On today's episode of 'Deep Dive' we explore Akira Kurosawa's feudal epic: Ran.
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Introduction & Synopsis
0:42 Where Ran ranks amongst Kurosawa's works/Ran as Kurosawa's 'masterpiece'
4:34 Adapting Shakespeare
13:36 The filmmaking of an old master/his influence as a painter
22:42 Use of colour/the style of Ran compared to modern cinema
27:17 Acting as a transformative experience/the influence of Noh theatre
34:37 The battle sequences/the use of sound/how to read a chaotic image
45:24 Kurosawa as a 'less' Japanese filmmaker/Kurosawa unable to get financial backing
50:40 Ran was the most expensive Japanese film at the time/speaking about everything other than Ran
53:39 The originality and expertise of Ran/The nature of adaptation
55:19 Finally ranking Kurosawa's work/Is Kurosawa a top 5 director?
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Weird thing to say - but imagine being a fly on the wall when these two met and talked movies for the first time. I'd love to see a video on what that was like.
For me, _Ran_ is number 1. Full stop. He's made some great films, but none of them stayed with me the way this one did. The castle attack is a work of singular brilliance - it captures the horror and desolation of betrayal better than anything else I have seen. The massive scale serves as a macrocosm of Hidetora's mental state - as near perfect a metaphor and mirror of his interior state as possible. For me, it seemed Kurosawa's entire career was leading up to this film, with _Madadayo_ serving as his gentle coda.
You can’t say “full stop” if you don’t actually full stop afterwards
Same. The movie had me spellbound.
i love ran. but there is something abt yojimbo that i just love
Ran is something herculean to behold, yes. Fully agree: Ran does feel like Kurosawa at his Avengers:Endgame , all cinematic aspects are done to perfection here, his mastery comes to final form here. Even where other films lack a decent memorable score, Ran is miles ahead with its score. But there's a humility/small roots-ness with his 1950s and 1960s works that I can't shrug off. Seven Samurai is something I also view as herculean but so small and humble. This is before the world knew him. Even with Rashomon. And not to mention that both these 1950s masterpieces pioneered a plethora of things for their film in the history of the medium. Rashomon with the storytelling, Seven Samurai with the action and scope. Ran is more epic, Seven Samurai is not. Also, Seven Samurai has more heart than Ran ever could. It's an interesting debate to have
It's nice seeing you both on screen :)
You guys exude so much passion and compliment each other so well in this video.
These are very enjoyable, thanks for moving them to YT
There are some videos you see and are instantly soooo freaking excited. This is one of them
Excellent commentary, as always
Kurosawa’s rendition of The Idiot is sooo fucking good- doesn’t get spoken about enough. Beautiful composition, it obviously doesn’t wholly vibe with the novel, but the actor playing Prince Myshkin is actually fantastic. It’s on KZhead, I urge anyone who fw his film’s & hasn’t seen that one yet to watch it asap..
Great episode
I still need to see Ran. Will watch and return here for the deep dive. Thanks for posting!
Read or watch _King Lear_ first.
It sounded crazy when you opened with the claim that an argument can be made for Ran not being one of Kurosawa's 5 best films, but thinking about it for a second, you're absolutely right. It does make my top 5, along with Seven Samurai, Rashomon, High and Low and Ikiru. But then there are films like Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Kagemusha, Red Beard, The Bad Sleep Well, Hidden Fortress, Stray Dog, Throne of Blood... I wouldn't be mad if someone put any of those films above Ran in their personal list. Just an extraordinary body of work.
I just happened to buy the DVD yesterday and here we are. Lovely
More Kurosawa content, please! 🙏🏼 Among a handful of my all-time favorite artists...
