Product description

Ran [1985]

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Average customer rating: 4.0

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5060034577294
Label : Optimum Home Entertainment
Manufacturer : Optimum Home Entertainment
Publisher : Optimum Home Entertainment
Release date : 2006-11-20
Title : Ran [1985]
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Suitable for 15 years and over
Format : PAL
Languages : Array
Number of items : 2
Original release date : 1985-01-01
Region code : 2
Running time : 153
Studio : Optimum Home Entertainment
Theatrical releaseDate : 1986-04-10

Customer reviews

review by: rerab date: 2008-10-16 rating:

Furious overacting and lousy makeup
The star of the film is the evil daughter-in-law - a truly believable and mesmerising performance that deserved a much better film. She makes up for many of the films shortcomings.
The villain of the film is the main character's makeup - probably would have worked a treat in a kakbuki theatre with low lighting. On screen its risible - the same goes for the facial contortions that are underneath.
Apart from these there are the usual improbably beautiful costumes and lots of running about waving flags and spouting blood. Work of genius? No - but probably worth seeing, if not buying.

review by: date: 2008-05-10 rating:

Excellent DVD for a low price
I just want to praise the outstanding quality of this Optimum Releasing DVD. There is a comparison on dvdbeaver - this version has better sound and comparable picture quality (or even slightly superior) to the Criterion version!!! Also, Chris Marker's film "A.K.", an excellent feature length documentary about the making of Ran, is included on a second disc (71mins, 1.66:1). OK, the Criterion version has extra bonus material, but this version seems better to me as I'm most interested in the video/audio quality of the main film. Usually low price releases like this have terrible quality (i.e. the Fox Kagemusha - avoid at all costs...), but Optimum Releasing have done an amazing job doing justice to this Kurosawa masterpiece.
I first saw Ran about 12 years ago, it completely redefined my perceptions of what is possible with the medium of film. It is a spectacular, powerful, moving drama with real depth. Kurosawa explores themes of mortality and spirituality with a mature, understated sophistication; He manages to inspire philosophical contemplation while avoiding any pretentiousness. I consider this to be the best film I have ever seen, and I'm glad to finally have a great quality DVD.

review by: date: 2008-02-02 rating:

One of the great films of all time.
Akira Kurosawa was a sprightly 75 years old when he made 'Ran'. After years of struggling to fund projects, and out of favour in his own country (hang your heads in shame), he formed an agreement with French producer Serge Silberman, to do a 're-imagining' of Shakespeare's play, 'King Lear', with European money. Thank God!

Arguably Kurosawa's masterpiece, 'Ran' is a personal meditation on the absolute folly of war, and man's inhumanity toward man. With a painter's eye and the precision of a zen-master, Kurosawa cemented his reputation forever as one of cinemas all-time Godfathers.

Warlord Hidetora Ichimonji (Tetsuya Nakadai), wants to retire and split his domain beween his three sons. When Saburo the youngest, voices his concerns over the idea, he is promptly banished. But absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the two elder brothers are soon vying for total supremacy, with their Father firmly on their hit-list. Not only that, but the vengeful Lady Kaeda (Mikeo Harada), vies to destroy the family from within...

With battle scenes that have yet to be bettered (no 'CGI' rubbish here), performances that range from the sublime to the ridiculous (especially Mikeo Harada's 'Lady Kaeda'), and Kurosawa's beautifully distilled camera work capturing the utter futility of war, 'Ran' is, and remains, one of the great films of all time. Watch it, take a shower, and watch it again.

