There's more to this than meets the (immature) eye...

Rating: 10/10 (7 September 2003)

On the surface, this is an epic. Well it is actually an epic to a certain extent, which probably explains the surprising popularity of this movie, considering the average modern viewer's lack of interest for artistic ambition in movies.
But below the surface... This is so clever it took me almost 20 years to really get it. The first time I saw "Ran", it was in 1986... I was 25. I saw an epic. Got impressed with the imagery, got bored with the narrative style. Since then, my tastes have vastly changed (dare I say "improved"? ;-)), so have my inclinations towards cinema in general, and the way I approach artistic works. That's life. I would probably have loved LOTR when I was 20 *LOL*!
I'm usually not at all into this kind of movies. Even if I admire to a certain extent Kurosawa's skills and good intentions, I generally still get bored with his movies, even after all this time spent in discovering artistic cinema, because to my sense they're basically Theatre, not Cinema, just (very) cleverly recorded for the big screen. Theatrical acting, theatrical scenery, theatrical dramatic construction. And as I don't like that much the conventions and mannerisms of Theatre (matter of cultural background), most of Kurosawa's movies (despite their quite obvious qualities, like outstanding artistic framing, use of space, pace, atmosphere...) fail to interest me but on a mere intellectual level. In short, I find them too artificial to my taste (like many "intellectual" french movies btw).
But "Ran" is a winner. Because in this movie, this theatrical approach pays, like it does -but much less IMO- in "Dersu Uzala". And it pays sooo much! The acting/scenery theatrical conventions - some being inherited from NO - fit the story perfectly, allowing the attentive viewer to catch each and every single subtlety of the narrative, giving life to archetypes instead of stereotypes, and offers the rare possibility to consider things from dramatically different points of view. It's artificial and intellectually constructed, sure, but this very characteristic, against all odds, gives birth to an emotional ballet, a poetic power that is quite rare in the movie industry. And the humor! It's an incredibly daring (and very dark) humor, always on the verge of artistic suicide... Kubrick is capable of such humor sometimes (I suspect there is a lot of hidden cynical humor in "Eyes" - maybe I'll get it in another 10 years? *LOL*). Chen Kaige tried to use some similar humoristic twists in the very derivative (but nevertheless enjoyable) "Jing ke ci qin wang", but the result is far from being on par with Ran's wicked, cruel, over-cynical humor. Shakespeare would probably be very proud of this. My opinion, of course.
The visuals are astounding, and help me to remember the difference between art/style and artifice/mannerism (the latter being the norm in most of modern blockbusters' cinematography, like in "LOTR" - over-idealized, over-clean, iconic, synthetic, demagogic, manipulative). Kurosawa (I think) basically built on the "Barry Lyndon" approach and took it to a whole new level. Very, very impressive. The beauty and the power of these images.
Sure, it requires attention, patience, receptivity, and sure it's not easy to get over some surprisingly bad moves (like awkward, almost laughable battle movements) but it's well worth it. Below the "epic" surface, this is a demanding, challenging movie to understand (many great movies are, like "2001" or "Lost Highway", which explains the fact that such masterpieces sadly don't get the deserved recognition in their times but only after a fair amount of time), but the rewarding is proportional to the efforts the viewer accepts to make. Oh of course, if you're on the "movies-are-made-to-entertain-and-they're-crap-if-they-don't" side, just forget it, and wait until you're grown up a little. Just like I did.
In short, "Ran" is quite an outstanding audiovisual and emotional trip. It may take time for one's taste to adjust, depending on one's previous experience in reading books and viewing movies (it took me about 18 years to come back to this movie with an open mind..!), and it may take time to reveal its hidden treasures, but I repeat myself: It's weeeeeeell worth it.