Ran (Kurosawa, 1985): BFI Imax Cinema, 11.50am
This special presentation is part of the BFI's Akira Kurosawa season. You can find the full details of the Kurosawa programme here.
Chicago Reader review:
Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 film is slightly marred by some too obvious
straining toward masterpiece status, yet it’s a stunning
achievement in epic cinema. Working on a large scale seems to bring
out the best in Kurosawa’s essentially formal talents; Kagemusha
seems only a rough draft for the effects he achieves here through a
massive deployment of movement and color. Both landscape and weather
seem to bend to his will as he constructs an imaginary 16th-century
Japan out of various locations throughout the islands, which seems to
re-form itself to reflect the characters’ surging passions as the
violent tale progresses. It’s loosely adapted from King Lear:
an aging warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai, in a performance that approaches a
Kabuki stylization) decides to step down as the head of his clan,
which unleashes a power struggle among his three sons. As in
Kagemusha, Kurosawa envisions the only alternative to rigid
oppression as apocalyptic chaos, yet the bleak proposal is put with
infinitely more immediacy and personal involvement.
Dave Kehr
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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