Ran

I saw Ran the other day because it was the Japanese epic.It wasn't what I expected. Don't get me wrong, it was indeed "epic" in the highest degree. But man, I was wrong in expecting a movie about people kicking ass. Sure, asses were kicked but Ran is a tragedy and when Kurosawa does tragedy, you know it's gonna be depressing as all hell.

Seriously, the end of the movie will have you contemplating putting your head in an oven. Even if the movie is close to three hours, things escalate, or rather, descend into chaos quickly. This movie has hatred, anger, envy, betrayal, murder, scenes of chaos and war, scenes of horrific bloodshed and violence. This movie will have you contemplating putting your head in the oven. The film flat out tells you in the end that the gods have abandoned humanity and that mankind is only good at inflicting misery and suffering on itself. The film tells you that man is born crying, cries and cries throughout his life until he finally dies. Goddamn.

There's no uplifting message here; the film goes full on nihilism. I guess I'm not used to films like these with such a strong, depressing message.

The story is about the patriarch of the Ichimonji clan, Hidetora, and his three sons: Taro, Jiro and Saburo, oldest to youngest respectively. Hidetora realizes he is too old and decides to cede authority of the domain to Jiro and live out his remaining years in peace as ceremonial leader. Saburo, however, tells his father rather bluntly that it's a stupid idea and he relies too much on the supposed love and affection of his children. Saburo tells him that the age they are living is one of conflict and strife and that the his siblings could turn on each other at any time. Hidetora refuses to believe his family could turn on each other and is angered at Saburo's protests so he banishes Saburo. This sets the stage for the conflicts to follow and it goes downhill pretty fast.

I won't spoil anymore. Nothing I write will do this film justice. This is just one of those things you just have to see. This film is supposedly based on King Lear, but not really. Kurosawa allegedly only saw the resemblance after he'd started but this should give you some basic idea of what to expect. All I can say is leave all your idealism and hope at the doorway. This film will mercilessly kick you in the balls until you lose faith in humanity.

And I thought, Throne of Blood was brutal...