Grab a bowl of popcorn for this one

Rating: 10/10 (17 April 2002)

Ran is a great movie, because its a lot of fun in a spectacular way. Much like the Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, its a great mix of serious filmmaking and entertainment, which means you can just sit down on a couch for more than 2 hours, absorbing all the little details while munching on popcorns. I tell you, this is rare since most movies are either too cerebral (not a bad thing) or too bombastic (sometimes not a bad thing). The battle sequences are very, very nicely done, and the characters are so tragic. Seeing someone like Hidetora falling downhill into a crazed, senile old man has never been so much fun. All sorts of characters appear in a form of double crossers, weaklings, manipulators, fools, honourable warriors, tragic victims, heroes... they're all here. Its easy to get convoluted in its plot, dialogue and visual scenes and say "oh Ran is about betrayal" or "Ran speaks on the horror of war." Look closely, and you'll see that Kurosawa uses the whole film to point out that mankind are foolish and questions our ability to change, even though we are aware of it (Ikiru shares this subtle parallelism on theme). The very last scene with Tsurumaru alone on a cliff is unforgettable.
Buy it, hire it, or borrow it, it doesn't matter as long as you get to watch Ran, because it will be a blast.