Ran: Kurosawa's best
It's been quite sometime since I last came here. Not that I've been busy, but just too lazy. O.K. the answer to the question in the last post was One O'Clock at the Water Works means "Your Fly is Open"...no one got it right.
Saw Kurosawa's "Ran" (pronounced raan) screened yesterday in the college Open Air Theatre. I am not a great fan of Kurosawa. Had seen 3 of his movies before this one. The very very famous and path-breaking Rashomon (which I lost patience with, too slow a movie and the subtitles were bad), Seven Samurai (was a great watch but Sholay is better any day) and Ikiru(I liked this one, was a tale very warmly told).
After these movies, Kurosawa became to me a director who only the "intellectuals" could admire. I saw nothing great in those movies.
But Ran changed my impression of me altogether. I haven't seen a more visually powerful movie than this one. Said to be an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear (I haven't read that, so can't comment) the film is based in medieval Japan in the era of warlords.
Ran is the japanese for chaos, riot, dissension.
Hidetora, is the Great Lord of the plain and is now very old. He decides to transfer the power to his eldest of three sons-Taro. All of his men welcome the decision but for the youngest son Saburo. He wants his father to keep his position and being short tempered ridicules him for the decision. The Great Lord banishes him from his territory.
Thus begins the story of revenge and very very dark characters. Taro's wife(Lady Kaede) is the daughter of the Lord whom Hidetora had killed during his days as the warrior. She decides to avenge his death by asking her husband to pressurize Hidetora to almost live like a virtual prisoner in his own castle.
Hidetora leaves the castle and goes to his second son who treats him the same way. Having faced shock he leaves with his escort of 30 samurais for the third castle which belonged to his youngest son but was now deserted.
The two brothers decide to kill their father and send a huge army to fight the samurais who were the best in the land.
The battle between the samurais and the army is the best I've seen on screen., yes better than the Normandy Landing in Saving Private Ryan.
What happens next, I leave it to you to find out.
The cinematography is mind-blowing. Colors very apt for the film in which every character is as dark as it can be. And the background score haunting. Superb acting performances by the great lord (Tatsuya Nakadai) and his eldest daughter in law (Mieko Harada) backed with a stron message in the end.
All in all a great epic, one which took ten years in the making (Kurosawa made the paintings for the storyboards himself).
The only film that comes as close in terms of darkness is Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool based on Macbeth.
This film now ranks in my personal favorite. Go get your hands on this one. You won't regret it.
Saw Kurosawa's "Ran" (pronounced raan) screened yesterday in the college Open Air Theatre. I am not a great fan of Kurosawa. Had seen 3 of his movies before this one. The very very famous and path-breaking Rashomon (which I lost patience with, too slow a movie and the subtitles were bad), Seven Samurai (was a great watch but Sholay is better any day) and Ikiru(I liked this one, was a tale very warmly told).
After these movies, Kurosawa became to me a director who only the "intellectuals" could admire. I saw nothing great in those movies.
But Ran changed my impression of me altogether. I haven't seen a more visually powerful movie than this one. Said to be an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear (I haven't read that, so can't comment) the film is based in medieval Japan in the era of warlords.
Ran is the japanese for chaos, riot, dissension.
Hidetora, is the Great Lord of the plain and is now very old. He decides to transfer the power to his eldest of three sons-Taro. All of his men welcome the decision but for the youngest son Saburo. He wants his father to keep his position and being short tempered ridicules him for the decision. The Great Lord banishes him from his territory.
Thus begins the story of revenge and very very dark characters. Taro's wife(Lady Kaede) is the daughter of the Lord whom Hidetora had killed during his days as the warrior. She decides to avenge his death by asking her husband to pressurize Hidetora to almost live like a virtual prisoner in his own castle.
Hidetora leaves the castle and goes to his second son who treats him the same way. Having faced shock he leaves with his escort of 30 samurais for the third castle which belonged to his youngest son but was now deserted.
The two brothers decide to kill their father and send a huge army to fight the samurais who were the best in the land.
The battle between the samurais and the army is the best I've seen on screen., yes better than the Normandy Landing in Saving Private Ryan.
What happens next, I leave it to you to find out.
The cinematography is mind-blowing. Colors very apt for the film in which every character is as dark as it can be. And the background score haunting. Superb acting performances by the great lord (Tatsuya Nakadai) and his eldest daughter in law (Mieko Harada) backed with a stron message in the end.
All in all a great epic, one which took ten years in the making (Kurosawa made the paintings for the storyboards himself).
The only film that comes as close in terms of darkness is Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool based on Macbeth.
This film now ranks in my personal favorite. Go get your hands on this one. You won't regret it.
posted by Rahul Bhaskar | 12:39 AM
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