Episode 143 - Ran

[00:00:01] Welcome back to Movie Mistrial, the podcast where we put the IMDb Top 250 on trial. I'm Johannes. And I'm Raji. Today we're discussing Akira Kurosawa's Ran, a swift and historical epic inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear and set against the backdrop of feudal Japan. Released in 1985, the film follows the aging warlord Hidetora Ichimonji as he divides his kingdom among his three sons, setting emotion a tragedy fueled by pride, betrayal, and the consequences of a lifetime of violence.

[00:00:31] With breathtaking cinematography, unforgettable battle sequences, and some of the most striking use of color ever captured in film, Ran is widely considered one of Kurosawa's crowning achievements. But here's the question. Is Ran the definitive Shakespeare adaptation and one of cinema's greatest epics? Or does its deliberate pacing and emotional distance keep it from reaching the heights of his reputation? Let's flip the coin because today, Ran is on trial.

[00:00:59] Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Ran. Ran. Alright, my friend. Let's flip a coin. What's it gonna be? Uh, I'm gonna go with heads.

[00:01:30] It's tails today. Oh, okay. There's a lot of responsibility with that. I don't know if I'm ready for that. Um, let's see. I think... I'm gonna argue against this. You're gonna argue against this? Sure. Okay. Alright. Well, you have the floor, my good sir. Sir? May I have the floor, please? Alright.

[00:02:01] And the witness will address this quote as judge. Oh, ladies and gentlemen. Ran is arguably a very pretty film. Uh, I think it's the first Kurosawa film that is in color. And, oh boy, it's like the Wizard of Oz because he's like, we could do color now? Let's make everything colorful. And, sure, that's great. And it is so, so needed. Because there's so many people here. But it's also very overwhelming in a lot of ways.

[00:02:27] I think, um, part of the problem I have with this film is that we have four gigantic armies that all very conveniently have little banners on their backs. So, so we know who's who. Um, and, and every, in the opening shot, every sun is very obviously color coded. So it's kind of like you can make the, the connections to who is who and whose army is who. And all that.

[00:02:54] Um, that, that's all good because it's needed, like I said. But I think the problem is that we are both very superficial with the dynamics of the family. And, um, and at the same time, we're trying to be kind of very deep in trying to care for whoever is going to be out of out on top on this.

[00:03:18] Um, one of the problems this film has is it's kind of, um, a lot of the thoughts I had about this were taking me back to Lord of the Rings in many ways. The, one of the fundamental problems I have is this film is almost like reading the first book of the Lord of the Rings because we spent so much time on establishing shots.

[00:03:40] We spent so much time on troop movements, we spent so much time just on, um, you know, armies moving back and forth that it is really distracting in a, in a weird sense. It's beautiful, but it is really, uh, challenging to kind of stay engaged in the action of it all because we're just kind of seeing the chess pieces move. And, uh, what we miss in that is that we, we miss kind of the drama out of it all.

[00:04:10] We miss the heart of it all. Uh, we miss the, um, intrigue and the backstabbing of it all. I think that is a little too superficial for it to fully work for me. And, um, kind of in a similar sense, uh, kind of going back to Lord of the Rings. I think there, we also had a lot of, uh, massive armies that fought each other that, uh, they had to kind of figure out how to visually distinguish.

[00:04:36] And this is times two, because we not only have two armies, but we have four now. And, um, it's just kind of a lot going on while there's kind of not a lot going on for a long time. And I find that, uh, unfortunate, you know, uh, if we look at the, the core kind of drama at hand, I think, uh,

[00:04:58] there is an interesting story there that, that goes over what goes around, comes around in some shapes or forms. Um, and it is also kind of a revenge kind of thing going on there. Um, that's all fine, but I think for it to work a little better, we would have needed a little more meat on that bone and kind of have a little more character development.

[00:05:26] As it stands, it feels like we are jumping in time significantly quite a bit here and there. And, uh, it, what we're really missing is, is that depth of character that makes us feel something for these people. Because, uh, I came out of this kind of just thinking, okay, that was a thing. Right. And, uh, that might be on me, but I think, uh, to me, that is a big problem of this film.

[00:05:55] Um, aside from that, uh, this field felt like a remaster of some sort, uh, not got, not really good for this film because the makeup and the hair pieces are incredibly obvious. And that also took me out. They kind of look like Klingons to me, uh, a lot of times because it just, uh, the foreheads looked so plasticky and fake. Um, that's kind of a superficial complaint, but it's still something because it had, you see it so often that really took me out of the film.

