Daimyo Lear has no daughters, but lots of problems with his sons

Rating: 5/10 (5 September 2008)

It's interesting to read the earlier reviews for Ran on this forum: the artsy-minded love it, while the roller derby fans hate it. I didn't hate it but must agree that there's enough bad acting from Nakadai to make you want to hold your nose, and lots of terrible writing. For example, we see Hidetora, stumbling around in volcano-land in a preposterous white wig, as he comes out of his stupor to announce "I am lost," and his Fool replies "Such is the Human Condition." Oh, come on!
And some of the actions sequences aren't much better. In the first battle, Tora's captain magically gets inside the castle and opens the gates. As the disaster proceeds, a guardsman comes up to report to Hidetora, finishes his message and as he tries to stagger back to the battle, he dies theatrically right there on the floor. And finally, while the castle burns, Kurosawa shows us pile after pile of bloody, artistically arranged corpse pin-cushions. Yeah, we got the point; get on with the story!
But I wouldn't rate Ran as totally awful because there is much to admire in this film. Many of the domestic scenes show classic Japanese good taste, and the battle sequences are nothing short of amazing. And while I wouldn't care to get it on with ferocious Lady Kaede as (already married) Jiro does, I loved her character as one of the main forces behind the downfall of the House of Ichimonji. Best of all was the cinematography. Most of Kurosawa's greatest work was in black and white, but clearly his understanding of color composition was masterful. If I could keep the court intrigue, the good exterior scenes in the high country, and the battles and cut out all the Hidetora-gone-mad rubbish, I would have enjoyed this movie.
As it was, after over two and a half hours of this stuff, my wife provided the best assessment. As the final credits rolled, she turned to me and said, "Well, that was depressing!"
P.S. An earlier reviewer commented on the anachronistic use of firearms in this film, complaining that samurai would not have used them. Well, yes and no. True 16th Century samurai as shown in this film would have done their work with sword, bow, and lance, but characters like Saburo and Fujimaki would not have scorned the use of men-at-arms with rifles. What was absurd in the final battle sequence was the rate of fire -- impossible for Saburo's small force.