Ran (film)

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Movie
German title Ran
Original title Ran
Country of production Japan , France
original language Japanese
Publishing year 1985
length approx. 160 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Akira Kurosawa
script Akira Kurosawa,
Hideo Oguni ,
Masato Ide
production Masato Hara ,
Serge Silberman
music Tōru Takemitsu
camera Masaharu Ueda ,
Asakazu Nakai ,
Takao Saitō
cut Akira Kurosawa
occupation

Ran ( Japanese 'unrest; uprising; civil war' ) is a Japanese Jidai-geki (period film ) from 1985 by the director Akira Kurosawa . The film describes the case of Hidetora Ichimonji, a warlord of the Sengoku era who decides to resign in favor of his sons. His kingdom is falling apart under the intrigues and battles of his sons; in the course of this Hidetora falls into madness.

The story is based on the legend of Daimyō Mori Motonari and uses elements from Shakespeare's King Lear . It was Kurosawa's third Shakespeare adaptation , after Das Schloss im Spinnwebwald (1957, Macbeth ) and The Bad Sleep Well (1960, Hamlet ).

Ran was Kurosawa's last great epic. With a budget of $ 11.5 million, it was the most expensive Japanese film to date. Kurosawa made three more films before his death, but none of the size of Ran .

action

In 16th century Japan, the aging prince Hidetora Ichimonji decides to divide his empire, which had been built through lifelong hard work, between the sons Taro , Jiro and Saburo . The eldest, Taro, receives the important first castle and becomes the new head of the Ichimonji clan. The other two sons receive the second and third castle and are supposed to support their brother. However, Hidetora wants to keep the title of "Grand Duke" ( Daimyō ). Hidetora wants to illustrate the strength of this bond by showing that a bundle of three arrows, unlike a single arrow, cannot be broken. However, Saburo also manages to break the three arrows, and he describes the father's idea as stupid. When Saburo criticized his father's plan further - after all, he built his empire on betrayal and intrigue and now expects his sons not to do just that - the angry Hidetora banishes his son and his advisor Tango, who had defended Saburo.

After Hidetora's resignation, Taro's wife, Kaede, began to influence him and demand that he take direct, complete control of the clan. Kaede is vengeful because the old Grand Duke wiped out her family in a previous war and stole her parents' castle. Therefore she tries to manipulate her husband in order to create a break between him and Hidetora. The opportunity arises when Hidetora shoots one of Taro's guards who want to kill the court jester Kyoami because of a cheeky remark. Taro then urges his father to give up the title of “Grand Duke”. Hidetora leaves the first castle angry about this demand. He travels to the second castle, which is under the command of Jiros. However, Jiro is more interested in using his father in a game of intrigue than in really helping him. During his time at the second castle, Hidetora meets Jiro's wife, Dame Sué. Most of her family was also killed by Hidetora. However, Sué forgave him after she became a Buddhist .

Hidetora travels with his personal bodyguard to the third castle, which was abandoned by the exiled son Saburo. Hidetora is attacked there by the armies of Taro and Jiro. His bodyguard and concubines are killed in the battle, and the castle is set on fire. Hidetora remains in the castle and wants to commit seppuku . However, his sword is broken and so this is denied him. He falls into madness and leaves the burning castle. When Taros and Jiro's soldiers finally storm the castle, Taro is shot from behind by Jiro's general Kurogane.

Hidetora is eventually found wandering aimlessly in the wilderness by Tango and Kyoami. They join Hidetora and remain as his only followers. They seek protection in a farmer's hut and discover that it is Sué's brother Tsurumaru, whom Hidetora had his eyes gouged out years ago. Like his sister, he too tries to free himself from hatred by praying to Buddha, but cannot forget the deeds of the Grand Duke.

After returning from battle, Jiro begins an affair with Kaede that soon becomes a major influence on him. She demands that Jiro leave his wife Sué. When Jiro agrees to divorce Kaede to marry, she demands that Sué be killed and her head brought to her. Kurogane is charged with the murder, but he quietly acknowledges Kaede's orders and later warns Jiro about his new wife. In a key scene of the film, he snubs Kaede: instead of Sué's hoped-for head, he brings her a stone fox's head in a bundle of fabric. Kaede goes mad because Kurogane shows her and Jiro that he thinks she is an evil animal demon.