[00:06:25] So that's kind of where I land with this. Um, I, I think that I'm, I'm very, very much the opposite of that. I think this movie is an incredible movie. Um, excuse me, uh, mostly because of the epic scale of this film. I think when you think about what this movie is trying to portray, this movie is about a man who wakes up from a dream

[00:06:51] and decides to share his kingdom with his three sons and the kingdom, ignoring his own history, all the violence that he has put behind him, um, and the violence that is imbued on his own kids. He goes against the, the, uh, request of the third son to not do that.

[00:07:15] And because of his arrogance, he decides that he could leave the rest of his life in peace. Um, and joy and just live in the back of his house with his men and just drink and have fun. Um, ignoring all the damage he has done. Um, and from the very first month that this has happened, his, uh, his daughter-in-law, Lady Kaede,

[00:07:44] whose family he took the castle from and burnt it to the ground, started to plot against him. And it started off with a question of who is senior between her and his list of concubines. And it eventually led to the question of who should stay in the house or not. And the woman is very manipulative.

[00:08:11] You're talking about a character you can cling on, uh, click on, or, uh, cling to, uh, in this movie. Lady Kaeda is a very, very fascinating character because in the background, she is plotting so much. She's making so many moves. Basically, this movie would not have moved at all if it wasn't for her. So in a sense, she's the main driver of this film.

[00:08:36] Um, and, uh, the king, um, cannot believe what is happening to him. Um, he's stuck trying to, uh, keep track of what the heck is going on. Um, because he's dealing with betrayals that are triggered by Lady Kaeda's scheming.

[00:09:02] Um, his son's disloyalty, the disloyalty of his sons to him. A combination of both of them. Um, and a, an incredible, um, series of actions. Based on his inability to just take into mind what people are telling him.

[00:09:23] He goes to the third castle, um, and his two sons ambush him and kill all of his concubines, men, uh, and burn the castle to the ground. At that particular point, he goes mad. Anyway, I'm not going to relive the whole plot of this movie, but I'm just trying to say, like, the movie has a meaning. There is meaning to what is going on.

[00:09:46] Um, and I have to say, like, some of the directions of this movie, um, were very, very incredible. Um, like, the third scene where, you know, they go to the castle and they burn it goes through a series of actions that, as you watch it, tell a story. Nobody's talking, but you're watching and you're seeing the story of the destruction.

[00:10:12] How this man, who was really, really powerful, loses everything in a series of hours. As the castle burns down, his whole livelihood, uh, gets destroyed. And it's destroyed because of the, the sons that he has trusted throughout, you know, throughout his life.

[00:10:37] Because he, he always lord, lorded over them and he never knew them as people. He always just told them what to do. And for the first time, he just assumed that they were going to just follow his every whim. So in a sense, it's, it's a continued take on the level of arrogance that he has. Um, and he goes mad.

[00:10:58] Um, I think that this movie does the most incredible thing that I probably, um, as somebody who hates Shakespeare, it tells a very good King Glair story. Uh, but from the perspective of, from a different take, from a Japanese perspective.

[00:11:22] And I think that the action, the drama, the drama especially carries this movie. There's some really, really interesting characters like Peter, who, uh, who was, um, who, who, who, uh, uh, who plays Kyoami. He, who, uh, who was the jester, who was the only one who could talk to the lord in whatever form he wants or she wants or he wants.

[00:11:50] Um, and I also want to talk about the cinematography in this movie. Incredible. Uh, you mentioned, you mentioned that this was Akira Kurosawa's first film in color. I don't think that is the case. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, the first that I've seen that is in color. I see. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. The first movie he did was Dodes'ka-den, which came out in 1970.

[00:12:12] Um, and, uh, this was a incredible use of color from, I think you mentioned the fact that everybody had flags behind them. And I think that given how incredibly epic the battle scenes were, sometimes it was good to know who, who was who and who was, who was battling who at, at any particular point.

[00:12:41] Those flags kind of acted like markers. So, you know who is fighting who. And I think that it's actually historically accurate to how actually battles happened in those days. There was this, the group of people who were cheering from the top of the mountain. There was that moment at the end of the movie that felt so, like, cathartic and was instantly taken away.

[00:13:08] Um, and, yeah, this movie is really, really good. I, I, I have, I mean, yeah, I, I love this film. Uh, and I truly got inspired by this movie after watching it because I felt like this movie can be told in many, many ways. Um, the characters are so colorful, so vibrant.

