She has chosen forgiveness, which Hidetora can t understand. She, like his sons, behaves contrary to what he expects. Interestingly, her face is never shown, nor that of her brother s. They are spirit-like, floating somewhere above the political maneuverings. That Lady Sue and Lady Kaide should meet the same grisly fate points to a resigned atheism.
Nothing is rewarded and everything is punished in a world devoid of divine intervention.
And yet God is everywhere in this movie. He s certainly in the battle scenes, which Kurosawa has filmed with a kind of omniscient detachment. This is all punctuated by large, billowing clouds that Kurosawa frequently cuts to as if to emphasize the immateriality of it all. Clouds finally give way to a red sunset as the death toll mounts and we are left with complete destruction in the movie s final scenes. Reason having long since abandoned him, his skin becomes chalky white, his beard long and unkempt, his face completely slack.