This is the third Kurosawa I've seen after Rashomon (6/10) and Seven Samurai (7/10) and it may be the last, at least from his samurai genre. The films are good...not great.
Where Kurosawa's slapstick tone worked with Rashomon & Seven Samurai, it seems out of place here. Ran feels like it should be a dark brooding epic, farcical slapstick ill-serves that vibe. It also has too-theatrical acting from the main character (Hidetora): while he is highly-watchable, the performance does venture into the scenery-chewing absurd at times.
The contrast with the relative monotone from most of the other characters is an uneasy one.
Then there's the typical grunt-barking aggressive japanese dialogue-delivery...it gets tiresome after a while, all the characters sounding alike. The content of that dialogue is often too simplistic, so that the characters aren't able to convincingly sell the premise. The situation far too easily spirals out of control.
Consequence of such being: unlike Seven Samurai, I never felt like I cared for any of these characters or what was going to happen.
Another disappointing aspect is the small feel of the production when compared to english-language epics like Ben Hur, Spartacus, Excalibur, Lawrence of Arabia etc. Despite the big budget, large cast, costumes, castles & landscapes the movie-experience somehow doesn't feel totally 'sweeping' like those other Epic films...maybe because the setting & timespan were restrained to one small area and a short period. Action-wise it's also not that impressive, there's not even any notable one-on-one fights. The gory deaths often look comical rather than dramatic.
With all that out of the way, what was good about Ran? The lauded cinematography is impressive, there are some great shots...after the hour mark there is an extended almost-operatic battle-scene with a gorgeous string-heavy score washing over it. Best scene in the movie. Generally, I appreciated the striking appearance of Hidetora. Lady Kaeda is an intriguingly-vampiric character, well-written and performed. The soundtrack throughout is very nice. The film generally was watchable and fairly entertaining, it didn't drag or get boring.
But is it worth watching? To be worth watching, to be worth seeking out and spending precious hours on, requires a minimum 6/10 in my book. I feel like Ran earns that. But it certainly has issues.
Recommended if you accept there's gonna be that Kurosawa-brand of slapstick-farce amongst the serious stuff.
Incidentally I recently saw Harakiri (8/10) which stimulated me more than the three Kurosawas I've seen. So my focus on that particular style of film-making will be from those less talked about directors. Kwaidan & Onibaba are the next two on my watchlist.
Where Kurosawa's slapstick tone worked with Rashomon & Seven Samurai, it seems out of place here. Ran feels like it should be a dark brooding epic, farcical slapstick ill-serves that vibe. It also has too-theatrical acting from the main character (Hidetora): while he is highly-watchable, the performance does venture into the scenery-chewing absurd at times.
The contrast with the relative monotone from most of the other characters is an uneasy one.
Then there's the typical grunt-barking aggressive japanese dialogue-delivery...it gets tiresome after a while, all the characters sounding alike. The content of that dialogue is often too simplistic, so that the characters aren't able to convincingly sell the premise. The situation far too easily spirals out of control.
Consequence of such being: unlike Seven Samurai, I never felt like I cared for any of these characters or what was going to happen.
Another disappointing aspect is the small feel of the production when compared to english-language epics like Ben Hur, Spartacus, Excalibur, Lawrence of Arabia etc. Despite the big budget, large cast, costumes, castles & landscapes the movie-experience somehow doesn't feel totally 'sweeping' like those other Epic films...maybe because the setting & timespan were restrained to one small area and a short period. Action-wise it's also not that impressive, there's not even any notable one-on-one fights. The gory deaths often look comical rather than dramatic.
With all that out of the way, what was good about Ran? The lauded cinematography is impressive, there are some great shots...after the hour mark there is an extended almost-operatic battle-scene with a gorgeous string-heavy score washing over it. Best scene in the movie. Generally, I appreciated the striking appearance of Hidetora. Lady Kaeda is an intriguingly-vampiric character, well-written and performed. The soundtrack throughout is very nice. The film generally was watchable and fairly entertaining, it didn't drag or get boring.
But is it worth watching? To be worth watching, to be worth seeking out and spending precious hours on, requires a minimum 6/10 in my book. I feel like Ran earns that. But it certainly has issues.
Recommended if you accept there's gonna be that Kurosawa-brand of slapstick-farce amongst the serious stuff.
Incidentally I recently saw Harakiri (8/10) which stimulated me more than the three Kurosawas I've seen. So my focus on that particular style of film-making will be from those less talked about directors. Kwaidan & Onibaba are the next two on my watchlist.