RAN-Don't Walk-OK that was stupid, but the sweeping Japanese re-telling of King Lear is not

I'm actually just a little emotionally drained right now, having just viewed Aikira Kurasowa's "Ran". All of that Shakespearean tragedy is about to give me a brain aneurysm, let me say it really makes an impact.

This is the story of a house divided by the arrogance, pride, misconceptions, and the short sighted view of one man. Unbelievably and undeservedly he has the loyalty and undying devotion of those he seems to mistreat the most. Almost everything that is good and right is consumed, twisted or destroyed by self-aggrandizing, bombastic pomposity and just plain evil doers (if I may quote someone's very simplistic terms). Sometimes you can almost empathize with the evil doer but not usually, however you also wonder why the good are so good. Just like in real life. I found myself thinking of real situations in which one person's misconceptions and arrogance triggered catastrophic results. It is usually worse for those innocent people closest to the person, and for those people who were trying to be helpful. But then that is the genius of Shakespeare, and the genius of this movie.

It is sometimes difficult to translate some of the acting from another language and convey the same emotion (reading subtitles), it is even more difficult when the entire culture is based on different conventions. I should actually say when the value system in the country is weighted differently than our own. Finally when the time period also requires you to have a different mind set about the action, it is only one more barrier to truly identifying with the character(s). By the end of this movie and through all of those barriers, you actually are emotionally vested.

So lets start with the time period, the story is set in Feudal Japan, there are constant land grabs and areas are controlled by a War Lord. This is the age of the Shogun Warrior, in Japan if you want more power, you must conquer someone's land (and their army). Their land was likely to include a Castle, monetary possessions, family, women (concubines), a village or two filled with people to support the castle, and any number of people willing to serve the Lord or Master for protection. Also bear in mind these are the pre-cursors to the Mongols, who later moved west.

So we have Warlord Hidetora Ichimonji, (Tatsuya Nakada) who at 70 is still very much the same person he has been all of his life. He has dedicated his life to war, and the hunt. Fittingly he expects people to obey his every order, he is proud to the point of arrogance, he even treats his friends with subservient disdain. He is unable to believe that anyone can know more, or be better at judging a situation than he. His three sons, Taro(Akira Terao), Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu), and Saburo (Daisuke Ryu) don't fare any better than the friends. They are generally reduced to having to agree with everything he says, even when it is derogatory. He does have one son who almost instinctively feels compelled to speak the truth. This in his father's eyes makes him a trouble maker, and impetulant wastrel. To the father it is clear this son will never live up to his ideals. In his arrogance, the father decides to give his kingdom away in front of two of his closest friends, advisors, and sons. Against everyone else's better judgment, he insists he knows what he is doing. He really doesn't want to have the responsibility of protecting the whole Kingdom, which is by now quite substantial. He wants to enjoy his golden years, and so his gesture in a way is in keeping with his selfish nature. Frankly he just wants to live out his remaining years with his concubines, in a quiet tower of his #1 Castle. He further thinks this is a great idea, because he will put his oldest and most compliant son in charge. This way he can maintain control and rule as a sort of puppet master, however the son will have to deal with all of the nasty day to day details and warrior Warlord pressure. He can then sit back in peace enjoying his kingdom through his sons.

His second and third sons will also receive Castles, each less and less opulent, and further out from the Number 1 Castle, which seems to be the best.

After hearing this plan, the First son appropriately thanks his father, with verbose platitudes and appears too humble and gracious to take on such a challenge, as he says no one can rule like his dad. This clearly makes the father very proud as it is something he believes as well, but he tells the son he'll do fine. The second son, echoes his brother's sentiment, although as he says, he could not say it as gracefully. The third son tells the father it's a bunch of bull, and they'll be fighting in no time. He reminds the father that he was a brutal, vicious and evil ruler, who never allowed kindness to affect his leadership style. That he and his brothers as the product of such an education, will only spawn that in the future, especially if there is something to fight over. Basically he tells his dad he can only expect that the chickens will come home to roost. With that the father becomes enraged, and banishes the son Saburo from his kingdom. Upon seeing this, his loyal Vassal(a person who watches out for the King, his eyes and ears) Tango (Masayuki Yui) jumps up and defends Saburo, as having only spoken the truth as he saw it. But Hidetora is not convinced, or moved, he also banishes Tango for speaking up. With that, no one else speaks up.

Prior to this encounter the father was about to marry off Saburo to one of his Warlord friend's daughter, either Ayabe (Jun Tazaki) or Fujimaki (Hitoshi Ueki). It was a cultural custom for people of means to arrange a marriage for their children. This usually resulted in increased political gain and power for both families. After banishment Saburo has basically been disowned and dis-inherited. Making Ayabe lose interest as a future son-in-law for his daughter. Fujimaki is also initially disinterested, however he considers the value of a son-in-law with good character, who is willing to call things as he sees them. He believes Saburo is someone who will be honest, and trustful, and values having this type of person close to him, over any money or power which would have been bought into the relationship. With that he welcomes Saburo into his family, and home and welcomes the marraige to his daughter.

Back at Castle # 1 as the transfer of power takes place we meet Lady Kaede(Mieko Harada), the wife of Taro. When she first appears she is shrill and demanding. That cannot be good. Her first move is to move the Concubines out, and to move into the most desirable part of the Castle. She then begins to whisper into her husband's ear, demanding that he not take orders from his father, and act like the new leader of the family. This morphs into out and out manipulations of all types. Hidetora does not believe his son could betray him at first. However he soon realizes that the same mind set and tactics he used against his enemies have permeated his home. His advisors do try to tell him they believe he still has one loyal son to whom he could turn. However his pride will not allow him to turn to his son, as he could not do it and 'Save Face'.

Well that set's the story up, from there, human nature takes over, and we see the worst that it can be. Including Hidetora's descent into madness. In part it is caused by his own inability to let go in earlier years, in part by seeing everyone through his own evil value system. He is also confronted with the results of his brutal Lordship in other ways through out the rest of the film. In a way, his madness could possibly save him. However he may be too far gone to really appreciate it.

Tatsuya Nakadai as Hidetora does undergo a sort of transformation, I believe he even loses weight in some of later scenes. As would befit a man losing his mind in the Castle ruins, dessert plains and caves of Japan. He also appears visably frail at the end, when early in the movie he is almost too vital for the part. I believe he has a lot of make-up, however he is still able to convey emotion through the way he holds his body, and his eyes. He gives a great and demanding performance. Having lived with Alzheimers and other mental illness, I think he captures the confusion of madness as well. So many of these performances were magnificent, Saburo, Lady Keade, Jiro, Tango, Lady Sue (Yoshiko Miyazaki)Jiro's wife, Kurogane (Hisashi Igawa)Jiro's vassal, all of these were stand outs in my opinion. That is practically the whole cast. What made them stand out is that despite the fact that I did not understand one word of Japanese, I found myself turning up the volume so I could hear what they were saying. The inflection in the voice, the way the body moved, the eyes, all of this made these actors stand out.

This movie may be a little tedious to watch, because it is long, it is Shakespeare, and your are reading much of the dialog. Occasionally you may have to re-wind to see everything that transpired on the screen. However this was an overall satisfying viewing experience, and it has really made me think. Sometimes our views of the world and what we expect are really just a mirror of what we are on the inside. I kept thinking that Hidetora could only see the land grab and vicious suppression in all that others did. Despite any proof to the contrary. Oh and the haunting ending scene, just reminds us that life goes on, and even with the best intentions...life may not be fair.