A thought about the ending, to mr_sboub

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2003)

I know comments aren't supposed to comment about other comments ... this isn't meant to be a thread but I found mr_sboub's thought interesting and it was running through my head while I watched Ran tonight.
Saburo's death was predictable, and perhaps (as you seem to say) gratuitous. In a way this is certainly true, Kurosawa embraces the tragic, maybe to excess. (The only "happy ending" I can think of in a Kurosawa film is Yojimbo).
There is an interesting parallel though, which adds depth to Saburo's death.
The snipers are an afterthought. Jiro orders them out, then basically forgets all about them. He is already high-tailing it to the castle when they catch up to their target (actually, I think he might be on the verge of seppuku at that point, I don't remember).
This is very very similar to the burning of the peasant village earlier in the movie. Hidetora orders a peasant village burned, for completely stupid reasons. He is quickly talked out of it ... but nobody ever thinks to cancel the order. Later, somebody mentions ... "hey, do you smell something?". There is no further explanation of this line ... it is the peasant village, burning. They forgot.
This is Kurosawa humor, very very dark humor.
Personally, I think the shooting of Saburo was intentionally a parallel to this earlier moment. Seen that way, Hidetora is definitely getting a karma moment.
His (Hidetora's) own death, I agree, is kind of just thrown in there, but if you see the link between his crimes and Saburo's death, and that Saburo's death lead to his, it makes a little more sense.
Dark dark humor indeed.