King Lear adaptation..and Great!:)

Rating: 10/10 (12 September 2005)

Usually, I don't write comments of movies that have too many reviews. But this one is so good, that I decided to break this rule. Ran is an adaptation of King's Lear, a story from William Shakespeare , very tragic and full of treasons.
Lord Hidetora Ichimonji, already old, decides to pass his powers and leadership for his older son,Taro,leading the other two as rulers of the other two castles. Saburo is the only son who says that is not happy with that decision,speaking against his father. This one,being fooled by flattery of the two older sons,decides to banish Saburo of his lands.
After this, what comes is a series of perfidiousness of his older sons,and even his daughter in law, lady Kaede,who wants to revenge her family,since they were the true owners of the castle, and were killed by Hidetora.
Hidetora becomes mad, and totally exiled from his lands. And he discovers that his son Saburo, was the only one who really was loyal to him.
There are many messages in this movie;one of the them,clearly is that not all the compliments are honest, and they can have bad intentions behind. Sometimes,someone near you can look insolent,but is only being honest. It's better a horrible true, than a fake lie,although not all the people are prepared to listen to the true. Not to mention that sometimes, you think that the person who is going to help you,really doesn't care about you,(like Hidetora's older sons) and you find all the help you need, in people you expect to not even be concerned with you. (like Saburo,the exiled son, and even Tsurumaru, who has lost everything he had, including his eyes because of Hidetora, and even on this way, he helps the old man with shelter.)
Kurosawa also shows a vision about the mankind: We only search for war and sadness, instead of happiness and peace. We, humans, alone,are destroying ourselves.