Meanwhile, Hidetora's group is hiding in the ruins of the burned down castle of Sués and Tsurumaru's family. Tango tries to convince him to seek protection with his abandoned son Saburo. But Hidetora fights against losing face and having to admit that Saburo was right. Therefore Tango has no choice but to bring Saburo into the hiding place and he leaves the confused old man in the care of Kyoami. Hidetora become increasingly aware of the atrocities he committed in order to consolidate his power. Eventually this becomes too much for him and he escapes from hiding.

In search of Hidetora, Saburo's army invades his old lands again. Concerned by this move and alarmed by his brother's alliances with other warlords, Jiro sets his outnumbered army on the march to intercept him. The armies meet in the Hachiman field. Saburo's new ally, the warlord Fujimaki, is also marching to the border in order to be able to assist him in an emergency. Another rival warlord, Ayabe, also takes up positions at the border. At Kaede's advice, Jiro first agrees an armistice and safe conduct to Hidetora, with the ulterior motive of luring the search party into an ambush. Jiro nevertheless orders an attack on Saburo's army. However, its units are greatly decimated by its arquebuses . During the battle, Jiro and his general Kurogane are informed that Ayabe's army is marching towards the first castle. Jiro's army immediately withdraws uncontrollably. While Jiro's army is defending against the attacking forces of Ayabe, a horseman brings Sué's head. Then General Kurogane, who had refused to kill Sué, rushes to Kaede. The latter revealed that, out of motives for revenge, they had planned the fall of the Ichimonji family well in advance, whereupon the general kills them.

Saburo finally finds Hidetora in a hole in the ground. He comes to his senses again and the two make up. However, Saburo is shot dead by Jiro's soldiers in an ambush. Hidetora passes with grief and dies too. Jiro and Kurogane are likely lost in battle with Ayabe's army.

The film ends with the image of the blind Tsurumaru, who stands abandoned on the wall of the ruined castle of his ancestors after he has lost a scroll painting with a golden image of the Buddha Amida , which his sister Sué had given him for protection.

production

“When I read that three arrows together were indestructible, I didn't believe it. I doubted and thought: the house was successful, the sons were brave. What if this fascinating man's sons had been bad? "

- Akira Kurosawa, July 1986.

Kurosawa had the first idea for the film in the mid-1970s when he read the legend of the warlord Mōri Motonari . Motonari had three sons who were loyal and capable. Kurosawa thought about what would happen if these sons weren't such good people. Despite the clear parallels to Shakespeare's King Lear , Kurosawa only became aware of the similarities during the planning for the film. According to him, the stories of Motonari and Lear linked, which he himself could never fully explain. He wrote the script shortly after completing Dersu Uzala in 1975 and kept it in a drawer for seven years. During this time, he painted the storyboards for every take of the film and started looking for the necessary financial support. After the success of the film Kagemusha , which he sometimes called a "dress rehearsal" for Ran , he won the support of French producer Serge Silberman .

Ran was Kurosawa's last major epic film and, with a budget of $ 11.5 million, also its most expensive, it was the most expensive Japanese film when it was made. Around 1400 extras were used during the shooting, for whom the corresponding costumes and armor had to be made. These were designed by the costume designer Emi Wada and Kurosawa themselves and made by hand by the tailors in over 2 years. In addition, 200 horses were used in the film, some of which were imported from the USA. Kurosawa shot most of the scenes at Aso Volcano because of his penchant for rich, expansive shots . He was also allowed to visit the ancient castles of Kumamoto and Himeji . The scenes in the ruins of Sué's family were filmed in the ruins of Azusa Castle. Hidetora's third castle, which was burned down, was built on the slopes of Mount Fuji-san for the movie . No miniatures were used for these sequences, so Tatsuya Nakadai only had one attempt to film Hidetora's escape from the burning castle. All clouds of dust, fog or storms had to be created artificially, and the filming team had problems with the outdoor shooting. The dust was thrown in the wrong direction several times and prevented the production team from being able to shoot further scenes. Kurosawa usually bore it with composure.

Kurosawa's wife, Yōko Yaguchi, died while filming. Kurosawa stopped work for a day to mourn the death of his wife before resuming work.

