Ran - Kurosawa's Version of King Lear

In this complex world we live in, the definition of love is often vague and far fetched. More often we hear sweet words of love from those who have little knowledge of what love is. Many poets and writers have spent a lifetime writing novels, poems and operas based on love, but still the meaning of love is easier said than done. Ran is a story of a man who believed in loyalty, trust, honor and love from his three beloved sons. A simple man who lived in a world he created, yet failed to understand the true meaning of filial devotion.

Those of you, who have read Shakespeare's King Lear, will notice the resemblance of King Lear's tragedy and Ran's tale of betrayal. In King Lear, there was King Lear and his three daughters - Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. In Ran, there is The Great Lord Hidetora and his three sons - Taro, Jibo and Saburo.

Caution: My darling readers, like the plot details as stated above, this review reveals everything about Ran's plot. So read no further if you have not seen Ran and would not want me to spoil your future viewing experience.

Caution Part Deux: This review is really long, you sure you want to go ahead? You can always skip this and read my other stuff

Who's your daddy!
Which of you shall we say doth love us most? - King Lear
The story starts with a happy wild boar hunt, where The Great Lord, Hidetora hunts with his sons and two warlords, Fujimaki and Ayabe. After a tiresome but successful hunt, Hidetora announces his eldest son's succession to full power. Honeyed words pour from the mouths of Hitetora’s two elder sons who agree with his wishes. However, disagreements were made by his favorite /youngest son, Saburo, who believed that his father had made a mistake in deciding the three sons' power in the land. Saburo believed that his father's decision would create more chaos in ruling the lands. Furious and embarrassed by the brash youth's reasoning, Hidetora banishes his favorite son, disregarding the begging and factual statements made by Tango, a loyal samurai and servant. Saburo and Tango flee from Hidetora's presence (similar to what Cordelia did in King Lear, after Cordelia failed miserably to describe how much she loved her father).
Saburo’s courage and honesty captured the heart of Lord Fujimake, who decided make Saburo his son-in-law.

Lies, Betrayals and Loneliness
After the announcement of Taro’s succession, the old Hidetora gets kicked out from his own castle and later on, rejected by his second son, Jibo. Both sons used the excuse of Hidetora’s unruly warriors causing havoc within the two castles to dismiss the unfortunate Great Lord. Pained by the decisions made by his sons, Hidetora decides to move into the third castle, which rightfully belongs to his youngest son, Sabuto. Unfortunately, all residents of the castle fled to Sabuto’s side, leaving an empty castle which would soon be seiged by Taro. The unfortunate old fool in an attempt to regain his honor loses all his samurais and beloved concubines in the siege. Hidetora is driven mad and runs out of Saburo’s castle into the plains, lonely, shamed and heart-broken. In the course of action, Taro himself is slain by his own brother, Jiro, the title is passed to Jiro.

The Great Lord Hidetora
The Great Lord Hidetora is a warlord, warlords earn their titles by obliterating other clans surrounding them. He spent fifty years of conquering to attain all his castles and lands for his beloved sons. However, Hidetora is not as evil as he seems to be, he shows kindness towards his daughter-in-law, Lady Su-e. Perhaps the kindness is caused by his guilt, for he had destroyed Lady Su-e’s family and burnt down Su-e’s castle to gain more power. Lord Hidetora has a weakness, very common in men, he spoils his three sons and would give anything for them. This action would cause his own downfall, as he failed to see the possibility of his sons’ treachery and betrayal. Like Shakespear’s King Lear, Hidetora is an old fool who
fell for honeyed lies and failed to listen to the truth. The horror of reality dawns on Hidetora as he discovers his sons’ agenda and his world collapses under his feet. The audience will note his madness as he runs from those who care for him, and see Hidetora beg forgiveness from imaginary characters. The elegant and grand Great Lord is replaced with a disheveled old coot who wears a crown of straw and flowers.