[00:13:28] Um, Lady Kaede is just the star of this movie from her, um, deceitful ways to her thrive, uh, to her thirst for revenge. Um, she did whatever she could to get her way. And, like, Game of Thrones, those kinds of characters make for very good storytelling. Um, so I really enjoyed this movie.

[00:13:55] Yeah, yeah, I think, and, and it's so interesting, right? Because it is, uh, in, in many ways, I think, uh, this, this movie divides people on, on a pretty clear line. I think if you, if you're in it for the battles and for the, for, for the war aspect of it all, this is great, right? Because it is visually stunning, especially for the time. It's visually complex in the filmmaking of it all because there's so many people involved.

[00:14:23] And, uh, you know, it's outside and all that, right? So, so it's, it's, it's a complex movie that, that is quite the achievement on that. But I think if you are looking for more of a character-driven narrative, then this, uh, falls quite a bit flat. Um, mainly because it is, like, the suns don't have a lot of character development.

[00:14:48] Um, they're kind of relegated to the, the yellow, the blue, and the, the, the red sun. Um, for the most part. And, um, one of them gets banished and the other one gets the kingdom. And, uh, the third is trying to, to take over basically. Right. And, and like the, the thing is, right. The, the father is, is basically telling the story with, with the arrows, right?

[00:15:16] Like if, if you're not united, uh, you can, you can be broken easily. And that is essentially what happens because there's infighting and, and all that kind of stuff. And, um, okay. Um, I think having a little more time, having, spending a little less time on the, on the, you know, army movements, but giving us a little more time of what is the motivation of each of these factions? Um, like what, what do they want?

[00:15:46] Um, would have helped tremendously to, to make us care more for, for the people that we see on screen. Um, Lady Kaede, her motivation is clear towards the end because she's, she's basically out for revenge. Right. She's, she's, she's the female punisher in some sort of sense. And she's great. It's, it's, it's great.

[00:16:08] Kind of the, the double edged, uh, sort that she is and kind of how she tries to play, um, you know, her, her strengths and, and all that. And, and, and exploits the, the men's weakness, uh, and, uh, and all that. That, that's all great. And I think, uh, there's a decent payoff for her.

[00:16:30] Um, but for the rest of the gang, I think it's really, really hard to really kind of figure out what they really want and why they want it. Because it seems like, uh, why are we fighting when in the beginning, nobody wanted to really take over the keys of the kingdom? Was that just to be like, okay, I don't want to impose. And I, you know, for respect sake, I don't want to like, be like, yes, I'm going to take over your kingdom. It's a more kind of a saving face deal.

[00:16:56] But then at the end, we, we still, you know, so I'm, I'm just kind of missing, missing a clearer point of view of each of these factions to better understand where they're coming from and what they want for me to be able to care more. And that is kind of my main critique of this. It's gorgeous. It's a, it's a great, like visually, it's a great film, but it's, it's just lacking something on the human side of things for me.

[00:17:23] Um, I, I, I, I kind of disagree with that particular perspective. I do think that what they were getting in motivation or what was pushing their motivation was, uh, whatever Lady Maeda wanted. Um, and as a story, as a story, the, the, the, the history and the past, um, kind of dictated what happened in the present.

[00:17:53] So I do not feel like, I mean, I think if you look at it, the motivations from the individual, the motivations of everybody was generally, uh, stagnant until they had a catalyst that kept, kept pushing it in a certain direction. And I think that that catalyst was Lady Maeda. Um, and whatever each character wanted was what Lady Maeda wanted. Um, and I think that there's value to that.

[00:18:22] Um, so from the very beginning when we met her and she's walking through the, um, the room, the, the ground, the door, the doorway of the castle. And she's pushing, um, she's pushing, um, she's pushing everyone away and asking why as the leader of the, the, the house of the Lord, she doesn't get, um, special treatment over everybody else.

[00:18:47] She was pushing the envelope and trying to get the, um, the, uh, husband and then, uh, brother-in-law to react. Um, and when her brother-in-law killed her brother, um, she also went in. And that was a very, very intense scene when she jumped at him with a knife, placed it on his neck and told him that she's the most dangerous person in his life. And she could kill him at any point.

[00:19:15] Um, that she, he needed to do whatever he wanted and then proceeded to kiss him on the lip because whatever she wanted is what, what they did.

[00:19:25] And the most interesting thing is that after, after that happened, you could see discontent in the brother's army because they were talking about how she was a fox and whatever the fox, uh, needed was, uh, was, could be dangerous to the person, to the leader.