The film was completed too late to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival and premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival . Kurosawa himself did not appear at the premiere, which was received negatively in the Japanese film industry.

background

King Lear

King Lear and the Fool in the Storm by William Dyce .

“What always bothered me about King Lear was that Shakespeare didn't give his characters a past. In Ran I tried to give Lear a past "

- Akira Kurosawa

According to Kurosawa, Ran is not a direct adaptation of King Lear ; however, he admits that he was influenced by the piece and adopted many elements. Both tell the story of an aging prince who divides his empire among his descendants. King Lear's daughters are replaced by Hidetora's sons, Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. In both plays the rulers banish those who dare to contradict: in King Lear it is the Earl of Kent, in Ran this applies to Taro and Saburo. The conflict in both stories is that the ruler's children turn against him, even if Hidetora's sons are much more ruthless. Both Ran and King Lear end up with the death of the entire family.

However, there are also some massive differences between the plays: King Lear is a play about involuntary suffering, and Lear himself is a fool at worst. Hidetora, on the other hand, has been a cruel warrior all his life who ruthlessly murdered men, women and children in order to achieve his goals. In the film, Kaede, Sué and Tsurumaru were all victims of Hidetora. If in King Lear the Earl of Gloucester had the eyes gouged out by the king's opponents, it is in Ran Hidetora himself who orders this to be done to Tsurumaru.

“A terrible scroll of Hell is shown depicting the fall of the castle. There are no real sounds as the scroll unfolds like a daytime nightmare. It is a scene of human evildoing, the way of the demonic Ashura , as seen by a Buddha in tears. The music superimposed on these pictures is, like the Buddha's heart, measured in beats of profound anguish, the chanting of a melody full of sorrow that begins like sobbing and rises gradually as it is repeated, like karmic cycles, then finally sounds like the wailing of countless Buddhas ”

- from the script for Ran

Motifs

chaos

As the title suggests, chaos is a defining motif in the film. In many scenes Kurosawa hints at the coming destruction and chaos. Hidetora is an autocrat whose influence unites the surrounding areas and promises a certain peace under his rule. With the loss of the unifying influence, others like Jiro or Kaede are encouraged to forge and implement their own plans, which they do ruthlessly. Although the title is undoubtedly an allusion to Hidetora's decision to abdicate and the chaos associated with it, there are a few other examples of “spreading anarchy ”. The assassination of Taro by Kurogane gives Kaede more leverage and makes him an inadvertent helper in their plans. Saburo's decision to seek and help Hidetora only piques the interest of the other warlords targeting the empire. It thus leads to the battle between Jiro and Saburo, which ultimately leads to the destruction of the Ichimonji clan.

The chaos motif also becomes clear through the lack of a supernatural order. When Hidetora meets Sué, the most religious character in the film, he replies that Buddha has left this wretched world. Despite her belief in love and forgiveness, Sué ends up being beheaded. When Kyoami claims that the gods either do not exist or do not care about human suffering, Tango replies: "(The gods) cannot protect us from ourselves". Kurosawa repeated this point many times: "Mankind must face life without relying on God or Buddha". However, this is exactly the core message of Buddhism, because Buddha is not understood there as an omnipotent, exoteric protector God, but rather as a human example, who in his teaching teaches people the way to redemption from the destructive impulses of greed, hate and the ignorance shows. It is up to each person whether or not to go this way. Insofar as the film drastically demonstrates the infernal destructive power of greed and hatred, it must actually be described as deeply Buddhist: “The Christian belief in God's omnipotence ... and redeeming ... the Buddhist will oppose and emphasize the impenetrability of the law of karma that salvation can only be achieved through one's own efforts, namely the abolition of greed, hatred and ignorance. ”Sué's tragic death does not devalue her Buddhist virtues of forgiveness and non-violence, because according to the karma doctrine her murderer becomes infernal as the result of his deed Experiencing states of the mind that lead to more and more aggression and destruction (the film shows this mechanism using the example of Hidetoras). The last shot shows Tsurumaru standing on the ruins of his family's castle. Because of his blindness, he almost stumbles over the edge of the walls. He drops the scroll with the golden Buddha that his sister gave him and now stands alone. "A blind man, on the edge of the abyss, robbed of his God, in a world that is getting darker". This can be understood as a symbol for the modern concept " God is dead ", as Kurosawa put it: "Man is absolutely alone ... (Tsurumaru) represents modern humanity".

nihilism

"What I was trying to do with Ran, from the first version of the script, was to show that the gods or god or whoever is watching human deeds feels sadness at how people destroy each other and the powerlessness to change that."

