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THE MOVIE
There are a handful of directors that you can name that have not only created some of the best films in the history of cinema, but have managed to leave behind a legacy that is still being followed today. Alfred Hitchcock, Frederico Fellini, Orson Welles and Akira Kurosawa. The latter, Akira Kurosawa, is perhaps most famous for his seminal samurai films, largely shot during his ‘golden era’ of the 1950s to the early 1960s: Yojimbo, Sanjuro and of course, Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai). While he was less prolific in the late 1960s and 1970s, 1985 saw the return of the master to the samurai epic with Ran.
Kurosawa has influenced many people over the years, including everyone from Sergio Leone (as seen in his Dollars Trilogy), mainstream Hollywood (Magnificent Seven), Quentin Tarantino (any film that is told from different perspectives has a nod to Rashômon) and even George Lucas (although I’m sure Kurosawa would have been mortified to learn of the latter). So it is good to see Kurosawa being inspired by someone else here. Ran (a.k.a Chaos) is an adaptation of a play by Hollywood screenwriting legend William Shakespeare (Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet; Hamlet). Ran freely adapts King Lear to the Japanese cinema screen, and sees an elderly lord, Hidetora, abdicating his land and titles to his three sons. While two of them blindly follow their father’s wishes, the youngest (and most favoured) – Saburo - speaks his heart and is exiled for it. It is not long before the two other sons become corrupt and turn against their father and each other. This results in a power struggle of catastrophic proportions.
Shakespeare and Japanese Samurai cinema seem to make a good fit. Like Lear, Ran works on a number of levels. If you are at all familiar with King Lear, many of the conflicts and characters are going to be familiar to you: the Mad King, loyal retainer and the Fool, who is wiser than most of the other characters. (As he states at one point, following Hidetora’s descent into madness, “In a mad world, only the mad are sane). While it naturally departs in some areas from the King Lear story (“Lear’s echo”, as it is referred to in the accompanying documentary) it conveys many of the same themes, and I am not spoiling anything by revealing it leaves you with the same tragic aftertaste that the Bard’s play did. It is set in an equally turbulent period of Japanese history to the period of English history in which King Lear is set, and one truly gets a sense that ‘chaos’ reigns.
This film came quite late in the career of Kurosawa, and it shows a competent master at work. Certainly a ‘visual’ director, the film is almost composed like a painting at times. Kurosawa is able to convey both intense and subtle emotional responses in the midst of battle. Witnesses the fallen lord Hidetora, broken in the midst of battle. At times like this, and at other times, all the chaos of battle seems to stop so that the full extent of what has happened can sink in. This never seems unnatural, as the pacing of the film lends itself to this approach. The quiet unease at the start of the film gives way to two major battle sequences, all of which show a director who is working at the top of his game. Oddly, this was the only film for which Kurosawa ever received a nomination as Best Director at the Oscars®.
At one point in the film, Hidetora wanders along an unfamiliar path, and remarks that he is lost, to which The Fool replies that it the nature of the human condition to be lost. This seems to sum up the film beautifully, as Ran manages to take a story of a chaotic kingdom, and comment on the human condition. It brings together themes of the futility of existence and religious ideals of redemption, and it does so under the guidance of a master director who makes every shot a work of art. While it is bleak at times, and it comes to a very bloody conclusion, there is no denying the power and beauty of this film which has to be seen at least once by anybody who has a love of cinema or simply good storytelling. Superb.
THE TRANSFER
Video:
There have been a number of prints and a number of DVD transfers around the world for Ran, including several in the US, but this is the first time it has been released in Australia. We get the original 1:85 ratio (16:9 enhanced). This is another excellent job of a Studio Canal/Universal presentation, with a transfer that is almost as good as the recent restoration of The Wicker Man. Reportedly, this Region 4 transfer is one of the better ones. While I have not seen the overseas editions personally, I can vouch for this one – and it does look impressive.
While some of the interior shots looked a little bit grainy, this is an excellent transfer of a film that is almost 20 years old.Exterior shots are magnificent, and at times the cinematography almost looks like a landscape painting, and in those scenes this transfer really shines. The use of colour seems important in this film, particularly the primary colours of blue, red and yellow (which represent various factions at various points).
The layer change appears to come at 1:14:27, and does not really jar as it comes between the transition between one scene and the next.
