Simply the finest of the fine

Rating: 10/10 (27 November 1999)

I really have very little to say that others who fervently love this film have not already said. Even though he went on to make three other (highly underrated) films after this, "Ran" stands as Kurosawa's crowning achievement, and possibly his finest film. It moves with the assurance of an epic, yet the grace of a finely wrought personal drama. Simply one of the finest films ever made.
Although the cast is uniformly excellent, special mention must be given to the performance of Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede. Rarely in modern film has such an evil and unsympathetic character been rendered with such an unerring pathos. Kudos to Harada (who would have won an Oscar with this performance in an English-language film) and to Kurosawa for making this one of the indisputable cornerstones of film art.