I feel like I just witnessed color in film for the first time. There is a lot to love about Ran. It's way of finding heart and beauty in a story fueled by hatred and tension is one of my favorite aspects, I suppose. But then there's the color. And the editing. And everything else. I'm just really glad this wasn't my first Kurosawa and that I've unintentionally been building my way up to this. Because while it does stand alone as a fantastic piece of filmmaking, there's something really special when putting this in the context of his other work. Ran puts every skill Kurosawa has mastered throughout his career to the test. As a result you get what is easily his best work and an experience that is so good, to call it overwhelming would be an understatement.
learned a lot about proper weapon usage from this one!guns? for cowards horses? for tramplingfire? for castle-burningswords? for vengeancearrows? for bundling together to teach your chaotic sons a metaphor about unitydaggers? for non-lethally slicing your brother-in-law’s neck then licking his blood while demanding he marries you
Chaos.Yet, there is hardly anything chaotic about Ran. A certain degree of harmony is always present, regardless of what is depicted on screen, be it war, manipulation, betrayal, or masssacre. A field trampled over by horses yet undisturbed, soldiers marched and chanted in an orderly fashion, a battlefield filmed in silence. Even the fire and smoke seemed geometrically symmetrical. Everything just looks so... calculated. Organized. Every prop, down to each speck of dust, is exactly where Kurosawa wanted them to be. The position of the actors, where they'd look, where they'd put their hands, even the mountains at the background, the flowers, the clouds, are all adjusted to fit each frame perfectly. Kurosawa had full control over his film, like a painter would have over his painting. Now, that is something.
