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Ran

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Mieko Harada, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Yoshiko Miyazaki

VCD, Rs. 149

Reportedly, Akira Kurosawa was in his 70s and nearly blind by the time he made Ran. He hadn't had a great hit in many years, and many younger rivals believed him finished. But just when they were ready to write him off, the master filmmaker pulled a surprise out of the bag in the form of this wonderfully poignant tale of naive trust and betrayal. In hindsight, it seems only appropriate that the film came at such an unexpected time. A lesser Kurosawa, who had not faced the trials that preceded this work of art, might never have managed to truly get under its skin as he does.

Ran, contrary to popular belief, was originally inspired by a legend of a Japanese warlord. As he worked on the film, however, the Japanese legend became inextricably melded with the Shakespearean tragedy King Lear so that the final result became a unique paradox — expansive in its ambition and yet doggedly focussed in its treatment of the central characters, barbaric in its view of the world, but beautiful in its sensitivity to individuals in that world and intensely specific to a time, place and sequence of events and still universal in its emotion and thought.

Hidetora, the head of clan Ichimonji who embarks on his first conquest at the tender age of 17, is now near the end of his long and bloody life. Like Lear, he wishes to hand over his lordship to his sons. Touched by senility, he gives over all his land and power to them, lulled into false confidence by the flattery of his elder two sons. Saburo, the third son, lacks the gift of a sweet tongue, and is exiled by the old warlord for his lack of love and respect.

False pretences are shorn away almost immediately however, as the other two brothers first strip their father of all his dignity and cast him out before turning on each other. Civil war breaks loose and even Saburo, who returns only to bring his father out of the madness, gets drawn into it.

Bleak worldview

What strikes the viewer almost from the beginning of the film is its bleak, cynical view of the world. Hidetora, unlike Lear, is no benevolent fool. He has the blood of thousands on his own hands, having ordered executions mercilessly and doling out far more than mere death to his enemies.

And unlike the great heroic tragedies, Saburo does not die in the middle of a heroic battle, doing great and impossible deeds. Instead, his death is only an unnecessary waste, much like the thousands of deaths that occur during the storming of the castle. Indeed, it is through his montages of destruction and chaos that Kurosawa best expresses the innate pessimism of the film. Sights such as a soldier crying in pain as he holds his own severed arm, streams of blood flowing from skewered samurai and the sight of a desolate castle burning over a dying land create a mood of irrevocable destruction. And upon this vast landscape of grief is set the torment of a warlord who unable to bear his own folly has taken recluse in insanity.

Tatsuya Nakadai is no Toshiro Mifune, but his rendition of Hidetora is powerful and moving. At first glance, Nakadai seems like nothing more than a small piece of the puzzle, a cog in the greater wheel of subtle politicking. However, as the film progresses, the spectre of the fallen warlord looms ever larger over the other characters of the film, until one finally realises that he is the source of turmoil, connected to every other character by a relationship of love, hate, duty or betrayal. By the time the finishing credits roll by, Nakadai's Hidetora grows beyond the film, haunting our own lives as a reminder of the depths to which man can fall.

Aiding him in his superb performance is a stage actor credited only as Peter, who plays Kyaomi the fool — a voice of commentary and observation that is as much a part of the tale as it is outside it. At times, Peter even threatens to steal the show from Nakadai, as he puts in words the madness that plagues Hidetora, making tongue-in-cheek observations with lucidity that fails all the other characters. The other great contributor is Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede, the epitome of the scheming female villain, whose hatred stems from his execution of her family.

In every respect, from concept and scripting to camerawork, acting and cinematography to costumes and music, Ran is a masterpiece. And to say that Kurosawa is a great filmmaker and Ran is one of his greatest works would be stating the obvious.

RAKESH MEHAR

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