The Japanishe version of King Lear.

Rating: 10/10 (4 January 2017)

Akira Kurosawa is among the most respected directors and writers of posrt-WW2 Japan with many of his films been consider as classics and Ran, which in Japanese means chaos is one of them and one of his last work. What I like is the fact that Mr. Kurosawa took inspiration of one of Shakespeare plays, King Lear to be precise and fused it with a historical figure of that era the daimyō Mōri Motonari, but the main plot is more or less the same with King's Lear.
So during the Warring State Period of Japan we meet Hidetora Ichimonji a elderly warlord who seen that he is at the end of his life he gather his three sons and divides the area among them but he with retain the title of Lord. For that his youngest son ,Saburo fiercely disagrees with that plan and tells it immediately to his father that his plan is flawed. But Hidetora has none of it and banish him and gives the first castle to his eldest son Taro and the rest two to his second, Jiro. And as it is obvious by the inspiration of king Lear the two brothers treat their father poorly to a point he is reduce to a beggar!And at the same time Jiro seems to overthrow his brother, while Saburo with his allies later master a big army in order to pressure the rest two Ichimonji to take Father under his protection. In the end all of the House of Ichimonji is dead, their main castle is soon to be destroyed and the once prosperous realm is in ruins.
Now to the characters for some of them are quit intrigue. I will start with the Ichimonji and then analyses some of their peripheral allies and antagonists. For starter Hiderota while he at first is in peace, he can't see that the brutal method which he used in order to take power have left a lot of grudges against his house and that his sons aren't as united as things. As for his first-born he is an oaf under the control of his wife Lady Kaede, whose castle was the now First castle and in the process her whole family was murdered in the night of her wedding (I guess the George R.R. Martin may took some inspirations) and she has one goal: to stay in her castle and keep it all cost, so she forces Taro to banish his Father and later after Taro is secretly assassinated by a trusted man of is brother Jiro during the siege of their Father's men in the abandoned Third castle, so to look like normal, she seduces Jiro.
As for Jiro he is the Petyr Baelish family and he makes plans to take down his brother for him to be the next ruler of the clan, from this actions he seems to be angry that though smarter and better leader from his older brother he never got the recognition he deserved ,but when he becomes the ruler after his brother death he is practically a pawn against Kaede,who is leagues more manipulating than him and in the end she is one of the reasons the Ichimonji fell. As for Saburo he is blunt but not mean ,headstrong but not an idiot, in general he should be the next ruler, but it wasn't meet to be. For closing it will writer about my favorite secondary character,the right hand man of Jiro,Kurogane, although he has the dirty job for his lord ,he is totally realistic and when war is up on them, he is the only person who wants to find a solution with a peaceful way and also the only who see that his lord is "under the spells" of the recent widow of his brother.
As for the fighting, is fast, devastating and 100% historically accurate. What I loved is the impact of the early firearm arquebus has for it kills two of the brothers ,Taro in a way to hide a treason and Saburo to deprive him of his victory. Also during the decisive battle of the dominion of the Ichimonji's state the firearm ,turn the table on the bigger Jiro's army who uses just mass attack of infantry and chavarly , but Saburo's troops, dag in the woods and every time the larger army comes to them is slaughtered. This is also true for the period, the introduction of firearms during the second half of the Waring period changed the way Wars were won and lost. Kurosaga intentionally shows firearm like that to make parallels with the atom bomb, the War changed and everyone who didn't not follow then new rules can't survive.
All in all is an epic of a film, which though a bit slow it worth your time and gives plenty food for though and analyses of the psychology, war and the hobbesian world of that treason and violence create.