Akira kurosawa
Akira kurosawa’s RAN : Waah-miyan- shake-sphere – his best
Warning: This is a looong review … Spoilers and dialogues galore!!!
There’s something about Shakespeare’s plays… his tragedies in particular which rivet you and grab your attention. Be it the two adaptations by Vishal bhardwaj (Omkara- Othello, Maqbool- Macbeth) or kurosawa’s Ran (King Lear) and Throne of Blood (adaptation of Macbeth).
For all the pain staking ‘thees’ and ‘thous’ and more talk/less action, Shakespeare’s tragic characters are driven by loyalty, ambition, trust/distrust and love/hatred. The most basic human emotions … which is why the screen is literally set on fire with drama (mostly) when his plays are adapted….
And when a Japanese film maker of international repute such as Kurosawa (this being my first tryst with Kurosawa) makes a film on Shakespeare famous tragedy King Lear it becomes a must see !!!
For those who don’t know… Here’s a synopsis of King Lear (courtesy wikipedia)
————————————————————-
“The play begins with King Lear taking the decision to abdicate the throne and divide his kingdom among his three daughters: Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. The eldest two are married while Cordelia is much sought after as a bride, partly because she is her father’s favourite. However, when Lear attempts to divide his kingdom amongst his three admiring and flattering daughters, the plan backfires. Cordelia refuses to outdo the flattery of her elder sisters, as she feels it would only cheapen her true feelings to flatter him purely for reward. Lear, in a fit of pique, divides her share of the kingdom between Goneril and Regan, and Cordelia is banished. The King of France however marries her, even after she has been disinherited inasmuch as he sees value in her honesty or as a casus belli to subsequently invade England.
Soon after Lear abdicates the throne, he finds that Goneril and Regan have betrayed him, and arguments ensue. The Earl of Kent, who has spoken up for Cordelia and been banished for his pains, returns disguised as the servant Caius, who will “eat no fish”, in order to protect the king, to whom he remains loyal. Meanwhile, Goneril and Regan fall out with one another over their attraction to Edmund — and are forced to deal with an army from France, led by Cordelia, sent to restore Lear to his throne. Eventually Goneril poisons Regan over their differences, and stabs herself when Edmund is wounded.”
————————————————————–
Eventually due to some tragic action events, when Lear tries to see Cordelia and apologize for his foolishness, Cordelia has died in a tussle… and all Lear is left is the dead body of his wronged daughter and the famous quotes
“Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,
And thou no breath at all?”
Kurosawa’s RAN has certain changes. Here the king Lear is the patriarchal warlord of Ichimonji – Hidetora. Hidetora appoints his eldest son (unlike the play) Taro as the next ruler, with younger sons – Jiro and Saburo, who would be aiding him. This appointment of power happens in the mountains … giving it almost a celestial, oriental look. Hidetora explains the need for unity by exemplifying the classic ‘single stick-easily broken, multiple sticks can’t be broken if tied together’ parable. Hitedora’s intention for himself is to retire and live in Taro’s castle just carrying the ‘title’ of the warlord.
The youngest (and most outspokenly honest) Saburo defiantly breaks the sticks and warns his father’s innocence, advising him not to place so much faith in the brothers’ unity. Tango (Hidetora’s aide) takes Saburo’s side. Effectively both are banished for their impertinence and not given anything from the kingdom.
Slowly, when Hidetora puts up with each of his sons’ (Taro and Jiro) insults, he realizes that he has been tricked in by the ‘sweet talk’ It’s interesting to know that Taro’s (the heir’s) wife Kaede is the one who motivates him to insult and affront his father.
Jiro’s wife Sue is the meek ‘god fearing Buddhist’ wife. The past is that Hitedora used to conquer the castles, wipe out entire families and used to the women in the castles as his concubines or his sons’ wives (in case of Kaede and Sue) . Kaede hasn’t forgiven Hidetora for the atrocities committed on her family (and possibly that’s why she goads Taro into insulting and humiliating Hitedora) but Sue has forgotten and forgiven the past.