- Akira Kurosawa

In addition to the chaotic elements, Ran also contains strong nihilistic traits, which come to light from the opening sequence in which Hidetora kills a wild boar to the last scene with Tsurumaru. Roger Ebert describes Ran as a 20th century story set in the Japanese Middle Ages. An old man at the end of his life who has won all his battles foolishly believes he still has the power to determine the lives of the next generation. But life goes on at a rapid pace without worrying about the historical context. His offspring have their own lusts and debauchery. His will is no longer relevant, they will divide his prey among themselves like dogs tearing apart a carcass.

This marks a radical change from Kurosawa's early films, which included hope and redemption. Even Kagemusha , despite depicting the destruction of the samurai caste, showed this with regret rather than desperation. In contrast, the world from Ran is a world in which life is a constant cycle of suffering and in which everyone is a villain or a victim, often both. Heroes like Saburo may want to do the right thing, but are doomed in the end. Unlike other heroes at Kurosawa, like Kikuchiyo from The Seven Samurai or Watanabe from Ikiru , who die while doing great things , Saburo dies senseless. Sneaky characters like Jiro or Kaede are never given the chance to atone; instead, they continue their lives in malice, only to find a violent end as well.

Warfare

“All the technological advances in recent years have only taught mankind how to kill each other better and more efficiently. It is very difficult for me under such circumstances to maintain a hopeful outlook on life "

- Akira Kurosawa

Michael Wilmington states that Kurosawa also wants the film to be understood as a metaphor for the nuclear war and the fear of the post- Hiroshima era. Kurosawa saw progress only as progress in killing possibilities. In Ran , the symbol for this apocalyptic weapon of destruction is the arquebus originally from Europe , which appeared in Japan in the 16th century. Arquebuses revolutionized the warfare of the samurai. Wars were now dominated by large armies, Kurosawa already took up this topic in Kagemusha . There the cavalry of the Takeda clan was destroyed by the arquebuses of the Oda and Tokugawa. In Ran , the battle in the Hachiman fields is another representation of this modern warfare. Saburo's arquebuses destroy Jiro's cavalry and repel infantry attacks. Saburo's murder by a sniper is also a symbol of the insignificance of individual heroes on the modern battlefield.

Traditional influences

The acting style of some actors is clearly influenced by the Japanese theater. This is particularly evident in Tatsuya Nakadai's character Hidetora. The strong, ghost-like make-up is similar to the "Nō-men" masks used in the Nō theater. The generously equipped costumes, which become part of the strongly formalized body language, are also typical. The sound is also reminiscent of the Nô theater: the various footsteps of the characters, the silk kimono of Lady Kaede dragging across the wooden floor and the music with the plaintive flute, the sounds of percussion and their silence. In the image sequences, too, longer moments of silence and calm follow the fast, abrupt movements. The composition of the individual scenes and the entire plot is emphatically formalistic, often static and characterized by symmetry and also by asymmetry.

To interpret the film

The presentation is stylized, schematic, any realism that characterized earlier films is pushed back in favor of the "visibility of the structure". An example of this is the return of the three number in the opening scene (three ways, three sons, three castles, three arrows, etc.). If the warlords and their followers are initially sitting together in a circle, which indicates wholeness and peace, in later comparable scenes the triangle or the straight line, symmetrically distributed over the two halves of the picture, dominate at best, to indicate the lost harmony. When Saburo is banished and leaves his castle with Fujimaki on the country road, both of them take up one half of the picture with their horses and each look in opposite directions.