While I will discuss subtitles more in the Audio section, the subtitles here never cover much of the image. The thin black line around the white subtitles ensures that text is never lost in the paler backgrounds, as is the case with some subtitled films. (Viewers on non-widescreen televisions will not even have to worry, as the subtitles are largely situated on the lower black bar that preserves the widescreen ratio). Overall, and excellent transfer of a beautiful film.
Audio:
The Languages menu presents you with 2 options: Japanese with non-removable English subs in Dolby 5.1 and an English dub in 2.0. You are also give a choice between German, English and Dutch upon insertion of the disc, and choosing German gives you an additional 2.0 track (this I did not discover until I loaded the disc into my PC). As I always try to watch films in their original language when possible, I chose to watch the film in the Japanese 5.1 the first time out.
Now purists may already complain at the fact that 5.1 is not, in fact, the original soundtrack (which is available on most of the overseas editions). However, the 5.1 track we have here is quite a solid one. This is never going to rattle your speakers like a modern blockbuster, but there is a rumbling bass to the track that is enhanced in this 5.1 mix. Yet despite the 5.1, the rear speakers very rarely get much action, so what we have is pretty close to the original 2.0 mix anyways. While the speech is obviously in Japanese, and I don’t speak or understand it, the audio sync seemed fine to me.
The Dolby 2.0 track, being a dub, obviously has issues of audio sync. It was one of the better dubs I had seen though, although I felt that some of the character voices didn’t quite match up (of course, American accents wouldn’t in a traditional Japanese setting)! Issues of dubbing aside, the track is slightly less dynamic, and I recommend that you stick with the Japanese track unless subtitles are something that really bother you.
Finally, as mentioned there are English subtitles for the Japanese soundtrack. If you choose the Japanese 5.1, you don’t have an option to watch the film without the subtitles. This is probably fine for most viewers, but if you are familiar with Japanese, the subtitles may annoy you. I can’t speak for their accuracy, but I didn’t notice any misspellings either. (As with the German track, German and Dutch subs are only accessible from the startup menu. Either way, you have to watch this film with subtitles, unless you choose the 2.0 track).
Overall, a solid audio presentation.
THE EXTRAS
As I said previously, this film has had a number of features on a number of different editions around the world. The Australian edition gets two bonus features on Disc 2 of the set: a lengthy documentary and a trailer.
The documentary, A.K., runs approximately 71 minutes. Produced in France, and directed by Chris Marker, this is not so much a documentary about the making of the film as it is a day in the life of the Ran production team. The filmmakers simply observe the various happenings on set, both while shooting and between shots.
The documentary does not provide us with huge amounts of detail .The approach of simply shooting things ‘as they saw it’ does provide a few insights into the way that Kurosawa works (which was evidently the aim of the filmmakers), and is a novel way of shooting a ‘behind the scenes’ in this age of electronic press kits and “Ooh, I just had a wonderful time shooting on this film!” talking heads. However, when the narrator does speak, we do get a few useful tidbits, including the fact that Kurosawa never shoots any second ‘safety’ shots, maintaining that the safety is in the preparation and countless rehearsals beforehand. More insights like these would have made the piece fascinating. As it stands, it is still an interesting piece that does give us some idea as to how this master of cinema operated.
The trailer runs for just under 2 minutes, and is a wordless piece consisting of the opening moments of the film, followed by a montage of still and moving images from the film. No indication is given on the disc as to the origin of the trailer, but the on-screen titles suggest it is a French theatrical trailer. A nice inclusion.
Features from overseas editions have included commentaries from film experts; looks at the art of the Samurai and more in-depth documentaries on Kurosawa himself, but this documentary does make a nice addition to an otherwise fine DVD set. Purists, or people who are more keen, may want to look at some of the overseas editions if they feel that they would rather have a nicer set of extras than the beautiful presentation of the film we have here.
SUMMARY
As I have said, Ran is a certified masterpiece from a legend of the cinema. The last year has seen a number of Kurosawa films released or announced in Region 4, and the quality has been steadily improving. The DVD we have here is an excellent presentation of this film, with a documentary that complements the film nicely. It is unlikely this film is going to get a better presentation in Region 4 than this 2-Disc set anytime soon, so I highly recommend this title to absolutely everyone. |
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