Ran (The Criterion Collection)
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Movie Reviews of Ran (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: Criterion's RAN coming to the rescue
Summary: 5 Stars
Now that Amazon is offering the Criterion DVD of Kurosawa's RAN with a ton of supplementary material order it now! In this two disc masterpiece will be AK the 74 minute film by Chris Marker which in itself is worth buying. Set to classical music this tribute on the filming of Ran long ago distinguished itself for being a superb film. Add a recent interview with RAN star Japanese actor
Tatsuya Nakadai, and you have it. Both my Japanese version of RAN and AK on laser discs have seen better days, and I can hardly wait for this great work to finally get a decent DVD transfer, and with Criterion you know it will. Just push the order button, and pray that November's release date comes real soon ... and NOW IT IS HERE, and it is simply amazing. One of the best DVD's I have ever owned, and the supplemental disc on the making of Ran will blow you away. Mieko Harada the actress who plays Lady Kaede in her interview tells how Kurosawa's blunt comments as the film was being made got the actors and the production crew to form a very cohesive unit, and get the filming done right, and many times on the first take. Chris Marker's 74 minute visual treat "AK" is also included the first time this film has been available outside of Japan, and actor Tatsuya Nakadai's interview is wonderful. if you purchase no other DVD this year purchase this set. You will wear out your DVD player watching it time and time again!
Movie Review: Man is born crying. He cries and cries and then he dies.
Summary: 5 Stars
I won't add anything more about the greatness of this film, but will say that it has got to be the last great REAL epic ever made. That would have been "Dances With Wolves," but Costner ruined that film by adding another hour of utterly worthless material to it. And it also could have been "The Last Emperor" in 1987, but that had the opposite damage done - an hour was removed for idiot American audiences, resulting in the film being an incomplete hack-job (and it STILL won Best Picture and Editor!).
RAN, when you watch it, amazes. It is Noh Theatre shot on location and it works. The score is a Mahlerian wonder by Toru Takemitsu and I treasure the two cd set I hunted down in Japan. The use of color, the acting, and Lady Kaede's lethal Kriemhild-like revenge... just astounding. Kurosawa, who loved silent films, was clearly influenced by Fritz Lang's DIE NIBELUNGEN films, because the burning of the Third Castle in RAN is identical, and just as dangerously spectacular, as the burning of Attila's palace in "Kriemhild's Revenge."
Kurosawa made several films after this before he died, but RAN is the validation of his magnificent career.
Movie Review: One of Akira Kurosawa's finest !
Summary: 5 Stars
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
Ran is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear and remains one of Kurosawa's most popular films.
It is about an aging feudal lord who divides his land between his three sons. The elder sons are satisfied and the younger one becomes corrupt.
The film is very well made and includes an excellent scene of a burning castle that was constructed and burned solely for the film. The costumes are also very well designed and there are many other things about this film which make it very good.
The Criterion DVD has some excellent special features too.
Disc one contains the film with optional audio commentary by Stephen Prince, theatrical trailers and an introduction by Sidney Lumet.
Disc two contains "A.K." a film about Kurosawa directed by Chris Marker, a segment of "Akira Kurosawa: It's Wonderful to Create" about the making of the film, an interview with actor, Tatsuya Nakadai, and a 35 minute montage of storyboard paintings and sketches.
Movie Review: A World of Blood and Madness
Summary: 5 Stars
Tatsuya Nakadai's performance in Ran is as ratcheted-up as the cinematic beauty of this look at a world of blood, taking us to the very brink of madness. It is a film about loss, betrayal, filial impiety, war, hate, hungry ghosts.
When released, the West heaved a sigh of relief: Kurosawa back and as magnificent as ever!
Sweeping away all hype and hyperbole is hard to do. I see this as a very expressionist-realist film. But, forget what I said! And, don't compare it to Shakespeare! At least, not at first. This is cinema.
Visually stunning, stylized acting producing a counter-point to the genuine emotions, a distanced camera giving us a long shot at a world hell-bent on self-destruction...changes of scale that intensify meaning: closeups of wildflowers, and a long shot of a burning castle.
Kurosawa built the enormous castle and had it burned for mere moments on film. But, what moments!
Movie Review: One of Kurosawa's Greatest Films
Summary: 5 Stars
This reimagining of Shakespeare's King Lear by legendary director Akira Kurosawa is a fine addition to the Criterion Collection. Majestic in scope, Ran is Kurosawa's last epic masterpiece. The film is set in sixteenth-century Japan and evinces the folly of war as well as how treachery, greed, and a lust for power destroy a family. A special edition double-disc set, the second disc offers a number of first-rate supplements, including A.K., a 74-minute film on Kurosawa by Chris Marker, a 30-minute documentary on the making of Ran, and a 35-minute video piece reconstructing Ran through Kurosawa's paintings and sketches. An excellent 28-page booklet featuring an insightful essay by film critic Michael Wilmington and interviews with Kurosawa and composer Toru Takemitsu is also included. This film -- particularly this Criterion Collection edition -- is a must for any Kurosawa collector.