Nakai can convey a sense of tranquil bliss or violent disarray in the same moment just depending on how its filmed, and the musical score by Toru Takemitsu is extremely effective when used during the more harrowing parts of the film, yet the frequent use of silence is also startlingly effective.

It’s a movie that presents large environments but mostly shows the people in a very minute manner and the music never once loses this depressing, mournful and even creepy touch that furthers the ghostly atmosphere this whole film has. The movie’s costume design is very good and brings some striking tones of colors into a naturalistic and even washed-out environment (costume designer Emi Wada even won an Oscar for her work on this movie). The three brothers being displayed by the colors of yellow, red, and blue is a simple but effective way of telling them apart during combat, Lady Kaede’s plainly white attire masking her darkly shaded undergarment is a subtle touch to highlight her act, and Hidetora’s regal attire slowly transforming him from a godly figure to something akin to a restless spirit is also a great touch (helped out by very strong ghoulish make-up handled by Tameyuki Aimi, Shohichiro Meda, Chihako Naito and Noriko Takamizawa).

Ran can actually work as a portrayal of Akira Kurosawa himself as much as it can with King Lear. Being an aging filmmaker who had recently suffered flops on his latest movies, a failure to connect within Hollywood, and hearing from his younger peers that he was a ‘’has-been’’ put him in a very emotionally unstable area (even attempting suicide as a result). But with the success of this film and with the eventual recognition that such a talented man in the industry deserved, it can safely be said that he has more than proven himself as more than just a simple director. Ran doesn’t even feel like one of his greatest movies, but that comes more from the quality of his other work rather than a statement about itself, as Ran is a very well-handled movie with great actors, memorable visuals and score, a haunting atmosphere and truly outstanding direction. His other films may seem a little more approachable and could appeal to a wider crowd, whilst this one’s slower pace and aggressively sad personality may turn a few heads, but if that isn’t going to hold you back, it will give you something worth being sucked into. Not grand on meaningful dialogue or characters, but rich in emotional weight and visual eye-candy, this film is definitely worth a watch.