Hitedora realizes this and says to Sue … with a hint of guilt …
“Still the same sad face??? When I see you it breaks my heart … its worse when you smile“
His fate is no better at his younger son Jiro’s castle. He has to stay there without all his loyal trusted guards (very much like Lear) and without the royal emblem. Precisely what u call in hindi – dhobhi ka kutta na ghar ka na ghaat ka….
The most true to the play character created by Kurosawa is the fool or the jester (a comic character often used in Shakespeare’s plays to provide comic relief and a direct foil/comic interjection on the serious happenings. Ready character being Gratiano in Merchant of Venice, Roderigo or Rajjo in Othello/Omkara, Polonius in hamlet) .
At the degradation of the glorious warlord, his fool and entertainer Kyoami taunts
“See the lord, (like) a gourd in the wind … swinging this way… swinging that way … spinning as the breeze blows … “
Hidetora resorts to the third castle which originally belonged to Saburo (who is now banished). But the brothers’ send their army to capture the castle. In the spine chilling action sequences and blood bath that follows, Hitedora’s castle is destroyed, his concubines are killed, and his loyal guards are killed too… Mercifully or rather mercilessly, he is left alive to this harrowed state.
In a gut wrenching scene, the once omnipotent lord walks out of the castle, with the armies drawing back… in awe and fear of the man’s presence… possibly showing the much needed respect which the old man deserved from his two sons….
The eldest son Taro gets killed (accidentally or deliberately??) in the battle and the younger son Jiro (who had planning to overthrow the new warlord) assumes power.
As the fortunes twist and turn, he gets threatened by his sister in law Kaede, then she spares his life … and then they both end up sleeping together (the power hungry woman and the new king have consensual sex … shades of Tabu and Irffan in maqbool!!!) . Kurosawa has shown this transition both dialogue wise and symbolically. When they met the first time, the (movable) doors are open for viewing. However, at the end of second meeting, the doors have been closed and even the servants need to take permission before coming in (which wasn’t the case before).
Not knowing the turn of events Hidetora has grown a pale shadow of himself (he begins to collect flowers to prepare a bouquet for God knows whom … again shades of Ophelia from Hamlet)… and possibly has gone mad … forcing the fool Kyoami to comment
“In a mad world only the mad are sane”
Again the theme of loyalty is revisited when the new warlord Jiro dismisses the servants of Taro, who had assisted in the death of Taro, when Jiro says
“Men who betray one master, may betray another”
Kaede asks for Sue’s head to be chopped off by one of the trusted lieutenants of Jiro (Kurogane), who in turn gets a fox’s head in a scene of dramatic screen writing and comments in front of Jiro and Kaede.
“Foxes take human form….Take care my lord … they often impersonate women “
This amazing scene immediately reminded of me Maqbool (Us raand key chakkar mein hum sabko marwaayega Miyaan) and Omkara (Jo apney baap ko thag sakti hai, who kisi aur ki kya hogi). It is a scene which must be seen again and again … if you want to experience what they call a cinema-orgasmic-delight !!! Please bow down in your grave Mr Kurosawa !!!!
Meanwhile, the warlord is now literally rubble. Hidetora has become insane/mute and Kyoami wears the warlord’s robes … and comments ironically
“Earth and sky are topsy turvy…. I was the fool and made him laugh … Now the coins are flipped. “
He compares the king as a stupid bird who mistook her own egg … saying in a piece of dramatis comparison …
“ A serpent’s egg is white and pure … a bird’s speckled and soiled … “
It’s almost painful to see the fool comment such painful remarks on his lord’s sorry state (very much ala King Lear). Eventually he cries for his master … and all that his master can ask is “Is someone crying??” Your heart begins to weep for the king at that moment.
