unforgettable samurai Shakespeare

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2010)

Sitting through three hours of Shakespeare transposed to a feudal Japanese setting might be enough to test the endurance of many viewers, but Akira Kurosawa's colorful reading of 'King Lear' offers a bold (and, at times, barbaric) spectacle well worth the effort, and not soon forgotten. The music of Shakespeare's language suffers in translation, but the scenario is faithful to its source, filling the screen with operatic intrigues, skullduggery, vendettas, and a Götterdämmerung climax that leaves just about every character dead. Like other Kurosawa films it takes a while to work up any momentum, requiring several long, static dialogue scenes to establish the conflicts between an aging warlord and his (thankfully color-coded) sons (plus one totally ruthless daughter-in-law). But once underway the story builds into an exciting, impressive, and exhausting melodrama far removed from its humble stage origins.