So much of our affinity for movies is based on how old we are when we first see them. My most indelible film experiences were those I saw during my adolescence, at home - "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Blood Simple" and "King of Comedy" - or, like "Ran," in a theater. Watching your discussion reminds me that a film's power (or lack thereof) transcends the medium in which we see it. During the pandemic, w/o a functioning TV or computer, I saw "Get Out" in awe 3x in a week on my phone. Yet, the movies I saw during my adolescence, particularly in theaters - "Shoah," "Ran," "The Road Warrior," "Scarface" - were the ones that had the most indelible impact on my psyche. The film industry designed films - as a medium and capitalist enterprise - for cinemas; the optimal way to see them. Clearly, that poses a problem for 99% of films in history; short of acquiring a time machine, we haven't devised a way to return to an earlier era. Yet, I'm glad to see your appreciation of "Ran" - clearly, it's lost none of its power. As Lewis says, it could be Kurosawa's supreme achievement - although, like all masters of the medium, he has a lot of horses in the race. The main difference btwn his earlier masterpieces and "Ran" is, of course, his use of color. Kurosawa is a master of deep-focus and widescreen composition - his framing and movement of actors are unparalleled. Yet, in "Ran" he uses color w/ the same bravado as his other tools, embedding it on screen, in costume and smoke, against a mountainous, grey landscape in such a way that it pops w/ Technicolor intensity. Thanks for the discussion!
❤ Ran. ❤Kurosawa. And ❤ hearing Luiza’s perspective. More deep dives please 😊
This movie shaped what a modern "Epic" feels like.
Must admit my favourite Kurosawa film is Kagemusha! We need more on new German cinema - Wenders, Fassbinder, Herzog. Love the channel
You guys are beautiful love your take on every film
A great film. My #1 Kurosawa movie and it’s in my all time top 10 list. The video review was impressively well thought out. As admirers of film we all go through phases. Same with Shakespeare. The title role in Shakespeare’s King Lear requires great depth for an actor. The play was written at the end of Shakespeare’s career. Ran was one of the last films by Kurosawa. It explores the most destructive parts of human nature. It takes time to be able to face that imo.
Kurosawa didn't need close up shots in Ran because he knows how to block characters and get the most out of their body language from the actors. To see how these people move is superb. Tatsuya Nakadai's performance uses his entire body to deliver perhaps the best on film depiction of a man losing his mind.
Here are my rankings, I wrote this list in September 21: 10. Stray Dog (1949) 9. Red Beard (1965) 8. Rashomon (1950) 7. High And Low (1963) 6. Throne Of Blood (1957) 5. Kagemusha (1980) 4. Yojimbo (1961) 3. Seven Samurai (1954) 2. Ikiru (1952) 1. Ran (1985) Ran was my introduction to Kurosawa, he was featured on Siskel and Ebert.
I wish I could discuss films like you guys
i didn't even wached video but i love it
Thinking about Disney adapting Titus Andronicus made me chuckle. I imagine them turning Aaron the Moor's confession into a song written by Tim Rice.
Look at that. Kurosawa is so great, so prolific with his greatness, you didn't even get to mention, in your thorough, excellent discussion, Sanjuro, Yojimbo (a cottage-industry generator for that thief, Leone) and Hidden Fortess (Star Wars' daddy). When we study the Masters, we realize they have more to teach than one could ever get to the end of.
The God of film
The very end of Ran is burned into my soul.
I was STUNNED by it. I reflect on it frequently.
What’s the Mizoguchi film at 20:12
Hey there, have you ever seen an anime called „Shigurui“? Seeing this video reminded me of it. It’s an anime of the „Seinen“ category which means it’s intended for mature audiences only. Basically it’s about two Samurais but depicted like nothing else you’ve seen before - it’s brutal, realistic and incredibly poetic; visually AND storywise. I have a strong feeling you might appreciate giving it a watch :)
Ikiru #1 Kurosawa for me, it's so life-affirming, and Throne of Blood is my favorite adaptation. But Ran is right up there.
Yesss my Bae talking about an hour about a film i like a lot, life is Good men
If you want to see another Shakespeare's adaptations I would recommend Vishal Bharadwaj's Trilogy ( he is writer-director-music composer of this trilogy) they are modern adaptation of Shakespeare's work Maqbool - Macbeth - Gangster film- very low budget made in late 90's you would think it was made is 70's along side mean streets, it is like you mixed Martin Scorsese's Silence and mean streets Omkara - Othello - gangster film Haider - Hamlet - Political and family drama Just for bonus Ram Leela - Romeo Juliet - gangster film
I knew a girl in 1986 Paris who's mum had translated this film into either French or English - Thats all I remember
The guid thing about art…is you can like them all. No ranking is needed at all.
Ran is a masterpiece. Kurosawa's image of war is without peer, in my opinion.
