Absolutely brilliant on every level!

Rating: 10/10 (6 April 2016)

The German artist Caspar David Friedrich once said that "The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself." That is exactly what Director Akira Kurosawa has done with Ran. The story of a 70 year old warlord in feudal Japan who hastily decided's to split his thrown into three and leave it to his sons. Kurosawa was 76 when he directed this film, and shares many similarities with the central character Hidetora. The eldest Taro receives the first castle and becomes leader of the Ichimonji clan. The other sons Jiro, and Saburo are given castle's two and three. As I'm sure you can imagine things start to rapidly go downhill as Taro and Jiro's motives are soon shown crystal clear. Their greed is ultimately what led to chaos sinking its blooded teeth into the land. And soon Saburo who is cast out by his father raises an army in the hopes of securing peace across Japan. One excellent thing I noticed in this film is the subtle foreshadowing implemented into many scenes. There's an early scene where Saburo (who I initially thought would be the bad egg) insults two of Hidetora's subjects. After he's embarrassed his family the brothers get up and leave, but not before Saburo cuts down some bushes and uses them as shade for his sleeping father. That tiny detail cements his love and respect for Hidetora. The central theme to this film is 'chaos'. The word Ran even means chaos. And there's lots of intelligent scenes which foreshadow the oncoming mayhem. Such as short cuts of clouds ever growing larger until they've become uncontrollable storms. I really cannot say enough good things about this film. But this review has stretched on, so I'll leave it with this. Ran, is without a doubt the best Shakespeare adaptation ever put to screen, and in my personal opinion the greatest Kurosawa film there is.