Kyoami cries “Man is born crying!!! When he cries enough, he dies”
This is what classic Shakespearean tragedies are meant to do. This is why despite King Lear being written 400 years ago ….it along with many other Shakespeare-an tragedies are still valid and relevant today!!! It’s because of classic lines such as the above … that it gives u the impression almost as if Mr william shakespeare was present during the writing of the film …
The rest of the film is about how Saburo tries to get back his father. He goes in search for Hidetora accompanied by Kyoami. Meanwhile, an army fight sequence occurs in the battlefield, very much ala our very own Mahabharata, Saburo’s army (actually he alliances with another neighboring warlord) fights with that of Jiro. Jiro’s loyal man Kurogane warns him till the last minute to forgo the war, grant Saburo the father (who is in wilderness). But driven by the power ambition and lust, Saburo pays no heed …
Kurogane: Fine words, but words don’t win wars!!!
Jiro : Where’s the dog eager for the prey ??? Kaide’s right, you are a mouse posing as a mastiff !!!
Kurogane: Kaide barks and you grovel !!!
The scene where the father (Hidetora) and the son (Saburo) meet is as dramatic as it gets. Hidetora initially fails to recognize Saburo, imagining himself to be in ‘paradise’, but then he realizes it is Saburo, and runs away from him in guilt.
Saburo : I don’t hate you father !!!
Hitedora : No sweet lies … I’ve had my fill !!!
The war begins and Jiro’s army is massacred by clever tactics used by Saburo’s army. Despite being mesmerised by the drama before, you do not miss out on the brilliantly choreographed action sequences
Meanwhile, after the father and son have patched up and seem happy, Saburo is shot dead by Jiro’s snipers. The grief stricken father, mourns his son’s death for few moments, and then passes away.
Kyoami laments :
“Are there no gods… no Buddha ??? If you exist hear me… You are mischievous and cruel !!! Are you so bored up there that you must crush us like ants ?? Is it such fun to see men weep ??? “
Tango replies : Enough.. Do not blaspheme … It is the gods who weep. They see us killing each other … over and over since time began … They can’t save us from ourselves ..
In revenge, Saburo’s army ravages Jiro’s castle and kills Kaide (in a tarantinoish- Kill Bill – condoms of blood scene). The castle is burnt… and Hidetora – Saburo are given royal funereal. The film ends on a depressing, sorrowful note.
The dramatic lines, powerful and non stereo typical characters, and an arresting production value (Ran took 10 years into making) justify the film as probably the ‘best film of Kurosawa’s career’.
In fact just the very dialogues (loosely translated into English) appear so powerful and dramatic that it hardly seems much of a surprise Vishaal bhardwaj was inspired by Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood; and that explains the why dialogues in his films are so dramatic.
One thing which I couldn’t understand is that majority of scenes are – Long shots. I’m usually used to see more close-ups of the actors to create more of a dramatic effect. Perhaps watching the vast landscape mountains, Kurosawa would’ve taken more long shots and minimilaistic close-ups. Or may be because there is lot of action happening in each of the scenes …
Why can’t we have a similar adaptation of King Lear in bollywood, given India’s history of kings and sultans???
P.S: Does anybody have a DVD/VCD of Throne of Blood ????
Cinema at its best… a crime by me to have missed out on RAN for so many years ….
Tags: Dialogues, Japanese, Theater
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
@kartik
in a tarantinoish- Kill Bill – condoms of blood scene????????????????????
condoms of blood???????
nice post, havent seen the movie but i just got it and would see it sometime soon.
@rbehemoth
condoms of blood … those scenes are plenty in Kill bill. Basically, a condom is filled with fake blood and cut … so that the blood spurts out like a ‘pichkari’
It was there in the murder of Kaede ….
See it soon ??? :o See it now dude !!!!!
Kartik, I am so glad someone else is discussing Kurosawa as well. He is my ultimate inspiration. Yes, Ran is most certainly one of his finest. If you have not seen other Kurosawa films, I would suggest starting off with “Rashomon”, a film that cannot really be classified under any genre. Then watch “Seven Samurai”, which in my opinion is the greatest film ever made. And of course “Yojimbo”.