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned - Lady Kaede
Lady Kaede is perhaps the most malicious character in this story. She is also my favorite character. Bitter, jealous and vengeful and not to mention steals every scene, Lady Kaede had lost her family to Hidetora in her youth, for that she bears a great grudge for Hidetora. She is also a woman who possesses great beauty and influence with her intelligence and sexual power. Lady Kaede manages to manipulate Taro into removing his father from his title and home, she later manipulates Jiro into making her his lady, after he murdered his own brother. Lady Kaede cares not for anyone but herself, being a true blue blood, Kaede believes it is in her right to be the master/mistress of the first castle and would stop at nothing to maintain her status. Her ambitious nature is the main power that brought down the Ichimonchi clan. None of the characters within this movie comes close to Lady Kaede in terms of performance and severe emotional problems.

Taro and Jiro (similar to King Lear's Goneril and Regan)
Taro and Jiro are the two treacherous sons of Hidetora. Greed for power and sibling rivalry caused both men to fight each other. Taro, the eldest, is a weakling, a man who lacks a backbone and relies on his wife’s advise and her approval. Jiro is the jealous second son, born only twelve months after Taro and does not appreciate having a weakling for an elder brother. They are both exactly like Goneril and Regan of King Lear, personality wise.

Saburo – The Prodigal Son (similar to King Lear's Cordelia)
Saburo, favorite and youngest son of Hidetora is perhaps the only son worthy of Hidetora’s love. Unfortunately, this young man lacks the ability to speak well without angering his father. His blunt nature and his ability to see his brothers’ weaknesses, make him a respectable character in the eyes of Fujimaki, Ayabe and Tango. Though Hidetora may see him as brash and uncouth, one can judge by how much Saburo loves his father, for his actions speak louder than words. It is very hard not to like Saburo, he is full of life. While the old Lord sleeps under the scorching sun, Saburo brought shrubbery to make shade for his father, small actions like this shows how much he cares for his old man. When his father banished him, he still thought of his father’s welfare and he even sends Tango to spy on the old man to make sure Hidetora is safe from danger.

Lady Su-e and her brother Tsurumaru
These two characters are the victims of power struggle throughout their lives. Lady Su-e, Jibo’s wife, is a woman of Buddhist beliefs and a woman who believes that her fate is destined from the day she’s born. Su-e is the complete opposite of Kaede, Su-e does not hate Hidetora for destroying her family and home, and because of that Hidetora has a special place for her in his heart. Lady Su-e is the first person Hidetora visits when he arrived at Jibo’s castle. Hidetora fails to understand why Su-e loves him and he describes his meeting with her as “You break my heart every time I see you”. Lady Su-e brings out the gentle side of Hidetora as well as Hidetora’s horrible past. This character is one who every viewer can sympathize with, she is honorable, considerate and extremely sweet. To me, Lady Su-e is the example of a remarkable character whose strength lies in her ability to forgive in spite of all the horrible things done to her.
Tsurumaru is the blind brother of Su-e, his eyes were gouged out by Hidetora when he was a child. Hidetora meets Tsurumaru later in the movie when Tango and Kyoami seeks shelter for the old man. Tsurumaru's purpose is to haunt Hidetora like a ghost from the past. Nothing is worse than having a reminder of one's past evil deeds.

Lady Kaede uses Lady Su-e for politics and forces Jibo to do the unspeakable when Kaede finally has him in her clutches.

Kyoami the Jester
Kyoami is the nurse, comedy relief and companion to Hidetora. He is perhaps the only character who can make fun of Hidetora without having his head cut off. Kyoami’s role of the fool is made to soften the harshness of the tragic story. His common sense is often seen through his little rhymes and stories describing the foolishness of Hidetora and his sons’ stupidity. Insults coming from Kyoami have more truth in them than most people would like to hear. But unfortunately the people would prefer to ignore his wisdom, for Kyoami is just a fool ... nothing more and nothing less.


Cinematography, Colors and Costumes
From the beginning of the movie, the audience will see miles of lush green lands and beautiful large castles, all the glory of Hidetora’s rule over the land of plenty. This movie starts out like a picture book with beautiful bright colors and clear skies. The colorful entourage of Hidetora and his sons show the glory and power they hold, with many slaves, servants and samurais, all loyal to Hidetora and his sons. The movie is made like a fairy tale, where anything bright represents good things and anything dark represents evil. The beautiful scenery disappears and is replaced with the barren and cold lands and dark skies and nightmarish nights after Hidetora is removed from his title. The destruction of the land, the burning of the third castle turns the land ugly and dark, to describe the horror of wars between the two brothers and Hidetora’s mistake. Hidetora’s madness is accompanied by the harsh, the emptiness of the plains where he sees his nightmares coming true and the sky darkens as if to remind him of his past.

