And this week's Friday night movie has been... Ran!
Anyone heard of this? This was a Japanese movie from 1985, directed by the legendary Akira Kurosawa.
Akira Kurosawa. Any film geek worth their salt knows the name. The man who announced Japanese cinema to the rest of the world. The man who gave us the Seven Samurai and inspired a whole trope in it's wake. The man known for his samurai epics, humanistic approach and his Shakespeare adaptations.
And Ran is, apparently, one of his best. It's one of his aforementioned Shakespeare adpatations, in this case, King Lear.
In a word: Extraordinary. I thought I was familiar with Kurosawa, having seen Rashomon and Seven Samurai, but this is something else entirely. So much to admire I don't know where to begin: I like the use of landscapes, I like the acting, I how many of the battle scenes take place in silence. I like how is a different take on tried and tested material (Shakespeare amirite?). I like the battle choreography and the beauty present.
At first i didn't what to make of this movie but eventually, it did reveal itself as nothing less than a triumph
Some say that this movie was the end result of a lifetime in movie making. Kurosawa was 75 when he made this and it seems that what he learnt over the years is there on the screen.
I believe it.
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