[00:19:47] Um, they talked, uh, he gave several examples of foxes that, uh, led to the death of the leader and then pointed his fan in her direction saying that listening to her would be the poison that kills him. And it eventually did. So I think that the motivation, um, is whatever Lady Kaede wanted and the, the, the show, the movie was driven by that.

[00:20:16] The, the action scene, you talked about how long it took to, to watch the setup for the action scenes. And I think that there is some truth to that because the action scenes did take a long time, but I think that it added to the scale and epic nature of this movie. Um, it wasn't a situation where we got a serious scene where everybody was well-placed. We saw them run into the scene. We saw them line up.

[00:20:43] We saw them set up for battle and we saw them partake in battle. We saw the scenes of the other army members on the top of the mountain. We saw there was, it was, it was a vast, if there's anything about this movie, it showed like vast, uh, the vast complexity of actually executing on what this film was trying to do.

[00:21:07] Um, and I, I thought it was a remarkable achievement when it comes to, uh, technical capabilities from Akiro Kurosawa. Like I said, the, the battle in the third castle was, is, is epic. Epic is probably one of the best battle scenes, especially given the fact that it's telling a, a direct story of actions and consequences, um, within that scene.

[00:21:33] Um, so, um, yeah, it's, I think that it's, it's an amazing movie. I think that the movie, uh, does an amazing job of dealing with the characters and telling a good story about what the characters and the consequences of some of the actions. Uh, we haven't even talked about Tsurumaru, the blind boy that we saw in the, in the castle, uh, sorry, in the hut, in the back of the castle who had been forgotten, um, and was just sitting there, uh, without a guide.

[00:22:03] Um, we didn't talk about the end of the scene where he's now all alone because everybody's dead. Um, and, uh, the only thing that kept him sane was his Buddhist, uh, Buddhist picture. Uh, and as he was just walking, uh, through the, through the rooftop, it falls out of his hands. And now the only thing that kept him, uh, sane now dropped to the ground.

[00:22:33] Um, and there was no way to recover it because all the people that supported him are dead. Uh, he, uh, he was the tragedy in this film that the arrogance of a dad, the, the destruction of a family led to his inability to live his life anymore.

[00:22:56] And ignoring the fact that, um, the dad, uh, was the initial reason that he did Torah was the initial reason that his eyes got pulled out of his face. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of tragedy in this movie. Um, and this movie does a good job of pain, of carrying this tragedy. It's a very bleak film because there's no joy in it.

[00:23:22] Uh, through those colored scenes, through those, um, epic battles, you, you are able to follow the story, uh, throughout. Hmm. Yeah. You can see this film a little differently. Right. And, and that's fine. Um, like I said, visually, I think it's gorgeous, but, uh, happy to go into the sidebar to kind of talk. Sure. Um, let's go to the sidebar. Overruled. Sidebar. Guilty. Speculation.

[00:23:52] Here. Say. Bailiff. Briefcase. Disregard. In my chamber. Stop Beaver on the witness. Arrest. We could totally be lawyers. Sidebar. All right. Uh, welcome to the sidebar. Yeah. Yeah. I was really like, oh wow, Kurosawa in color. That's cool. Um, and, um, they say what I said about kind of makeup and kind of hair and makeup.

[00:24:16] Uh, I clocked that very, very early and it just really, really distracted me for a lot of this film, which is unfortunate because it shouldn't, it should never distract you from what's going on. Right. But it's just like, ah, I could really see kind of the, the forehead where it doesn't move anymore and just kind of their crazy expressions. And then, I mean, how they, how they made him up to look crazier and crazier and more ghostly.

[00:24:40] And then he kind of comes back from it, uh, was interesting, but I think that would have worked a little better in black and white because it's not as obvious, but you know, that that's kind of beside the point. It is, it is a gorgeous film. It is really, really pretty and it's so good that he was able to use color, um, to really distinguish these, uh, factions. Um, but like I said, I, I stand by what I said. It's not just kind of argument for argument's sake.

[00:25:07] Like, I think it is a little, little hard to follow, like why people want the things that they want here and, and all these different, um, like players on a, on a chessboard basically. Um, but it's a very, very pretty film. Um, it, there's nothing around that. It is a gorgeous film and, um, the, the technical aspect of it, I think is just phenomenal.

[00:25:31] Um, because it's like, okay, how much, like they did a lot of this in camera and just kind of thinking about the logistics of having these massive armies. Basically, you know, right up in the, from the distance or whatever, like, it's just, just kind of the, the technical aspect of this film is great too. Just kind of thinking about how to, how this thing was made.

