A glorious achievement by Kurosawa

Rating: 3/10 (19 March 2009)

Akira Kurosawa had given the world so much throughout the 50's and 60's: Seven Samurai, Throne Of Blood, Ikiru, Rashomon, Yojimbo to name a few. These are 5 brilliant movies in their own right that any director would want to have had their name attached to in any way, shape or form.
But the 70's, 80's and 90's seemed to be difficult for Kurosawa to make movies: He only made 7 films from 1970 up until his death in 1998. He was getting trouble for funding his movies, some people criticised him for being too western and old-fashioned. Kurosawa even attempted suicide at one point, but thankfully he survived. He had wanted to make "Ran" for over a decade, but he couldn't find the funding, until Serge Silberman helped him out with the funding.
So it was 10 years in the planning, the entire storyboard was painted by Kurosawa, the costumes were designed by Kurosawa and created over a 2 year period, 1400 extras and 200 horses were used in the battle scenes, Kurosawa's wife even died during the production of the film. After all the difficulty in making the film, how did "Ran" turn out? Extremely well, extremely well indeed.
Ran is the story of Hidetora Ichimonji, a powerful Warlord in feudal Japan. A man who has spent almost his entire life fighting for control, and has decided to hand over his power to his 3 sons, hoping to restore peace to the land after a lifetime of bloodshed. However, his youngest son Saburo voices his concerns bluntly, which Hidetora does not appreciate: He banishes Saburo and one of his vassals who defended Saburo (The fiercely loyal Tango).
What follows is a glorious exploration of greed, sexual politics, ambition, madness, loyalty, corruption, war, faith and revenge. Beautifully photographed, hauntingly scored, with incredible acting and brilliant direction culminate into one of the most emotionally shattering and incredible movies ever made. Not only is it the best film Akira Kurosawa ever made, it is also one of the greatest movies ever made. Akira Kurosawa has cemented his place as one of the greatest director's of all time with this film.