Close to perfect

Rating: 10/10 (4 December 2014)

Akira Kurosawa is one of my favourite directors and William Shakespeare is my favourite writer of all time. As can be expected, combining the two creates cinematic gold. This adaptation of King Lear relocates the play to Japan a few centuries later than the play is set. A powerful war lord abdicates to his 3 sons and 2 of them turn against him and betray him. Shakespeare films rarely capture his genius, but this one does and then some. It adds depth and complexity to an already fine play, and makes the central character arguably even more compelling than he was in Shakespeare's version. It makes some changes here and there, but it doesn't feel overly different from its source material. This isn't just an adaptation of the play; it's using the play to create a sobering, fantastically powerful and completely mesmerising meditation of loyalty, chaos and war. This is absolutely incredible cinema which shows why it is one of the most successful art forms in the world. This dazzling, earth shaking masterpiece outshines not only every single other Shakespeare adaptation but all the paintings in the Lourve combined.
Akira Kurosawa's direction is near perfect: The film looks unbelievable and the battle sequences are absolutely tremendous. Every single shot looks amazing and it's definitely his most beautiful film. The acting is absolutely astonishing, and there are some particularly frightening characters in this one. It also has an incredible script; it's incredibly deep, hauntingly powerful and none of the dialogue feels forced or awkward. It's a fairly slow movie, but you don't even notice it. The final shot of the movie is utterly haunting. Ran is a very powerful and thrilling movie with amazing action scenes, mind blowing acting and a brilliant story. It's so ridiculously captivating and well made 2 and a half hours disappear like nothing. Definitely one of the best foreign language movies ever and even better than the film which put Kurosawa on the map, Rashomon. Films like Romeo + Juliet and O are good, but they can't possibly hope to match this, which is actually just as good as King Lear itself. At least they actually say what happened to the fool this time.
10/10