Movie Review

Last night I watched Ran (translation: Chaos), which is another Japanese retelling of a Shakespeare story. This time, it's King Lear, and it's a dark and beautiful epic set (once again) in feudal Japan.

Storyline: A Great Lord decides to divide his kingdom into three, one for each son, with the oldest becoming the new Great Lord. When his youngest objects and calls his father naive, he is banished. Soon enough, intrigue and politics between the two older sons strip the old man of his standing and begin tearing the kingdom apart.

"Man is born crying, and when he's cried enough, he dies."

Like I said, dark and beautiful. There is no happy ending, and there are many disturbing scenes. The battles are frequent and huge, involving armies and castles. Even so, the very human story is never overwhelmed by the scope of the action. The entire film is heavily influenced by Noh theater, most noticable by the old man himself, who's face gradually changes from one mask-like visage to another during the course of the story.

The cinematography is gorgeous, as is the area of Japan that it was filmed in. It's not a quickie at 2 hours and 40 minutes, and there's not many chances to fast forward through the filler. All subtitles.

Like I said over at the Wildside Cinema forums, I think I'm Japanese'd out for a while. This one was wonderful but draining.

Posted by: Ted at 07:49 AM

Comments

1 Ran is one of my favorite movies... !

Posted by: Cindy at January 21, 2008 09:48 AM (0co3K)

2 I love Ran. I even went so far as to buy one of those hugely expensive "collector edition" DVD sets. One with posters and everything. It is a visually stunning film.

Posted by: The Maximum Leader at January 25, 2008 05:10 PM (WpYbd)

3 I just want to tell you that I am all new to blogging and site-building and definitely loved you're web page. Almost certainly I’m likely to bookmark your site . You actually come with beneficial well written articles. Thanks a lot for sharing with us your web-site.

Posted by: Andrew A. Sailer at February 04, 2013 03:03 PM (/mM/x)

4 I am not assured where you're getting your information, nevertheless vast issue. I needs to spend a number of calculate scholarship much added otherwise thoughtful additional. Thankfulness for abundant in sequence I was looking on behalf of this information for my mission.

Posted by: filmix.net prison break at March 20, 2013 11:34 PM (DIzl6)

5 I do accept as true with all the ideas you have introduced for your post. They are very convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are too short for novices. May just you please lengthen them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.

Posted by: vaping nervous feeling at May 26, 2013 03:14 PM (s4YVP)

6 I am so thrilled I stumbled upon your site. I really found you by mistake, while I was browsing on Bing for something else. Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thank you for a informative post and an all round inspiring blog. (I also enjoy the theme/design), I don't have time to read through it all at the minute, but I have added your website to my favorites, so when I have time I will be back to read more. Please do keep up the awesome job!

Posted by: Leisha Mcpeters at July 20, 2013 02:36 PM (yps6K)






Processing 0.01, elapsed 0.012 seconds.
18 queries taking 0.0101 seconds, 14 records returned.
Page size 6 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.