Ran (The Criterion Collection)
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Movie Reviews of Ran (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: beautiful to watch and admire
Summary: 3 Stars
The storyline, heavily Shakespearean, is about a wealthy Warlord who has 3 sons, one of which is bestowed the kingdom. Unprepared for battle he is conquered by deceit. Although medium scale war moves quite patiently, the director keeps your attention to the main characters with effective display of strong acting performances, mesmerizing costumes and large sceneries in Shogun perspective. Literary allusions run wide throughout the film too. I don't want to spoil them for you; but you will be surprised how obvious they really are.Movie Review: A mixed bag from the master
Summary: 3 Stars
The Bottom Line:
Ran's gorgeous photography and impressive first hour may be just enough to recommend it despite the fact that its King Lear-meets-Japanese-folk-legend plot doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, the closing battle scenes aren't staged very well (men on horses ride toward the enemy, men get shot, men fall off horses, horses are all fine) and the 160-minute running length often feels interminable; know what you're getting into before you watch this dubious classic.
3/4
Movie Review: Ran - a masterpiece by the master
Summary: 3 Stars
The film has been around as an arthouse favourite for years but this new dvd version add so much - full interviews and background makes the film come to life. This legendary director deservedly carries the title as a Master in Japan and should have been declared a Living Treasure in his lifetime.
I am going to order the other movies by the master as well!
Movie Review: Another Display of Directorial Ineptitude from the "Master"
Summary: 2 Stars
Review in one sentence: This movie has zero energy. What follows is my fragmented, chronological lambasting of this "masterpiece."
The characters are cardboard cutouts with very little in terms of actual development. The opening scene begins with an argument between Hidetora and his three sons. It's almost like it assumes retroactive character maturity that was never established to begin with. It would have been nice to see some color in terms of personality, with each of these three key players given some screen time before the big fallout. In the seemingly endless line of miscalculations made on the part of our favorite "masterful" filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa ("AK") decides to provide *his* kind of "color" - vague one-liners. The "pranks" of the third son are referenced, but we get no actual development of his character (he does have one good moment later on). As for the other two sons, we don't even get AK's fuzzy caricatures. This viewer was left wholly indifferent by all of these sons, and their opaque motivations didn't help matters.
Even worse is the portrayal of the vitally important fifth character. In AK's infinite stupidity, he chooses to have the key puppetmaster (Lady Kaede) simply state that her father and brothers were murdered by Hidetora and that her mother committed suicide. There is ample opportunity for a flashback (or a lengthy opening historical segment) that actually fleshes out her character while allowing the viewer to experience her sorrows directly, but AK simply settles for dull monologue by a one-dimensional personality. At one point (early in the film), she's sitting down and simply states that she's happy to be living in her old residence again. It's an utterly robotic, emotionless, tedious series of statements that are boring as hell. Only AK could portray vengeance in a manner this dull.
We get the first battle and see a bunch of generic guys killing each other with no reason to care who actually wins. Some women that we don't know kill themselves along the way. There are some decent visuals though. Not bad, but not exactly scintillating.
After the battle we get some of the vintage overacting that shows up in most of AK's films. Hidetora goes crazy and frolics in the grasslands. When his two buddies show up to comfort him, he stares into space, opens his mouth as wide as a Pez dispenser, and has a hissy fit while his jester runs around singing. It's a total disaster of dramaticism. But that's not all. Hidetora's buddies carry him to some random shack, only to learn that the resident just so happens to be a dude that got his eyes gauged out by Hidetora years ago. Impractical coincidence alert! So what does this blind dude do to the man who handicapped him for life? Does he curse him? Does he lunge at him with a knife? No. He plays a sad flute song. Hidetora then promptly throws *himself* through a wall. Such a "masterful" filmmaker, AK is.
We go back to Lady Kaede, who magically goes from stoic carelessness to knife-wielding lunatic in 5 seconds flat, then takes another turn to hysterical crocodile tears only a few minutes later. Hey AK, that flashback would have been REALLY helpful. And do you know what else would have been helpful? A little relationship development between Kaede and the two sons to help the viewer in understanding exactly why these powerful men are wrapped around her little finger. You did have 160 minutes to use here. Why not use them properly for a change?
Over 90 minutes in and we finally get a well-written moment when a stone fox-head is returned to Lady Kaede. Then again, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Of course, AK immediately follows this brief success with another laughable attempt at manipulation. The blind dude and his sister (who has become a target for assassination) are escorted to safety. His sister spots an old castle and tells him about it. He asks where it is. Now, any thoughtful sister would give her blind brother some idea of where this castle is. Perhaps she could take his hand and point it in the right direction. Unfortunately, this is one of those "masterful" Akira Kurosawa movies, so she simply blurts out "Over there!" The blind dude turns to the right, turns to the left, and asks "Where?" Some sad music accompanies this hopelessly incompetent scene where AK so blatantly reminds the viewer that - yes - the blind dude is, in fact, BLIND! Good ole AK wanted the viewer to feel sorry for the blind dude, so he constructs this ridiculous scene to pile it on. I laughed. The direction here is so terribly amateurish that only fanboys could possibly deny AK's clumsy incompetence.
Hidetora gets amnesia and babbles senselessly. Stuff like, "Who am I?" and "I'm lost." "Such is the human condition", replies the jester. Give me a break. In a truly hilarious moment, the jester tells Hidetora to simply jump off a cliff if he's so disturbed about everything. Hidetora promptly jumps off a cliff. I laughed. Later on, Hidetora suddenly remembers that he has three sons. I'm serious.
We get the final battle, which is pathetic. First of all, the blue samurai army somehow gets their hands on some semi-automatic rifles. What on earth are semi-automatic rifles doing in this period piece? Next, the editing is atrocious. The sequence is so badly cut up that one wonders if a young Paul Greengrass was hired as the action director. Third, the battle strategies suck. The red army rides around in circles while the blue army shoots them down. Not good.
AK finishes things off with his patented overdramaticism. Hidetora even goes so far as to say - out loud, no less - "Things are getting dark." Wow. Just wow.
Movie Review: Annoying Lear
Summary: 2 Stars
I didn't enjoy the film. I also didn't enjoy the original play by Shakespeare. King Lear is one of my least favorite Shakespeare plays. I don't consider it particularly creative to remake a play that has already been done, and to add nothing of value to the original. You can set it wherever you like, in medieval Japan or on the Moon, what's the difference. It's King Lear, a downer of a play, there's nothing great about Ran just as there's nothing great about Lear, and it takes up three hours of your time.
A moron named Lear, or Hidetoro, or whatever his name is, relinquishes power in his kingdom and turns the power over to his oldest son. The youngest son warns him that it is a bad idea because the sons will be disloyal to their father. He is right, of course, and Hidetoro Lear gets treated shabbily. He's wanted dead or dead.
In this treatment of the annoying plot, he loses his mind. He has a faithful follower or two. They overact. There is nobody to root for in this depressing and ridiculously overrated downer of a play. Lear Hidetoro is an absolute jerk. Am I supposed to care what happens to him? Why? Because he used to be a powerful king, and a cruel one? You may as well cry over Saddam Hussein.
Look at this movie with fresh eyes. Look at Shakespeare's King Lear with fresh eyes. This stuff simply is not very entertaining, and is not very good. The hell with King Lear. He's an annoyance.