Seven Samurai is always the one being listed on the personal Top 10 lists of influential filmmakers, and the one people are always introduced to Kurosawa through in film school (or their first visit to the IMDB top 250), but I believe Ran is his true masterpiece. Kurosawa did to Shakespeare what Shakespeare did to the Greek playwrights who came before him: took this story and made it his own.
I went to Rochdale college and studied English Literature. You sound exactly like my English teacher 😂
If you want 20 minute scene where they do the same 💩 then this movie is in your top 5
One thing I keep returning to when I think of action sequences is the notion of dynamic range and the heartbeat oscilloscope in hospital scenes. A good movie has the slow bits to create a ground level to contrast with the high intensity scenes. Neither work in isolation as well as when they are together. It is why I often don't enjoy arthouse that is only the mellow parts. And likewise I find the Michael Bay school so tiring. Because, if you look at it like a heartbeat on the expensive machine that goes PING, only mellow and only action look exactly the same, it's a flat line where the only variation is noise. And what is a flat line indicative of in a hospital scene? Deadness. Lifelessness. Another thing to visualize it is a projection screen. An often overlooked fact is that you quite simply cannot project negative light. You can only add light on the screen to make it appear brighter and therefore what isn't illuminated becomes perceptually darker. But, if you only feed the projector a video that only uses the uppermost spectrum of brightness, the eye will adapt and it'll see it as a washed out grey. Same thing with the lowest bits. Only darkness, and you'll eventually see only grey. You can only make it dynamic and nuanced if you provide both extremes. And you can even juxtapose contrasts between scenes. Slowly drain contrast and color from the image and when you slam full color and contrast it looks eyemeltingly lush. Conversely, you can have high contrast and saturation that peaks and then goes to a grey fog and you feel the intense sparseness. It's what Kurosawa mastered in 1954 with Seven Samurai and what Snyder struggles with in Rebel Moon. If you only have the cool bits, nothing becomes cool.
And I Ran. I Ran so far away-ay-ay.
Dreams, High and Low, and Ran I think are my favorites if I go by what made the biggest impression on me in that order. Kagemusha and Hidden Fortress are awesome, Seven Samurai and Yojimbo/Sanjuro obvious. Stray Dogs also excellent. Lots of others high on the list.
make a video on past lives
It's Kurosawa's _King Lear_
With true Master filmmakers such as Kurosawa, it makes no sense to rate their works. Each from first to last stands alone and must be evaluated each to its own. RAN is its own. King Lear is a simple and easy comparison. I do agree with the thought of how, if you believe it’s an adaptation (I don’t believe that) how Kurosawa visually adapts Shakespeare spoken language. Now I must watch RAN again, with the volume off.
I can understand how Ran may not be in the top 5. Kurosawa's work branches from Noir to period pieces. My top 5 are: High and Low Drunken Angel Stray Dog Ikiru Seven Samurai/ sometimes Scandal Ive seen and (kinda own) them all
As the eldest Son of my family, this film made me scared of inheritance I have an okay-ish relationship with my siblings and hopefully would not be splitting my relationship with them.
The Hidden Fortress is missing from your list. The fact George Lucas took this movie and created a universe makes this one of my top five.
Bleep Bloop First
mortisha adames beautiful
It’s all true, the lost movie of Orson Welles
It is as great an adaptation of Shakespeare as there has ever been. And one of the greatest movies ever made. Kurosawa enacts the spirit of King Lear perfectly. As though the earthworms in this tragedy rose up to infect the players on the stage with their doom. A great artist of cinema connecting with the greatest writer and playwright. It is full of the dread and horror and beyond sadness tragedy of Lear. A profound engagement with Shakespeare, and a truly cathartic experience to watch.
Spoiler alert: Don't you guys think it would be better if they show how the king rise to become very powerful and cut that man eyes and later we see how he coincidentally meet him later. Like not in detail just fastfoward. And we then see how karma is happening and how everything falls apart.
No
I’m sorry, who is this woman? Jesus Christ my heart
we all want her so bad and he knows it
I didn't like Ran. It is soooo depressing.
A movie being depressing doesn't make it bad.
She is lovely
how he pull this woman? 100% angel Beauty, brains, sexy accent, cute, christian, shy, perfect hair, bubbly Life is unfair
👹👺