Reviews of Ran

Ran (also known as 'Chaos')

Posted : 6 months, 1 week ago on 19 January 2008 04:09 (A review of Ran)

When I asked for an option of a good Japanese movie, I was introduced to Kurosawa's movies. Worried about being bored with a b&w, I chose Ran which was shot in 1985 in color. I am glad with my choice to being introduced to his work through 'Ran'. The version I saw was on DVD and the movie had gone through better color treatment and there was additional suppliments to the DVD which includes

The movie is about a fearful man, Hidetora who self-declared himself as a lord through ruthless killings and wars. It is the same man who is also a father of 3 son. After a series of events, the father began to realise which of the sons is loyal.

The astonishing scene of the movie would be the burning of the castle and also the numbers (in hundreds) of extras and horses used in making this movie. The capibility of the director and his crew to organise the whole props and people on the set and successfully making this movie a beautiful piece in the midst of chaos is simply breathtaking.

I suggest watching this movie with appreciation for its cinematic creativity and the acting of the character Hidetora by Tatsuya Nakadai who has acted regularly in most of Kurosawa's film replacing Toshiro Mifune.

This movie does have some influnces of Shakespeare's 'King Lear' because Kurosawa himself is an avid fan of Shakespeare which we could see in most of his films. Anyways, I would recommend this movie to start of Kurosawa's movie marathon.

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Kurosawa's adaptation of King Lear

Posted : 2 years ago on 17 July 2006 04:58 (A review of Ran)

I was more than pleased with the Masterworks Edition, although I've heard (but not seen) that the Criterion DVD is the best. See exerpt of review below, reverberates the sentiments I've read:
"However, this gem's transition [Ran] to DVD has been cringe-worthy on Region 1. The Fox Lorber edition is noted as being one of the worst transfers in existence, and while many were satisfied with the Masterworks edition, most who were familiar with the film (and many who weren't) recognized that there was an obscene amount of digital manipulation. The result is the film's colors looked utterly artificial and the film has nowhere near the serene look it normally does."

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