722. Ran

Ran
1985
Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Really, who could complain about a Kurosawa movie based on a Shakespeare play?  It sounds like perfection to me.

Ran is basically King Lear, although apparently Kurosawa only realized how heavily it was based on the play until he was well into the writing process.  Since everyone knows the story of King Lear, I will not go into too much detail with the plot summary.  There are a few notable differences, like the fact that Hidetora Ichimonji (the Lear character) has three sons, instead of three daughters.  Good.  Heaven knows we need more male representation of this List.

I was shocked about how violent this film was.  I guess I am not used to seeing Kurosawa in color.  With all the blood spatter and dead bodies it ended up looking like a Tarantino film.  I was perfectly fine with this.  You know my motto, if it's not sexual violence, it's okay violence.  In films, at least.  Wow, that is a really sucky motto.

You will definitely enjoy this if you are a Shakespeare fan or a Kurosawa fan.  And if you aren't either of those things, get off my blog subhuman.  I'm just kidding, I would love to hear your strange thoughts.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Kurosawa's wife died during production.  Kurosawa halted filming for just one day.