Kurosawa's late historical masterpiece is one of the best Shakespeare adaptations out there

Rating: 9/10 (24 October 2016)

This was my fourth Kurosawa film and my favourite to date. Previously, I'd started off by watching SEVEN SAMURAI (a great film), then trying out KAGEMUSHA (which I thought was okay, but too constrained by budget). Next up was an early classic, RASHOMON, which was a fine human drama, and now comes RAN, Kurosawa's final historical epic and the film that he claimed KAGEMUSHA was a mere warm-up for. I can see that. RAN is an epic film, truly epic and one of the best-shot films I've ever seen. Every frame of the film seems to have been painstakingly composed and the result is a bright, colourful, and vivid production that fully brings to life the castles, costumes, and characters of feudal Japan.
Tatsuya Nakadai, returning from KAGEMUSHA, here plays Lord Ichimonji, an immensely powerful ruler who concedes that power to his three sons at the film's beginning. However, his plans quickly go awry and before too long he finds himself ostracised from Japanese society and a literal outcast. This film is a loose reworking of the Shakespeare classic King Lear (another favourite of mine), something I really enjoyed as Kurosawa takes elements of the Shakespeare plot without following it slavishly. One of the best inclusions is the fool, who comments on the on-screen antics the same way as he did in the Shakespeare play.
It goes without saying that RAN is a tragedy and, indeed, it must be one of the most tragic films I've ever witnessed. Those looking for a happy ending should go elsewhere as this is all about doom, despair, and overall the failings of human nature. There's a fine cast of stand-out performers but one of the best has to be Mieko Harada, whose Lady Macbeth-style character is vengeful and terrifying. Nakadai, unrecognisable in ghostly, age-old makeup, is outstanding as the lord losing his mind, and Kurosawa is there to capture every little nuance. The most dramatic part of the film is a massacre set in a castle which is full of on screen death and destruction and successfully depicts the ferocity of battle better than 99% of other films do.
Like most of the Kurosawa historical epics, this is a lengthy and slow moving film, one that emphasis characterisation over action, plot over incident, but it's well worth sitting through. In the end, I found this one of the most rewarding films I've ever watched and anybody who professes themselves to be a fan of the cinematic medium should have it in their collection.