Thoughts on Ran

 

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"When man is born, he cries. And when he's cried enough, he dies."

Is it me, or has there been an awful lot of "Oh, I just hope we can all go back to normal, I'm just so worried" sentiment during this election season? I've noticed that some, not all, of the concerned are people presumably wanting to avoid their just desserts. Such hypocrisy recurs in Ran, directed, edited and co-written by Akira Kurosawa. Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) may lament the destruction which comes in the wake of the retirement and seek a happy ending, but it's merely a reaping of what he's sown. To use another cliché, those who live by the sword inevitably die by it.

Hidetora, a Japanese warlord variant of King Lear, intends to turn over the kingdom to sons Taro (Akira Terao), Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu) and Saburo (Daisuke Ryu), while still retaining some prominence. All hopes of a self-serving, yet peaceful, succession are undermined. Saburo might be the most vocal, but there's also his brothers, Hidetora's supposed friends Ayabe (Jun Tazaki) and Fujimaki (Hitoshi Ueki) and Taro's wife, Kaede (Mieko Harada). In 2020, it would be inconceivable for Harada not to have scored an Academy Award nomination. Kaede's motivations do not negate how monstrous she is.

"I was born and raised in this castle. It belonged to my father. But I left it in order to marry you. After the marriage, my father and brothers relaxed their vigilance. Then, they were all murdered by your father, Hidetora. And now, I am back here in this castle seized from my family. How impatiently I have longed for this day. ... Right there is where my mother took her own life." 

Ran is a depressing film. Everyone we care about, with the exceptions of Kyoami (Peter) and Tango (Masayuki Yui), is either dead or likely to die. They're the human cost of Hidetora's past violence and present foolishness. I'm looking at you, blind Tsurumaru (Mansai Nomura) and your sister, Jiro's wife Sué (Yoshiko Miyazaki). The movie is pessimistic, Keith Phipps wrote in 2005 for the A.V. Club. "It's pessimism of the most thoroughly considered and compellingly argued kind, the sort that only a humanist who's spent a lifetime watching humanity betray its potential can fully express."

Still, there's nothing like a story told with such care, such style. Ran is another of 1985's treasure chests, a movie loaded with glorious direction, art direction (led by production designers Shinobu and Yoshirô Muraki), hair and makeup and costume design. My God, Emi Wada's costumes! You look at a scene like the climactic red, blue and striped (and I might be missing a color) battle among Jiro, Saburo-Fujimaki and Ayabe's armies, and you reflect that it was all filmed with actual animals and people and ... well, it makes one feel mighty small in comparison, like a fool trying to understand fate.

"Are there no gods anymore? Is there no Buddha? If you exist, why are you so mischievous and so cruel? Are you so bored up there? Must you step all over us and crush us like ants? Yes? Does it give you such pleasure to see a man cry?"

"... The gods are weeping just as we are. They've seen us men on earth killing each other, killing again and again since the very beginning of time. Only they can't seem to save us from ourselves. ... Don't cry. That's how the world is made. Men seem to prefer sorrow over joy. They're forever seeking out suffering and rejecting peace. Look at them, the lords of the First Castle, our noble leaders. They revel in pain and bloodshed. They make a celebration of murder."

Getting on the soapbox to preach to the choir ... I was driving today, imagining the impossibility of a return to 1933-1947, when the Democrats had extended control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives. I don't know what will happen after this year's elections, or the 2022 midterms, or the 2024 elections. I hope, and yes, pray, for non-violence. Still, though, I cannot and will not accept a meaningless clean slate. Someone somewhere has to answer for something, anything or everything.

Recommended.

Thoughts:

-- "Heaven is far away, but hell can be reached in a day."

-- Box Office: Grossing $3.6 million in the United States and $12 million in yen on an $11 million budget, this received a limited American release and came in at No. 124 for 1985.

-- Critic's Corner: Here is a film by a man whose art now stands outside time and fashion," Vincent Canby wrote. "Once you have seen this images, you cannot forget them," according to David Denby.

-- Awards Watch: An Oscar winner for Best Costume Design, this received nominations for Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. It also was a Golden Globe nominee and BAFTA winner for Best Foreign (Language) Film. Additionally, Ran won a BAFTA for its makeup and was nominated for its screenplay, cinematography, costume design and production design. Finally, it was a Special Distinction nominee at the Independent Spirit Awards.

-- If I knew how to make gifs, I'd have done one for the moment when Hidetora furiously stares at Taro while signing the blood oath.

-- "And yet, our only sin was to tell the truth."

-- Next: Agnes of God. On deck: The Journey of Natty Gann, Commando. Coming soon: Jagged Edge, After Hours, Silver Bullet, Re-Animator and Dreamchild.