DarkeningHumourRan (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
After recently catching up with Kurosawa's
High and Low, I remarked that I must make it my mission to seek out more of Akira Kurosawa's work, as I have had a great appreciation for the handful of films by the master which I have seen. That brings me to
Ran, which was singled out by DarkeningHumour as the film I should watch as part of this marathon in his behalf. I must admit that immediately
Ran feels different from the other Kurosawa I have seen. It's in color! I'm not a Kurosawa scholar, so i don't know how many of his later films were in color, but I can say that I found Kurosawa to be a master at photographing in black and white, so right away I missed that aspect. However, the film more than makes up for it in its use of color and grand landscapes. I must admit to having watched the film on a rather subpar blu ray copy (the StudioCanal version), which seems both grainy and lacking the true pop of color the palette seems to suggest for this film.
The film is purportedly a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's
King Lear. Of that I know very little. I know littler still of Mori Motonari, whose historical story, I learned, was truly the inspiration for Kurosawa for production. Going in fairly cold, I felt most excited to see the type of Japanese culture that flooded my childhood after seeing
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, and subsequently re-watching the film countless times. There was something so intriguing about this time period and Japanese culture. I was a weird kid, I will admit it. I did, afterall, end up with a degree in History, so it should be of no surprise to learn historical things are what get me most excited. The costumes, which won an Academy Award for
Ran, are among the visual highlights of the film, as well as the tremendous use of color throughout. The big action/battle scenes brought a sweeping epic feel to an otherwise smallish film from a story standpoint. The political and military maneuvering of the three brothers, Taro, Jiro, and Saburo, and their father, the aging warlord Hidetora, at first seem fairly silly. But as the hunger for power sweeps through all but one of the four, we begin to see the issues with human nature, family or not.
I will admit, however, to having difficulty getting into the film. It begins rather slowly, with an unexciting sequence on a mountaintop, and the characters never seemed wholly dynamic to me, that is, until the final act of the film. I struggle with films like these, whose merits are celebrated almost universally, and I can see why. But it's also a film which, in my opinion, takes a while to develop and pull me into the narrative, which begs the question: if a third act saves the film, does that bring merit to the sections before it which I found to be good, but not great? Perhaps an eventual re-watch will bring greater clarity to the film for me. Or perhaps I wasn't in the right mood for this film on this viewing (always possible). But that is not to say at all that I didn't appreciate the filmmaking here. Kurosawa is shooting very high with the epic scale of the film, and mostly lands it with that incredible third act which brings it all together. I just didn't fall head over heels in love with it as almost every other person has (according to Letterboxd). Count me in the minority, but also don't crucify me over it, afterall I DID LIKE THE FILM!
*** - Good