Beautiful but slow

Rating: 8/10 (5 July 2000)

Gorgeous photography and some great acting help this Japanese version of 'King Lear'. The only real problem is that it starts off interesting, has an incredible battle scene and then comes to a screeching halt. It stays that way for about an hour before it picks up for another battle scene at the end. This movie could easily have been edited--it's way too long (160 minutes). Still, as I said, the photography was beautiful and I was lucky enough to see a brand-new print at a revival theatre--this film would really suffer on TV. Good movie, but too long.