#61 Ran - If he only listened to his youngest son

1985. dir. Akira Kurosawa, starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu. Japanese with subtitles.

Seen it before? No.

Lord Ichemonji has three sons and wants to will his empire to them...but not really. He wants his cake and to be able to eat it too...wouldn't you know that his youngest son Saburo, who Ichemonji kicks out for being honest and not kissing his ass, was right in warning his father that dissolving his rank and bequeathing his sons with the castles would only lead to the destruction of the empire he created...WHOOPS!

Greed is a powerful being. Taro, the eldest son, is a puppet. His wife is dissatisfied with his position because even if he has the house and the warriors he doesn't have the final say. When he asks his father to relinquish control chaos ensues. When he's out of the picture the wife goes to his brother and poisons his thoughts as well.

It was truly beautifully done. The scenes are amazing. The wars brilliant considering it was 1985 and no CG was around. The jester was obnoxious. My one sticking point is that the woman was, of course, the epitome of pure evil. Of course she would be...Adam wouldn't have eaten the apple in the garden of Eden if not for Eve...I SO hate men...

Would I see it again? Yeah cause I missed the scene when Saburo comes back (having been taken in by the father of the girl he was set to marry for having the backbone to speak up to warn his father of impending doom) and fights...
Would I own it? Meh

#61 Ran: The failed mind sees the heart's failings

1985. dir. Akira Kurosawa, starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu. Japanese with subtitles.

Seen it before? No.



Kurosawa's last major film was an interpretation of Shakespeare's King Lear. It just got re-released on Blu-Ray, and it is spectacular...

Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) is an aging warlord in Tokugawa-era Japan. He announces that he plans to retire, and leave his kingdom to his three helpfully color-coded sons. Taro (Akira Terao, yellow) gets the largest castle, Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu, red) gets the second-largest, and Saburo (Daisuke Ryû, blue) gets the third-largest. Hidetora challenges all three to break an arrow, and they all do it easily; then he challenges them to break a bundle of three, and they can't. Saburo complains that Hidetora's plan makes no sense, and punctuates his point by breaking three arrows over his knee. And he's right.

What follows is a brutal and epic war between the three brothers, the father, and some outsiders. The battle scenes are amazing. The color coding comes in handy because otherwise you wouldn't know what was happening. Hidetora descends into madness, and is followed everywhere by a jester who gets really annoying really fast.

It's long (2h40m), bloody, and has subtitles, but you should see this movie.

Position on the list: 144
My favorite Samurai Shodown character: Genjuro Kibagami. Ukyo Tachibana was pretty awesome too.