CULTJAPAN!

Ran is a 1985 movie written and directed by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. It is a jidaigeki (Japanese period drama) depicting the fall of Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai), an aging Sengoku-era warlord who decides to abdicate as ruler in favor of his three sons. The story is based on legends of the daimyo Mōri Motonari, as well as on the Shakespearean tragedy King Lear.

Ran was Kurosawa’s last epic. The film was hailed for its powerful images and use of color. The distinctive Gustav Mahler-inspired film score, written by Tōru Takemitsu, plays in isolation with ambient sound muted.

Ran is a tale about the downfall of the once-powerful Ichimonji clan after its patriarch Hidetora decides to give control of his kingdom up to his three sons: Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. Taro, the eldest, will receive the prestigious First Castle and become leader of the Ichimonji clan, while Jiro and Saburo will be given the Second and Third Castles. Jiro and Saburo are to support Taro. Hidetora will remain the titular leader and retain the title of Great Lord. Saburo criticizes the logic of Hidetora’s plan by breaking all three arrows with his knee. Hidetora achieved power through treachery, he reminds his father, yet he foolishly expects his sons to be loyal to him. Hidetora mistakes these comments for a threat and when his servant Tango comes to Saburo’s defense, he banishes both of them.

Following Hidetora’s abdication, Taro’s wife Lady Kaede begins pushing for Taro to take direct control of the Ichimonji clan, and engineers a rift between Taro and Hidetora. Matters come to a head when Hidetora kills one of Taro’s guards who was threatening his fool Kyoami. When Taro subsequently demands that Hidetora renounce his title of Great Lord, Hidetora storms out of the castle. He then travels to Jiro’s castle, only to discover that Jiro is more interested in using Hidetora as a pawn in his own power play. He talks with Jiro’s wife Sue, whose family was killed by Hidetora’s forces but has converted fully to Buddhism and forgiven him.

The following winter, Hidetora and his entourage look unsuccessfully for food in the countryside, not knowing that Taro and Jiro had both cut off food supplies. Tango appears to Hidetora and tells him of that fact, but Hidetora rebuffs him and also banished Kyoami when he makes a joke about the sons’ betrayal.

Finally Hidetora becomes desperate and journeys to the third castle, which had been abandoned after Saburo’s forces followed their lord into exile, only to be ambushed by Taro and Jiro. In a horrific massacre that is the centerpiece of the film, Hidetora’s bodyguards and concubines are slaughtered, the castle is set on fire, and Hidetora is left to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). However, much to his dismay, Hidetora’s sword has been broken and he cannot commit seppuku. Instead of killing himself, Hidetora goes mad and escapes from the burning castle. As Taro and Jiro’s forces storm the castle, Jiro’s general Kurogane has Taro assassinated.

Hidetora is discovered wandering in the wilderness by Tango and Kyoami, who along with Saburo become the only people still loyal to him. They take refuge in a peasant’s home, only to discover that the peasant is a man named Tsurumaru, Lady Sué’s brother (and Hidetora’s son-in-law), whom Hidetora had ordered blinded years ago.

Upon his return from battle, Jiro begins having an affair with Taro’s widow Lady Kaede, who quickly becomes the power behind his throne. Kaede’s family was also killed by hidetora’s forces and she clearly desires revenge. She demands that Jiro divorce his wife Lady Sué and marry her instead. When he does so, she also demands for good measure that he have Sué killed. Kurogane is given the order, but he publicly disobeys and warns Jiro not to trust his wife. Kurogane already warned Sue to flee the castle; she takes Tsurumaru with her.

Meanwhile, Hidetora’s party hides out in the remains of a castle that Hidetora had destroyed in an earlier war. Hidetora’s madness causes him to have nightmares about all the people he murdered in his quest for power. At one point Tango kills two men from Hidetora’s bodyguard who he discovers had betrayed him; one of them warns of Jiro’s desire to kill Hidetora before he dies. When Hidetora spots Sue and Tsurumaru on the top of the castle, past memories come flooding back. The madness finally becomes too much for him to bear; eluding his servants, he flees back into the wilderness with Kyoami is pursuit.

Tango locates Saburo in exile to bring him to Hidetora’s rescue. With a small army, Saburo crosses back into the kingdom to find him. Alarmed at what he suspects is treachery, including the fact that Saburo is allied with two neighboring warlords who want the Ichimonji lands for themselves, Jiro hastily mobilizes his army to stop them. The two forces meet on the field of Hachiman. Although Jiro’s army greatly outnumbers Saburo’s, Jiro has good reason not to be overconfident. Sensing a major battle, Saburo’s new patron, a warlord named Fujimaki, marches to the border. Another rival warlord, Ayabe, also shows up with his own army.

Kyoami arrives on scene accomopanied by one of Saburo’s scouts and says in grief that Hidetora has dissappeared into the Isuza plains, After arranging a truce with Jiro, Saburo rides off to find Hidetora. But Jiro orders an attack anyway, and his forces are decimated by arquebus fire from Saburo’s army. In the middle of the battle, word reaches Jiro and Kurogane that Ayabe has slipped away with most of his army and is marching on the First Castle.

Jiro’s army promptly disintegrates and flees back to the castle, with Ayabe’s forces quickly arriving to besiege it. Kurogane slays Lady Kaede after she admits that she herself had planned for events to transpire this way all along due to her utter hatred towards the Ichimonji clan, who had her family killed when she was a child before being forced into marrying Taro. Jiro, Kurogane, and Jiro’s men all die in the battle that follows. Lady Sué is also finally beheaded by one of Jiro’s men.

In the end, Saburo finally discovers Hidetora, hiding in a cave in the Isuza plain. The two are reunited and Hidetora comes to his senses. However, Saburo is killed by an assassin that Jiro had sent out earlier. Overcome with grief, Hidetora finally dies, marking the end of the Ichimonji clan. The film ends with a shot of Tsurumaru, standing alone on top of a ruined castle while Saburo’s army mourns for their fallen leader.

While most of the characters in Ran are portrayed using conventional acting techniques, two performances in Ran were greatly influenced by Japanese Noh theater. This is exemplified in the heavy, ghost-like makeup worn by Tatsuya Nakadai’s character, Hidetora, which resembles the emotive masks worn by traditional Noh performers. The body language exhibited by the same character is also typical of Noh theater: long periods of static motion and silence, followed by an abrupt, sometimes violent, change in stance. The character of Lady Kaede is also a Noh influenced performance. The Noh aspects of these two characters emphasize their ruthless, passionate, and single-minded natures.

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