Watch the trailer: http://videodetective.com/TitleDetails.aspx?publishedid=1848&st=Ran%20(1985)
Lately Borders has great sales on DVDs and also offering discount coupons. I've been stocking up on Criterion editions of foreign films. You're probably bored about reading about their superb quality but it's my blog so I write about good films that you should see. Art demands attention and you can learn a lot from good art. Film has become an art in itself and like any good book or piece of music, you always learn something new with each repeated viewing or listening.
So here's another Criterion edition: Akira Kurosawa's 1985 Ran. He made three more films before his death in 1999 but this was his last epic. Most people know his earlier works such as Rashomon and The Seven Samurai which was remade as the western The Magnificent Seven. Some of his other works were remade as westerns and gangster flicks but they don't beat his originals. Rashomon was remade as a Paul Newman film called The Outrage.
Ran (pronounced 'Ron') is basically a reworking of Shakespeare's King Lear set in medieval Japan but that's a gross understatement. It's more than that. You will feast your eyes on the ravishing color photography. The battle scenes are thrilling and these were filmed with real actors and horses. No computer fakery here. And let's not forget to mention the good performances from actors you never heard of unless you familiar with Japanese movies. If the trailer didn't entice you, it's your loss. You can read more about Ran here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ran_(film)
There's no English dubbed soundtrack but the subtitles are kept to a minimum. I highly recommend listening to the scholarly but not stuffy audio commentary. Everything you want to know about the film is there as well as good extras on this two disc set. This wasn't Kurosawa's first reworking of Shakespeare. Catch his Throne of Blood based on Macbeth. That one's another Criterion on my wish list.
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