Filmmaking at its best.

Rating: 10/10 (22 October 1998)

Here we see an artist who has mastered his medium and gives to us the passion of his life. With beauty and delicacy, he paints the screen with a cold emptiness, as only a master director could. Life is absurd and cruel in this epic, but among the deceitful people who betray and kill even their family, there exists some who care. The movie is dark, and seems to be without hope, but it is not Kurosawa with a doomsday message. There is no message, nor an attempt to disillusion. It is a movie that makes the viewer think and reflect, and consider who we are and how we act, and why we live. Supporting the content is the visual orgasm of colors, composition, and motion. There are few movies that attempt to stretch the limits of film and human creativity, but Ran breaks past those barriers. Such are the creations of not men, but truly elevated artists. We can only stare in awe at the beauty they provide us.