Ran

Year: 1985

Grade: B+

Country: Japan

Director: Kurosawa

Review

one more kurosawa film in the bag. a good retelling of “king lear.” really uses color well…the three colors to represent the three sons, the blood red really pops out, etc. a pretty good soundtrack, though not as good as yojimbo. the acting was very good and shakespearean. i don’t know why kurosawa chose to use wide shots so often…perhaps to accentuate the times when we do get to see a close up of a character’s face. maybe the close up is abused so much that his not abusing it becomes different rather than appropriate. at any rate the story was well done (from what i understand it wasn’t an exact copy of king lear), the acting was very good, the score was nice, and the colors were used well. in sum, good film making all around from someone who rarely gives the contrary.