Breathtakingly beautiful.

Rating: 10/10 (21 October 2007)

Ran was unlike any other film I had ever seen. It has Kurosawa's stamp of awesomeness of course but visually it just blew me away. This has to be one of the most beautifully shot movies I've ever seen. The costumes, the castle and of course all of the locations are amazing. I was literally speechless for a few hours after having seen the movie; it completely changed (or at least refreshed) the way I look at the world. I think one of Kurosawa's strengths is that as incredibly talented as he is, his modesty always comes across as well; his films are never pretentious.
Perhaps the only possible flaw I felt the movie had was that it only used music sparingly. I thought the music that was used was great (especially one surreal sequence which had solely music and images, no sound effects) but I wonder why more music wasn't used to add depth to some of the slower scenes. Maybe the lack of music is ultimately more effective, perhaps it enhances the dreamlike reflective quality of the movie, I can't say for sure.
I don't have anything to say about the story really; I haven't read King Lear and narratives are a relatively weak point for me with movies. I tend to find the visual and musical aspects more accessible with dialogue and story more difficult to truly appreciate. I certainly found the story in Ran very engaging and thought provoking but what makes the movie for me is Kurosawa's masterful direction and also the way he makes the movie personal. Even though I didn't completely follow the movie at all times, several parts were very affecting nevertheless and it was clear that the movie meant a lot to its creator.
Ran also has an epic grandeur to it; it was the most expensive Japanese film made up to its time and apparently Kurosawa spent about 10 years painting (!) "storyboards" for the movie. I think it shows in the movie, you really feel like so much work and consideration went into every second of it.
Anyway, the way I see it, Ran is unlike any other film ever made. In terms of capturing beauty on a grand (and yet humble) scale, it is unparalleled (in my puny amount of experience). If I were a pretentious film snob (which I hope I'm not, at least, not yet) then I might say that "if you haven't seen Ran, you haven't experienced cinema". That would be a fairly accurate description of what it felt like for me.