Ran
For some reason I am always exactly 2 movies behind in my blogging backlog. Well, “Ran” is not exactly easy to write about, even though the story itself is rather straightforward.
There is something fascinating about Shakespearean stories, namely the fact that I almost never get bored of them. Even though I practically know “Midsummer night’s dream” and “Romeo and Juliet” by heart, I could watch them over and over again and be entertained yet again every single time. In fact, I feel like I discover something new every time I see them, just like my impression of “The Dreamers” changes with every next viewing. Different adaptations and media formats spice the whole thing up even further, making me completely forget that I am dealing with a story I know fairly well. Almost any story becomes more interesting with Shakespearean elements (think “House of Cards”).
Similarly, there were no big surprises in “Ran”. Everybody has to die (more or less, I suppose) but it is the process of getting there which gets the viewer interested. Similar to “Seven Samurai”, “Ran” is a study in humanity, showing off some of the ugliest and deepest sides humans have to offer. That was what made the first 45 minutes of the film so powerful – the strong characterization of all the players involved, culminating in a dramatic battle scene which, incidentally, looked almost poetic in the way it showed more dying or dead people than actual fighting. It’s a tragic massacre and looked very powerful as such.
It is only afterwards that the film started to drag a little bit. Without a doubt, “Ran” is a long film, but after having gone through all the characters’ exposition and seeing the dramatic centerpiece of the film, I expected more to happen. Since the beginning of the film was structured almost like a play, I thought “Ran” had a few pacing issues towards the middle, and it was only when the last battle in the film came up that I felt fully involved in the film again. The last battle was intense and finally made all the characters confront each other.
When faced with an almost 3 hour film, I typically expect myself to watch parts of it, and then resume the rest on some later day. “Ran” was suspenseful and gripping enough to make me want to watch everything, despite having been tired even before starting the film. The film is more interesting than most Kurosawa films, and its cinematography is probably the best amongst his films I have seen yet. While Kurosawa never reaches the visual beauty of Teshigahara or even Ozu, I thought than “Ran” was beautifully crafted.