review by: the pres date: 2007-12-21 rating:

the best of the best
There are few films that deserve the label "visual poetry" (only Don't Look Now, Walkabout and perhaps Bladerunner spring instantly to my mind), a film where the visual imagery is almost more important than the dialogue or even in some cases the plot (think Walkabout). Well, Ran is just such a film.
For his 27th film, the lord of Japanese cinema Akira Kurosawa decided to adapt Shakespeare's King Lear and then transports it to feudal Japan. The result is an epic tale of breathtaking scale, quality and beauty. The story is very simple; the ageing lord Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadei), after a lifetime of conquest that has seen his empire expand, decides to abdicate his power to his three sons, Saburo (Daisuke Ryu), Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu) and the eldest Taro (Akiro Terao) who gets the first castle and all the real power. Only his youngest son Saburo cautions his father about the hastiness of his decision, and his proud stubborn father banishes him from the kingdom. Unfortunately for clan Ichimonji, all of Saburos darkest fears come to pass as the two eldest sons vie for control of the kingdom and Hidetora finds himself banished from his own lands, only his fool and a handful of his soldiers staying loyal to the ageing and now rapidly deteriorating emperor. From here things go from bad to worse as outright war breaks out and the real power behind the throne is revealed.
From this plot Kurosawa has fashioned a film that is both beautiful and tragic at the same time, a epic poem about love, loss, friendship, loyalty, mortality and the fact that in some cases it is easier to fight a war than not to fight a war. Much has been made of the two amazing battle sequences that almost bookend the movie (made all the more amazing by the fact that every person, every horse, every weapon and suit of armour is actually there in front of you, no digital special effects here) where Kurosawa allows the visuals to speak for themselves, turning the art of war almost into a thing of beauty, the only sounds the sound of battle and the haunting score of Toru Takemitsu, but there is so much more to this film.
As Hidetora, Tatsuya Nakadei is superb, as now an outcast in his own empire, he wanders his lands accompanied by his fool, and is brought face to face with some of the things he has done in the past, a journey that brings him to the brink of madness and forces him to re-evaluate his past, and to a certain extent his future. Lady Kaede, played with manic abandon by Mieko Harada, is the juxtaposition of Hidetora, a woman so consumed by hate that she cannot help but destroy everything and everyone around her.
Ultimately a film about the mistakes of war and the need for forgiveness, whether giving or receiving, this is without a shadow of a doubt one of Kurosawas greatest films and a high point in cinema as a whole. Ten years in the making, and in my humble opinion, worth every minute.

review by: A New Yorker date: 2007-08-16 rating:

Now I see why my friends love this so much
"Ran" is the first film I've watched by Akira Kurosawa. Now I'm a huge fan of his work thanks to my Amazonian friends who had already seen it. When a legend like Kurosawa, does a King Lear adaptation at the tender age of 75, one would expect a small-scale film concentrating on the human elements of the story. That he produced an epic of such proportions makes a further evaluation of the great man's contribution to cinema necessary.

"Ran" is set in medieval Japan and follows the basic King Lear narrative closely. Lord Hidetora is an aging warlord and, wanting a peaceful retirement, decides to divide his kingdom up amongst his three sons. After banishing the youngest, Saburo, for pouring scorn on the idea, Hidetora finds himself an unwanted obstacle to the older two. After repeated humiliations, pride forces Hidetora into vain wanderings on the open plain, his state of mind declining as rapidly as his entourage.

The film sets itself the unenviable task of trying to explain the precarious position man holds within the universe. Man is seen to be elevating himself to such a level that he dreams of challenging the very laws of nature. Hidetora has achieved his status through deception, callousness and violence; his notion to wash away the blood he has spilt in happy retirement is scornfully thrown back by the elements. The speed and manner in which he is forced to lie in the bed he has made for himself should serve as a warning to all.

The films large set pieces, particularly two quite stunning battle sequences, are staged magnificently, but 'Ran' is no empty epic. The characters and their motivations are fully explored and the tension built up by the dialogue fully compliments the action. With an ending which offers no redemption 'Ran' paints a bleak picture - the colors and brushstrokes it employs however, turn it into a dazzling masterpiece. The battle scenes are some of the best I have seen. One point - the second main battle reminds me of 'Zulu' with the soldiers lined up on the skyline shouting down. The makeup used on Hidetora to mimick the Noh theatre makes this film that much more dramatic.

Don't expect to be uplifted with a standard samurai flick. This is one of the most historic beautiful films I've ever seen. Before you watch this try placing this on big screen with good color registration and good sound because Kurosawa uses as much of the screen as he can.

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