Daunting descent into despair and desolation

Rating: 6/10 (3 March 2019)

"Ran", which means translated "Revolt", bit this is not really used as a title for this film, is a Japaese/French co-production from 1985, so it will have its 35th anniversary next year. This movie is linked inevitably with Akira Kurosawa, by many considered the finest non-American filmmaker of all time, and it is a late career effort by him. He had already been in filmmaking for way over 40 years when he came up with this one we got here thatg turned into one of his career-defining movies. It is of course in contrastg to most of his earlier stuff in color and runs for over 2 hours and 40 minutes. I guess it was a tribute to Kurosawa that the Academy really appreciated this one as it also could have been a film that could have gone completely under the radar. However, it scored 4 Oscar nominations, one of them being for Best Costume for which it took home the award. And I think all these nominations are not undeserving. On the contrary, one or two acting nominations, for Nakadai and Haradai perhaps, would have been appropriate too. Butg lets get into the film. This is the story of an influential old Lord (played by a much younger actor by the way) who hands on the power to his sons. Too late he recognizes thatg he made a huge mistake that may not only endanger his heritage, but also his life eventually. But while the sons are pursuing their violent path, there is a new threat rising with a women full of revenge. Can the last remaining son help his father find a way out of his misery? Watch for yourself. One thing I want to emphasize here is that I mentioned earlier Kurosawa made many b&w films, but the way he uses colors for this film proves without a doubt that it is a shame he did not make more color films. For example before and after this film, there is a break of five years each. Anyway, with colors I was referring to red, yellow and blue mostly here, the colors symbolizing the sons and their armies. Things get heated for the first time when the old patriarch kills one of his soldiers' sons who was about to kill one of the old man's guards. Blood is not thicker than water in this case and the blue son (lets call him that) predicted it correctly. It takes a long time for the father to understand and a really rocky journey during which he turns from one of the most influential men of his country into an old bum you could say that is considered insane by many.
However, he is not, he only may seem that way. His final words and actions show that and even if his body is ailing, his mind should not be mistaken for being gone. I want to elaborate a little bit more on how this film is so different than what an American or probably also European movie about this subject would have looked like completely away from the country where it is set. With this I am mostly speaking about the blue son. We may have seen a from zero to hero storyline involving him à la Gladiator and this would have resulted in a much weaker movie without a doubt. But this is never his movie, not one bit. He is basically gone for almost the rest of the film after he is sent into exile by his father. Even if he was the only one getting it right, this does not mean he is at the center of the story. When he returns, he is killed off pretty quickly and that sure came surprising, even if the father's words about how he has so much to talk about with his son somewhat indicated it would not happen. But yeah, I expected the dad to die, but he sure is a fighter. And when he finally concedes, this results in probably the best moment of spoken language and dialogue, well rather monologue, and again this comes from a character we hardly know anything about when there is an elaboration of how nobody should blame the Gods for humans being greedy and violent enough over centuries to destroy everything and everybody around them in their insatiable hunger for power and always wanting more. Instead on the blue son, the film focuses on the power struggles for those who are in power actually, the yellow son, but evenmoreso the red son, who runs into a woman who is even more ruthless and cold-blooded than he is in exacting her revenge for those she lost and losing them destroyed the last bit of empathy inside her. I must say while watching the film I struggled a bit with this character also how she uses her power and almost kills the red son out of nowhere. It is interesting how women (wives) were far more than quiet bearers back then. But the more I think about this character, the more I like it and I think it is a worthy addition, also shown by the fact that I mentioned the actress deserving a supporting actress nomination at the Oscars. But she was probably too unknown for that. Anyway, fittingly she gets also killed all of a sudden by another minor character. It feels realisic. It is never about the big players doing the crucial deeds here, but just anybody for whom it feels right looking at their anger.
Yes this is a really long movie, but in my opinion it felt far shorter than over 2.5 hours I must say. It is definitely with all the customs, traditions and very style-focused sequences not a film that will appeal to everybody, but if you manage to make a connection, then you are in for a high-quality movie. Like mostg other Japanese films, they are doing completely without comedy. Even the foxhead scene that may seem funny to the untraiend eye has far more dramatic depth than just the intent to make you laugh. And even if my rating may not make you think like that, this is one of the most powerful anti-war movies I have seen. It is uncompromising, realistic and not scared of taking untraditional parts when it comes to story-telling. And completely away from the story, this is really a mesmerizing watch visually in terms of cinematography, costumes, make-up and art direction. Something every film student should see really, not just those from Japan. I can see why many years after Kurosawa's death and even more years after films like this one have been made, so many still cite him as a gigantic inspiration and dedicate their works to him. I was lucky enough yesterday to watch the film on the big screen, a really rare occasion for such an old movie, but I am very glad I took it and if you happen to get the same chance I highly recommend you to take it. The more I think about this film, the more I like it. There were more thna just a few scenes and moments that deserve a higher rating than 3 out of 5 stars, but overall this is what I am going with at this point. Maybe I will increase it on rewatch we'll see. Also I want to call this film a formidable period piece as, even if there were firearms included, it plays several centuries in the past. This genre is not just about English royalties, but here we have a very different approach showing everybody how it needs to be done. A real powerhorse of a movie and I am glad it got the attention it received back then and is still seen by many today. Also a huge success from the technical perspective if we look at sound effects mostly and yes the soundtrack is really good too, but also visual effects (the scene where the red and yellow army chase down the old man is a true spectacle and I am saying this as somebody who normally couldn't care less about visual effects). So many high-quality production values here. And to end it all, finally a few words on the very last scene, the blind woman at the abyss. Well, I understood it as follows. She may be blind, but still manages to recognize the abyss before falling into a most certain death. Those who see are not that lucky. Or not that smart you could also say. So you could say Kurosawa leads the human a mind a bit ad absurdum eventually. But that's what he has done all the way before that too because there is no reason to all the insanity in here. That's all folks. Don't miss out on this one.