The costumes are majestic and a sight to see, after all, the costume designer did win the Academy award for the costumes in this movie. Notably, Lady Kaede’s costumes are elegant and colorful to show her status of Lady Of the First Castle. Her loud flowery clothing and her pasty make-up matches her arrogance and cold heart. Though Kaede is evil, her face is always bright and this brightness acts like a mask hiding her intentions. A thing to note about Lady Kaede's make up is her shaven eyebrows and two fake eyebrows drawn on her forehead, this is high fashion during the feudal era in Japan.
Lady Su-e’s costumes are lighter in color to depict her role of a modest woman with little to show. Her soft pastels are a contrast to her brother’s silvery gray costume [Note: Tsurumaru wears a woman’s kimono throughout the movie, possibly because he is no longer considered a real man or perhaps he is merely dressed that way to protect himself from the mercy of Hidetora], describing their different lifestyles where Su-e lives in a castle while her brother remains poor in a simple hut. The best contrasting effect is the Great Lord himself, his pure white kimono is a contrast to the blackened ruins around him. This effect is to show how alone he is in this despicable world he created, and everything he loved has been shattered and crushed into the black earth beneath his feet.

Recommendation
This movie is definitely not for children, there is a lot of violence shown in this movie [Samurais get shot, arms are chopped off, mountains of bodies], you get the point.
However, this movie is not entirely melodramatic, a few scenes are worth a few chuckles. The clever dialogue is well executed by some of the actors, like one particular scene, where Jibo’s most trusted vassal, Kurogane failed to assassinate Lady Su-e for Lady Kaede, he describes his excuse for bringing a stone fox head implying that Lady Su-e is a mythical fox spirit. A small touch of Snow White effect is added to this particular scene, where a trusted vassal refuses his master’s orders because he believes in Lady Su-e's innocence and respects Lady Su-e more than the malicious Lady Kaede.
One of the things that may bother the viewers about this movie is the slowness, many scenes containing only silence and nothing more. However, that is Kurosawa’s magic, silence is a way to show emotion and the characters’ inner conflicts.
Akira Kurosawa had planned for Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Red Beard) to play the part of Hidetora, strangely enough, Mifune did not get the role and Nakadai is cast as Hidetora. I have no complains about Nakadai, he seems fit to play the role of Hidetora, with his facial expressions and his ability to project the feeling of abandon and madness.
I would really recommend this movie to Shakespeare lovers, and those who love Japan’s feudal era.
It’s worth watching for great acting from Nakadai [Hidetora], Peter[Kyoami] and Mieko Harada[Lady Kaede]. If you do plan to watch this movie, I urge all to view Ran in subtitled version, original is always better.

Credits
Directed by --Akira Kurosawa
Based on William Shakespeare’s King Lear

Cinematography by
Asakazu Nakai
Takao Saitô
Masaharu Ueda

Costume Design by --Emi Wada



Cast
Tatsuya Nakadai --The Great Lord Hidetora Ichimonji
Akira Terao -- Taro Takatora Ichimonji
Jinpachi Nezu-- Jiro Masatora Ichimonji
Daisuke Ryu -- Saburo Naotora Ichimonji
Mieko Harada -- Lady Kaede
Yoshiko Miyazaki -- Lady Su-e
Masayuki Yui -- Tango Hirayama
Kazuo Kato -- Kageyu Ikoma
Peter -- Kyoami
Hitoshi Ueki -- Nobuhiro Fujimaki
Jun Tazaki -- Seiji Ayabe
Norio Matsui -- Shumenosuke Ogura
Hisashi Igawa -- Shuri Kurogane
Takashi Nomura -- Tsurumaru

Awards - Academy Award 1985 Best Costume