Ran (film)

Ran is a Japanese film carried out by Akira Kurosawa, left in 1985.

Synopsis

In XVIe century, in Japan devastated by the war, the old man daymio Hidetora Ichimonji decides to divide, with for witnesses the close lords, his stronghold between his three sons and to thus finish his happy days and in peace. But the sad truth takes again the top, and the dissensions enter the three brothers will quickly plunge their families and their hearths in chaos.

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According to Stephen Prince, Ran is the “pitiless chronicle of a cheap thirst for being able, treason of the father by his sons, and wars and ceaseless murders who end up destroying all the main characters”.

It is the account of the fall of the powerful Ichimonji clan pulled by the decision of its Hidetora patriarch to yield the control of the kingdom to its three sons: Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. Taro, the elder one, receives prestigious the First castle and becomes chief of the Ichimonji clan, while Jiro and Saburo receive the Second and the Third castles. Jiro and Saburo owe assistance in Taro, and Hidetora makes use of a beam of arrows to illustrate its matter. Hidetora must remain the nominal chief and preserve the title of Large Lord. Saburo criticizes the logic of this plan. Hidetora, says it, obtained its power by treachery, however it hopes naively that its sons will be honest for him. Hidetora takes this remark for a threat and when its Tango servant takes the defense of Saburo, he banishes them both.

After the abdication of Hidetora, the woman of Taro, Rams Kaede, undertakes to persuade Taro to take the direct control of the clan, and foments a dissension between him and Hidetora. Kaede is a manipulator inspired by a desire of revenge: its family was massacred by Hidetora in her rise towards the capacity and it thus dedicated its existence to lead the Ichimonji clan to his loss.

The critical point is reached when Hidetora keep silent one of the guards of Taro which threatened insane Kyoami. When Taro then requires of Hidetora that it confirm its new statute and its power by signing a document of its blood, Hidetora accepts with back-plate and, furious, leaves the castle. It goes then to the Second castle, where it discusses initially with Dame Sweated, the woman of Jiro. Like that of Kaede, its family was massacred by Hidetora, but it became Bouddhiste and forgave. Discussing with his/her son thereafter, Hidetora realizes that Jiro is especially anxious to use it like a pawn in its own play. Expelled of the Second castle, Hidetora wanders in the plains with its soldiers in the search of food. It goes finally to the Third castle when it learns that the forces of Saburo gave up it to follow their lord in the exile.

Hidetora and its continuation fall into a ambuscade tended by the combined forces from Taro and Jiro. The bodyguards of Hidetora and his/her concubines are massacred, the castle is set fire to, and it only remains in Hidetora to make the Seppuku or commits suicide ritual. However he realizes with his great distress that its saber is broken and that he cannot make the seppuku. Instead of committing suicide he flees of the castle in flames, with insane half. While the forces of Taro and Jiro take by storm the castle, a general of Jiro, Kurogane, assassinates Taro.

Hidetora, at the edge of the madness, wanders in the storm on the grassy slopes of the close mountain where it is found by Tango and Kyoami, the only ones which remained to him honest. The trio takes refuge in the hut of a peasant and discover that this one is not other than Tsurumaru, the brother of Lady Sweated. Hidetora had made him burst the eyes of the years before.

Return of the battle, Jiro launches out in a connection with Dame Kaede, widow recently. Continuing its company occults destruction of the clan Ichimonji, it draws soon the strings behind the throne. It requires that Jiro leave his wife. When this one proposes to divorce Lady Sweated and to marry Kaede in its place, it requires that it make kill Sué. Kurogane receives the order to kill Sué, but he disobeys publicly and warns Jiro against Kaede.

Later Tango kills two of the advisers félons of Hidetora. Kyoami and Tango decide that, to ensure the safety of Hidetora, it should be led at Saburo. But a deep feeling of shame prevents Hidetora from being reconciled with his/her son. Consequently Tango leaves to seek Saburo to bring back it at Hidetora. Kyoami remains in company of the Large Lord while this one is inserted in the madness, wandering in the ruins of the castle of the father of Lady Sweated, castle which it itself destroyed.

Dame Sué flees the second castle and, joining his/her Tsurumaru brother, takes refuge in the ruins of the castle of their father. Accompanied by a servant they escape from accuracy from the enemy forces sent by Jiro. Soudain Tsurumaru remembers that he forgot his flute. It tries to convince his sister that it does not need any, but Sué sets out again despite everything to seek it, leaving in Tsurumaru an illustrated roller of an image of the Buddha. Finally it is killed and decapitated by the men of Jiro, and Tsurumaru remains alone in the ruins.

The place where Hidetora hides remaining a mystery and its sufferings being from now on well-known, the army of Saburo penetrates again in the kingdom to find it. Anxious of the companies of his/her brother and attentive with his alliances with rival lords of war who seek to seize the terrres of the Ichimonji clan, Jiro gathers with haste its army, much more, to stop them. The enemy forces clash in the plain of Hachiman. Having a presentiment of the importance of the battle, the new guard of Saburo, a lord of war of the name of Fujimaki, fact goes towards the border. Another rival lord, Ayabe, also appear with his own army. After having concluded a truce with Jiro, Saburo leaves with an escort ten soldiers to research Hidetora. But Jiro breaks the truce and sends a brigade of artillerists against Saburo before ordering an attack against the remainder of the troops of Saburo. In spite of its numerical superiority the army of Jiro is decimated by the fire of the arquebusiers of Saburo.

In the middle of the battle one learns in Jiro and Kurogane that the army of Ayabe travels towards the First castle. Thus Jiro understands that the army posted on the hill is only one lure. The army of Jiro is relaxed quickly and flees towards the castle. During the battle against the troops of Ayabe Kurogane asks Dame Kaede to return accounts on its acts. She admits to have operation so that the things come to this point, and Kurogane kills it immediately. The Second castle is quickly overcome, the death of Jiro and the rout of its army being suggested but not shown.

Saburo ends up finding Hidetora. They are joined together and Hidetora takes again its spirits. The father and the son overlap side by side, seeming alleviated, when Saburo is killed by the artillerists of Jiro. Overcome by sorrow, Hidetora dies, ploughed up on the body of his/her son, putting a final point at the history of the Ichimonji clan.

While the army of Saburo cries its chief, the film finishes on a plan of Tsurumaru, upright only on the ruins of the castle of his/her father. He wanders as a blind man and by accident drops the roller which his/her sister had given him.

Comment

There is no doubt that this film represented for Kurosawa a result of its work; it will not return any more to this kind of semi-historical films which made its success (its last project, After the rain, could not be concluded). The resumption of Shakespeare is only one pretext to leave free course to its own vision, become increasingly pessimistic. Never Kurosawa as much opposed nature and its contemplation to the destroying madness of the man. Matter of the scenario writer, in parallel with his talent of director, reached his paroxysm in the final vision of the blind and lost man that the gods gave up, whereas the funeral procession of the heroes passes.

Data sheet

Distribution

  • Tatsuya Nakadai : Hidetora
  • Peter: Kyoami
  • Akira Terao : Taro
  • Mieko Harada : Kaede
  • Jinpachi Nezu : Jiro
  • Daisuke Ryu : Saburo

Around film

  • the woman of Akira Kurosawa died during the production of film. Akira stopped one day before resuming its work.
  • It took two years to create the hundreds of costumes necessary.
  • Kurosawa spent ten years for storyboarder the plans… in painting!

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