Movie: Ran
Akira Kurosawa’s Ran is a retelling of the King Lear story, modified to fit the Japanese samurai setting. It is really a beautiful adaptation, one of my favorites. Only the recent Chinese film, The Banquet, has really come close as an Asian adaptation of Shakespeare, in my estimation.
Like The Banquet, I think that this film shows some sense of disdain for open expressions of affection, which would be (stereo)typically Asian. In The Banquet, I think the disdain was more subtle in that the affections were still highlighted on screen, but that the passions were then shown to be the reasons for the king’s downfall. Ran is quite similar in that the king’s (Jori’s) passionate love for a woman leads to his downfall at the end of it all. Additionally, though, in Ranaffections between parents and children are treated with some disdain, emphasizing that filial duty is a more appropriate motivation for a child to show respect for his parents. This was, I thought, especially important in setting this film apart from its source, Shakespeare’s King Lear.
I thought the Lear character and his relationship with the Fool was well played. I loved the change of the daughters to sons, and the interaction between the three. I liked how the youngest, while disowned, still was given the third castle to keep, and how this came starkly into play. I loved how Hidetaro failed to commit suicide, leading to his complete stripping of honour/dignity, and his loss of sanity. The madness was very well played.
Perhaps what I liked best as a sort of innovation in the film was the Sué character, and her brother in place of Tom in the text, or a character into whom both Tom and Goucester were collapsed. It was really beautifully treated, and the image of him on the cliffside with which the film ends was poignant. It is a moving ending to a very moving film.
For anyone familiar at all with the genre of samurai films, Ran will feel like familiar ground. I love how the Lear story is so well adapted. The departures from the source material are well thought out, and very effective. Ran, for me, is a top-notch film, both as an example of its genre, and as a retelling of Shakespeare’s play.