[00:25:53] And so it has a lot of great things going for it, but like I said, it was just hard for me to connect to the narrative of it all because I just couldn't really feel for a lot of these people. And that's kind of a problem, I think. Yeah.

[00:26:09] I think that if I was going to give anything, um, if I was going to give a negative about this movie, I would say that the bleakness of it is probably the most, the most, uh, it can be exhausting to watch because when you think about how long this movie is, there was no point in this movie where there was any joy. There was no joy at all in this movie. This movie was filled with bleak, death, revenge, human, uh, exploitations. There was no joy whatsoever.

[00:26:38] And I think that that is probably one of the biggest cons that I can have for the film. I mean, it reminds me of that Russian film, the Russian, uh, World War II movie that we saw, uh, that, you know, we got to experience how the Russians saw the Germans coming in and they burnt the whole house down. It kind of reminded me of that, that movie. I forgot the name of it. Um, but there was no, there was, there was no joy in this film whatsoever.

[00:27:08] It was so bleak, so tragic, um, nonstop, uh, human plotting from, you know, the brothers killing brothers to wives, uh, jumping beds to fathers being unable to handle criticisms to the fact that everybody was, um, hoping that, you know, the father would show some love, uh, and the father being arrogant enough not to show love.

[00:27:37] There was, there was a, there was a, um, there was a consistent, um, sense of doom and gloom throughout the film. Um, and like I said, the, the, what happened to Surumaro at the very end of the movie, the blind boy that the king or the Lord had taken his eyes out, whose sister was the only thing that kept him alive. And because of Lady Kaede's, uh, thirst for violence, she had his, her head cut off.

[00:28:07] Uh, and as well as the nurse and all of a sudden the guys left all alone, all alone. And Lady, um, Lady, uh, I forgot her name. She was a Buddhist that, you know, prayed at the top of the mountains. Um, and, you know, now, and they believed in the Buddhism so strongly. Now she's gone. The kid goes up looking for her, can't find it.

[00:28:36] Uh, and he drops the only thing that keeps him sane. I think that it's just tragic. Uh, and that, that's how the movie ends. So tragic. It's, uh, it's, it's sad in many ways. And I think that if there's any con to this film is that this movie is just depressing. Oh yeah. But it's a great film. It's a great film nonetheless. Right. Yeah. I mean, it is a tragedy, right? So, so there's no real winner here.

[00:29:05] Everything is just kind of bleak and yeah, like I said, depressing. Right. So, um, that is fine. Um, but I think it would, like I said, it all goes back to establishing characters a little better for us to care a little more. Um, and even if it's just one, one character that is a little more established that we root

[00:29:32] for and then they get punched down and you know, that just hits the tragedy a little harder, I think. And I was just missing that. Like, it's like, you know, it's, it's very jovial when it starts very colorful and they have a good time in the field. And, you know, um, I, I, I guess my point is kind of traditionally there's some kind of hero's journey in the film. Right. And I feel like we set that up with, I'm going to step down and one of you, you oldest son,

[00:30:01] you're going to take over the reins and you all brothers better behave yourselves and better play together because otherwise, um, this whole thing will crumble down. Right. And, um, the setup is good, but then we're, we're jumping so much in time. It feels like that the, why are they not hanging out together and why are they not bonding together?

[00:30:30] Um, and why is it crumbling down? It's in my opinion, really, really missing. And I think that is one, one of the crucial things for this film. Um, it's, it's fine that this is not a happy ending kind of thing because it shouldn't be. It is, it is a tragic, tragic story. Right. But it is just like, um, the setup is not necessarily a setup for the film that we're getting. And I think that that is just kind of a problem for it.

[00:30:59] But, you know, like I said, technical and visual, it's great. It's, it's, it's a cool film. I'm glad I saw it, but I wish I just cared more. All right. Well, I think we'll just leave the conversation there. All right. Um, and, uh, yeah, I mean, like I said, people should give this movie a watch. I think it's, it's worth your time. Right. Even if you just watch it once to see what it's about.

[00:31:26] Because, I mean, the many, many, the many, many sad films we've watched that, uh, just sad for the sake of being sad. Um, so yeah, I think the movie is epic and great. Um, but give it a shot yourself. Right. Right. Well, um, next up another long film, um, about something that people sometimes care about. Uh, Casino. Oh, the gangster film. The gangster film. Yeah.

[00:31:57] Um, until then though, where can people find us? You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, on Instagram, on at Movie Mistrial. Or they can send us an email to contact at Movie Mistrial dot com. Well, hope to hear from you. Um, and wish you guys the very best. Yeah. Have a good one, everybody. Bye-bye.