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Ran (Masterworks Edition) Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu Director: Akira Kurosawa Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color, Widescreen, Dolby Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Running Time: 160 minutes Studio: Wellspring Media, In Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-04-15 Buy from Amazon |
 "The greatest action movie ever"If you thought Seven Samurai was a masterpiece, you aint seen nothing yet until you've seen RAN. I recall Sydney Pollack's character in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives coming out of the theater with the bimbo woman character trying to explain that this was Kurosawa's King Lear...Yes, somewhat based on Shakespeare's work but very Japanese in nature. The use of color, direction, cinematography, and acting all KICK BUTT!!! From Lady Kaede to Saburo to Hidetori--all standout performances. I love this film. I get chills just hearing the soundtrack before and during battle scenes. A truly awesome feat of cinema. "Shakespeare, Kurosawa Style"After I got finished watching Ran I reflected on the fact that Japanese movies almost never have a happy ending. This is because the Japanese don't always need the happy ending, they can deal with the reality that life doesn't always have the good turn. With this in mind I realized that the Japanese must really love Shakespeare's tradegies. Ran is Akira Kurosawa's retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear. An aging warlord wants to divide his kingdom into equal parts for his three sons. The youngest protests and warns that such a plan will breed rivalry. His elder brothers talk the warlord into doing it and the youngest is banished. After the warlord turns his throne over things begin to fall apart. The king is attacked at the famous Assualt of the Third Castle scene. His entourage is wiped out by his sons as they attack him. He goes mad, and escapes into the wilderness. Some people have called this an action movie. If you get this expecting to see dramatic samurai duels you will be sorely dissapointed. I would classify this as a graphic look at jealousy in humanity. The overwhelming desire for man to have more is captured in the bloody and decietful fight between the brothers. Kurosawa captures the ultimate suffering men can inflict on each other in order to better themselves. Not only do we see how the king is wronged by his sons we also see perhaps one of the most pitiable characters in the film, the former prince who had his eyes removed on the king's command. There are few likeable characters in this movie, only those to be pitied. Kurosawa out does himself on the filming of Ran. The use of bright colors especially in the midst of battle is impressive. Through the smoke from musket fire are bright reds from the blood and banners flying as well as yellow banners. The knave is another standout, with his strange, jovial dress he really stands out in the cast. The king's wardrobe of white, the Eastern color of death, is appropriate since he caused so much in his life and now it stalks him. Despite criticisms of the poor quality DVD I really can see no problem with it. I would enjoy this film no matter what the contrast or screen size was. Ran is not really a film to sit down and enjoy. At no point could I tell myself that this was some kind of war film. Check out Ran, and have your mind blown.  "RAN (MASTERWORKS EDITION)..."Just recieved this DVD for Christmas... watched it last night. Before watching "Ran", I read the Amazon online reviews - and thus, it gave me a sort of "bias". Let me explain... First of all, I read the mentionings of the high contrast and saturation - while it may be a bit too much at times, it's nothing to make your experience any less enjoyable. The only thing I found bothersome about the "Masterworks Edition" is that the subtitles are hard to read at some points (because of said contrast/saturation blunder) - at the opening scene in the plain, for example. Secondly, there's mentionings of the aspect ratio being wrong (not wide enough). I never noticed that anything being "cut out". But then again, this is the first (and only) version of Akira Kurosawa's "Ran" that I've seen. That being said, let me talk about the actual movie. It's got Kurosawa's beautiful cinematography, wonderful use of light and shadow (which, by the way, would probably NOT be seen without the "remastering"), great character development - the usual from Kurosawa-san. As mentioned in an earlier review, he does an almost better job of telling King Lear's tragedy than Shakespeare himself. The DVD extras include 2 trailers (Euro and VHS), web links, production notes, and 2 commentaries. *Interesting side note* The film is also based "loosely" on Mori Motonari and his three sons, but unlike in "Ran", the family stayed aligned - even after loosing more than half their land. Hope you enjoy the movie - I would suggest buying it if you're a fan - if this is your first Akira Kurosawa movie, check out "Seven Samurai" first. Although "Ran" can be a bit tedious on the eyes (subtitles vs film contrast), it's a beautiful film. Kurosawa-san's use of the clouds' shadows wouldn't be viewable without the "Masterworks Edition". It's very detailed. Akira Kurosawa's "Ran (Masterworks Edition) DVD" gets 4/5 stars - 5 stars for the movie, 4 stars for the DVD.  "Good but not great....."This is a good rendition of Shakespear's epic "King Lear". But the visual quality of the movie on DVD is fair or mediocre at best. First of all, the movie is not in it's original widescreen format. You can obviously tell part of the image is cut out. Also the movie looks dated, for instance it was made back in 1985 but it looks like it was made in 1970. The plot is a little hard to follow because the brothers look very similar and you will mistake one for the other and lady Sue & lady Kaede also look very similar. The acting also was not believable at times. The battle scenes are well done though! The price is a little more than what you would pay normally for a DVD movie. Why are foreign films always more expensive? ""Is somebody crying?""Yes... yes I am. Akira Kurosawa's Ran is one of those very rare films that is capable of making me actually stop and say, "no way." Kurosawa has managed to craft a liberal retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear into a heartwrenching, almost totally crushing vision of the pathetic human condition that actually makes Shakespeare's point better than the Bard did himself. [Wait on those torches and pitchforks! Hear me out!] By removing the Edmund and Edgar subplot, Kurosawa has also oblitered the single hopeful aspect of the play [Edgar triumphs, Edmund gets his just desserts]. What remains is the central tale of an old king (not a hugely sympathetic figure thanks to his rather brutal past and on-screen pride, but still worthy of respect) being ground into the dirt and, eventually, killed. (The death of Lear is no less a murder than the death of Hidetora.) This happens through the treachery, avarice, and sheer lust for power of the king's children, who eventually drive him insane. In one sense, this is an extremely unpleasant movie to watch-- as the last shot so articulately shows us, the central message of the film is that "man is born crying and when he has cried enough, he dies." Religion and friendship fall by the wayside in a film just as likely to make you weep from the sheer power of its argument as from the force of its filmaking. ...Which is nonetheless considerable. The much-referenced assault on the Third Castle is without a doubt one of the most stunningly perfect sequences ever put on film-- stunning no less because of its graphic depiction of the horrors of war than because of the lingering shots of the crazed Hidetora, unable even to kill himself, capable only of sitting in abject horror as flaming arrows rip through the air near him and all of his companions die around him. The sheer amount of suffering conveyed to us, both through the color palette of firey reds and smokey blacks and through the soundless screams of the wounded holding their own limbs or crawling towards the pig troughs for a final drink, is simply unbearable. The bright red blood draws attention to both itself and the entire subtle wrongness of the sequence-- is this really human nature? Hidetora's reaction to the carnage becomes the viewer's own-- wordless, wide-eyed astonishment. Wide-eared, as well, since the sequence would not be half so affected if not accompanied by a slow, moving tune that only makes us more aware of the noises of battle that we can't hear, but imagine more vividly than we would like. The rifle shot that ends this tune (generally inciting a slight jerk on the part of the audience) is mechanized and harsh, and signals (after a short flurry of sound) a blasted silence as Hidetora walks, stunned, out of the castle. This sequence, while a perfect example of the amount of pure artistry present in this film, is by no means alone in its astonishingness; the entire film is a work of genius. As for the much-maligned DVD transfer, I'm afraid that I have no real basis of comparison as I have only ever seen the Masterworks Edition. As a little bit of a purist (I don't watch pan-and-scan), I do find myself disturbed by the things that other reviews point out; however, they obviously detracted little from my viewing experience. All-in-all, I would say that the current DVD is passable, but I look forward with great anticipation to a future version that truly respects this masterpeice (and doesn't have obvious subtitle typos that make the viewer snicker). In short, this movie is quite possibly my candidate for "greatest film ever made." It paints a deeply despairing, nihilistic picture of both human nature and the world as a whole, and does so with a brutally ruthless frankness that I have seen almost nowhere else. Artistically, it is practically without fault-- powerful and moving, it is practically a "how-to" of effective moviemaking. I cannot recommend Ran too highly. |
