Bad King Lear

Rating: 3/10 (18 April 2005)

This movie gets raves for being cinematic but I found the movie rather boring. The obvious King Lear plot leaves little to guess how this will turn out and the much vaunted battle scenes were rather clumsy. Compared to Kurosawa's early work in Seven Samurai with the wonderful characters or the stunning photography in one of my favorite films, Kagemusha, this film is just dull. It misses completely on the tragedy side since the characters are never really developed and much of the film looks like it was shot in a bowl of a volcano with dirt and dust everywhere. The comic relief of Kyoami, the jester/fool, is just whiny and annoying. When the great lord finally reaches the end of his wits his deep comments on life just seem silly. He is too stilted too play the "mad" role properly and all the long shots and very heavy make up leave little opportunity for facial expression. All in all not the first or even second Kurosawa film I would choose to watch.