I especially liked how you noticed the long shots. Did you also notice that all shots in “Ran” are static shots, except just one where he is in the blind flute player’s cabin, where you see a shot where Kurosawa uses a pan. Otherwise, every shot is a still one, no dollys, no moving cranes, no tracking.
The reason Kurosawa shot it this way, is because he wanted to model his treatment of the story according to ancient Japanese artform called Noh. Noh is a stage drama style where the actors move very slowly on stage, almost in a very Zen sort of environment. Even the blocking of the actors is always triangular or quadrangular, to signify the circle of life, a dominant theme in Noh.
King Lear makes for great material. It would certainly work in an Indian historical setting but anyone who does that at this point will simply be remaking Ran. It’s too powerful a film not to ape.
Yes it sure took him a long time to make the film. That too on a budget of 11 million dollars. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas presented Kurosawa’s earlier film “Kagemusha” (which was for Kurosawa, a dress rehearsal for Ran. They’re both similar in visual style), and they would call him the greatest filmmaker alive. But when he wanted to make Ran, not one person in Hollywood was willing to give him 11 million to make the film, even though they were spending 100s of millions on films like Terminator. Thank god for frenchie Serge Silberman who decided to bankroll it, or one of the finest films of all time may have never been made.
Guys where can one get his films in Mumbai any suggestions?
A little six degrees for all you kurosawa fans out there, myself included. He’s my guru.
When making the seven samurai, kurosawa said he wanted to literally make a “moving” film. The camera barely rests in the film, and the film itself reaches a frenzy by the last half, multiple camera shots tracking 4 different groups of people.
He literally invented the modern action film with seven samurai.
3 decades later, Ran. The culmination of his work as a filmmaker. The camera barely moves. No close-ups, everything filmed in long shot and numerous axial cuts.
If seven samurai was from the perspective of the farmers and about how people can come together from different classes, then Ran was from the perspective of the gods and how people eventually destroy one another.
Also, Kurosawa again added to the action genre in Sanjuro when Mifune cuts down Tatsuya Nakadai in a fountain of blood. They used carbonated water under pressure to create the fountain and soon after filmmakers followed suit by using similar methods.
He influenced a lot of chinese filmmakers, and a lot of wuxia films started using condoms filled with pig’s blood to create blood spatters or fountains.
Kurosawa himself said that filmmakers who created these gory bloody films totally missed his point and he regrets having put that scene in the film.
Make of it what you will.
Great info on Kurosawa, Vijay.
I have not seen any of his films except Seven Samurai but have studied him a little, and read that Kurosawa took great pride in the ancient art forms and the same reflected in his cinema. I have also heard a great deal about his other adaptations – Hakuchi(The Idiot-Dostoevsky), Kumonoso Jo(Macbeth).
http://imdb.com/name/nm0000041/
Those were the days when the film makers from all parts of the world respected each other and learnt and paid tribute to their inspirations – godard, kurosawa, ray, truffaut, fassbinder, spielberg. in fact there is even a film that just has the conversations between these directors over cinema, made by wim wenders called Chambre 666(http://imdb.com/title/tt0083727/)
Another Kurosawa masterpiece is “Dreams”. Phenomenal anthology film, where you never really know what the fuck is going on, but at the end of it, everything makes perfect sense on a subconcsious level. Truly one of the greatest feats achieved in filmmaking. And it’s a visual treat. Arresting!
Could someone post on Seven Samurai and Roshomon pleeeeease.Would like to hear others in details and not as comments [-(
have heard of kurosawa over the years, but never got around to renting one of his films.. just added rashomon, ran, and seven samurai to my queue.. looking fwd to it!
Karthik, even i watched Ran. Truly amazing. Cinematography is very pleasant. Right after few mins of the start of the film, you start feeling it is a classic.
P.S: Does anybody have a DVD/VCD of Throne of Blood ????
sure, the criterion collection DVD.
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=190&eid=295§ion=essay