Polarity

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 1999)

I find it impossible to select any particular film as the one I love the most, yet Ran comes close... To me it sort of summarises human existence. There are some elements in it that (in my experience) are often overlooked, shadowed perhaps by Kurosawa's consummate mastery of the battle scenes.
What follows may be taken as a spoiler, so read on at your own risk.
There are only two significant female characters in the movie, and they seem to represent opposite poles: the blood-thirsty Lady Kaede, obsessed with her revenge and using sex as a weapon to achieve her aims (Kurogane rightly likens her to a fox-demon), and the Lady Sue, so peaceful you might almost not notice her amidst all the turmoil. It is she who gives her blind brother Tsurumaru the image of Amida he lets fall in what may well be (to me at least) the most beautiful ending ever. I think it drives the point home perfectly and, in a way, summarises the whole movie.