The structure itself is semantized , the form becomes content. The dialogues and stage directions in the script also contain many metaphors or similar language images. These images ("images") contain the meaning of the film: They do not illustrate the story, such as that of King Lear, but they are the story, as Donald Richie states. The artificial way of composing with the negation of any realism leads to a refusal of offers of identification and makes the film more of a lesson than a moving piece as in Shakespeare; it is not empathy and catharsis that is sought here, but knowledge. The viewer gains insight into the basic malice and madness of the people ("the folly of men"); he learns that human life is a tragedy - with sometimes foolish features - and offers no hope ("no hope"), especially since the gods, if they exist at all, can only watch impotently. - At the same time, however, art presents itself as a refuge , the aesthetics or the aesthetic enjoyment compensates for the desolate life, the nihilistic worthlessness escapes so those who set an example with art.

reception

sales

Although Ran received primarily positive reviews, it was only a modestly successful film. The film opened on June 1, 1985 and was just about recouping production costs for $ 12 million. In the US, the film grossed two to three million US dollars six months later, a re-screening in 2000 brought in only 337,112 US dollars

Reviews

  • Roger Ebert : “ Ran is a great, wonderful achievement. Kurosawa must have often felt like the old prince when he made the film, but in the end he triumphed and the image I have of him is that of the three bundled arrows. "
  • Chris Peachment: “Indeed, the only optimistic thing is the grandeur of the film itself: a large, tortured painting in which Kurosawa even manages to command the elements to obey his vision. A lear of our time, for all time. "
  • Lexicon of international films : “Akira Kurosawa's late work is inspired by William Shakespeare's tragedy 'King Lear', by the traditions of Japan and by current end-time visions. With tremendous visual power and virtuoso montage, the film is a parable about the fate of power, about ethical responsibility and the relativity of truth. "

Awards

At the 1986 Academy Awards for 1985, Ran was nominated for four Academy Awards, including the one for best costume design . The film was also nominated in the categories of Best Production Design and Best Cinematography and Akira Kurosawa for Best Director .

Ran was also nominated six times at the Japanese Academy Awards in 1986, winning the categories for Best Production Design and Best Music .

The film was nominated for best foreign language film at the Golden Globes, but did not win the award.

The National Board of Review recorded Ran as best foreign language film and Akira Kurosawa as best director from.

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

swell

  1. Did Kurosawa make so many Shakespeare adaptations to avoid censorship? Retrieved April 6, 2020 .
  2. ^ Ran (1985) - Box Office Mojo. Accessed July 31, 2019 .
  3. a b c Gerald Peary - The Boston Herald
  4. a b c d Kiyoshi Watanabe: Interview with Akira Kurosawa on Ran
  5. Film View: 'Ran' Weathers the Seasons
  6. ^ Ran (1985) - Box Office Mojo. Accessed July 31, 2019 .
  7. ^ Internet Movie Database
  8. ^ Nytimes.com: Tokyo Festival Opens With a Kurosawa Film
  9. Ask the Experts Q&A
  10. a b Michael Sragow "Lear meets the energy vampire"
  11. Hans Wolfgang Schumann, Handbook Buddhism ISBN 3720521532
  12. a b Stephen Prince, The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa ISBN 0691010463
  13. Ebert, Roger. " Ran (1985) ." Roger Ebert's Great Movies, October 1, 2000.
  14. Audie Bock, "Kurosawa on His Innovative Cinema"
  15. " Apocalypse Song " ( Memento of the original dated February 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Michael Wilmington @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.criterionco.com
  16. "The costumes [...] are, like those of the Noh, particularly and ostentatiously gorgeous." (Donald Richie, p. 217)
  17. ^ Donald Richie, p. 217
  18. ^ Donald Richie, p. 217
  19. ^ The structure "became highly visible". (Donald Richie, p. 217)
  20. ^ "Composition has become metaphor." (Donald Richie, p. 218)
  21. ^ "They do not illustrate the story, they are the story." (P. 219)
  22. ^ Donald Richie, p. 219
  23. Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tohokingdom.com
  24. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1985/0RN.html
  25. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ran-1985
  26. Chris Peachment, Time Out Film Guide, Seventh Edition (1999)
  27. Ran. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 29, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 

literature

  • Donald Richie, The Films of Akira Kurosawa . With additional material by Joan Mellen. Berkeley / Los Angeles / London, first published in 1965, revised edition 1984, expanded and updated 1996, new epilogue 1998 (University of California Press), ISBN 0-520-22037-4
  • Christian Neeb: The Emperor and Chaos . Report on the film at einestages , May 29, 2015

Web links