Ran

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Ran (乱, Japanese for "rebellion", "uprising" or "revolt", or to mean "disturbed" or "confused") is a 1985 film by Akira Kurosawa, late in his career. It is heavily influenced by King Lear, relocated to the Warring States period in Japan.

The warlord Hidetora of the Ichimonji clan, once a feared and powerful man, is now in his twilight years. He decides to divide his kingdom between his three sons Taro, Jiro, and Saburo, while he remains a figurehead. Saburo, the youngest, disagrees with the plan and is banished. Sound familiar?

With Saburo away, Taro and Jiro begin feuding over succession as head of the clan. Egged on by his wife, Lady Kaede, Taro uses Hidetora's insolent jester Kyoami as a pretext for stripping him of his powers. Hidetora is made persona non grata and forced to relocate to Saburo's abandoned castle, which is then sacked by Taro and Jiro's forces. Unable to find a blade to commit seppuku with, Hidetora goes mad and wanders, dazed, from the burning castle, as the world crumbles around him.

Kurosawa wrote the screenplay ten years before its eventual release, during which he meticulously painted storyboards for every scene while he sought funding. At the time of its release, it had the largest budget of any Japanese film ever made until then. While it garnered praise from critics worldwide, its box office performance was lackluster, and was passed over for the Academy Awards in both the United States and Japan. In the years since, it has come to be seen as one of Kurosawa's best films, and one of the best films of all time.

Not to be confused with a certain nine-tailed kitsune, nor to be confused with a sex-changing martial artist or a Norse sea goddess.

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Ran contains the following tropes:

• Ambition Is Evil: One of the main themes of the film.
• Arrows on Fire
• Asskicking Equals Authority: Hidetora didn't become the sole head of the Ichimonji clan through sycophantic grovelling. He paved his way to kingship through war and battle. But when he retired...
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Entirely subverted with Taro and Jiro. Jiro is especially cowardly, and his lack of strong back-bone makes him Lady Kaede's obedient little lap dog. He deliberately ignores Kurogane's veteran military wisdom and commits to foolhardy strategies that ultimately lead to the destruction of his kingdom.
• The Atoner: Hidetora sports shades of this by the end.
• Badass Grandpa: When he was sane, Hidetora was this.
• Camp Gay: A drag artist plays Kyoami, after the fashion of traditional Japanese Noh theater.
• The Chessmaster: Lady Kaede
• Coitus Uninterruptus
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: Taro, Jiro, and Saburo are yellow, red, and blue respectively. Hidetora is for the most part coded with white, and this is reflected in Saburo's flags, which have white stripes in them.
• Creator Breakdown
• The Dragon: Kurogane.
• Downer Ending: Basically, the ending states that God is either blind, dead, or just doesn't care and is purposefully spiteful.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Kurogane, a man who is no stranger to war, bloodshed and assassinations, is outraged when Lady Kaede orders Lady Sué's death.
  • When another assassin brings the head of Lady Sué, this motivates Kurogane into such a state of fury that he murders Kaede himself.
• Eye Scream: Tsurumaru. Done offscreen, thankfully.
• Flaw Exploitation: Lady Kaede exploits Hidetora's pride, Taro's lack of assertiveness, and Jiro's obsession with virility.
• Four-Star Badass: Kurogane.
• Gender Flip: The feuding children are male, as opposed to the ones in King Lear.
  • In the opposite direction, Edmund has been turned into a woman.
• Gorn: The battle scenes are remarkably brutal. The sack of the Third Castle inspired the aftermath of Omaha Beach in Saving Private Ryan.
• Gory Discretion Shot You don't need to see a beheading when the results of it are even more obvious. Results in High-Pressure Blood.
• Henpecked Husband: Taro. Not that Jiro does any better.
• Heroic BSOD
• Trauma Conga Line: Part of Hidetora's Character Development. From Complete Monster to traumatized, lonely, remorseful old man.
• It Got Worse
• The Jester: Kyoami's job.
• Jidai Geki
• Karmic Death: Be honest. Didn't everyone cheer a little when Kurogane treated Lady Kaede to a well-deserved, justified death?
• Kill'Em All
• Kill It with Fire: What happens to the Third Castle.
• Lady Macbeth: Lady Kaede.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Hidetora gets a big, heaping helping of it.
• Losing Your Head: Lady Sue, then Lady Kaede.
• Manipulative Bitch: Lady Kaede.
• Murder the Hypotenuse
• Offstage Villainy: Hidetora's bloody conquests. We meet some of the survivors, who are, understandably, rather ticked off.
• Only Sane Man: Kurogane plays this role in Jiro's circle. He's the only one maintaining anything resembling a code of ethics. Naturally, his insight - which could have prevented half the tragedy in this movie - is discarded. Instead, Jiro opts to bend over for Kaede.
  • The Jester certainly feels like the Only Sane Man when he has to look after an increasingly maddened Hidetora.
  • Among the three brothers, Saburo does not succumb to any lust for power.
• Perspective Flip
• The Pollyanna: Lady Sue.
• Playing the Heart Strings: During the sack of the third castle. The music is cut short by Taro's assassination.
• Rage Against the Heavens
• Rain of Arrows: The attack on the Third Castle.
• Red Sky, Take Warning
• Samurai
• Sanity Slippage: Hidetora. Kyoami moans that the fool is now acting like a King, and the King is acting like a fool.
• Scenery Porn: Some of the establishing shots are quite likely amongst the most beautiful in cinema history.
  • Not even just the establishing shots, as the framing is excellent in this film: it would be fair to say that any scene where the camera doesn't move would be just as good a painting.
  • The colors! The colors!!
• Scenery Gorn: Oh, man, the attack on the Third Castle scene. Oh, God. YMMV but that will overlap as Nightmare Fuel for a lot of people. The sheer brutality of that scene was even the basis for the Omaha Beach scene in Saving Private Ryan, right down to the soldier holding his torn arm.
• Seppuku: Lady Kaede's mother after Hidetora took the First Castle; Hidetora's concubines during the attack on the Third Castle. In addition, Jiro, Kurogane, and Jiro's other main retainers presumably do so offscreen when the First Castle is about to be destroyed.
  • Averted in Hidetora's case. It pays to have an extra sword on hand in times like these.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog
• Smug Snake: Lady Kaede.
• The Sons and the Spears: Hidetora tries to use this to encourage his sons to stick together. The meaning is slightly hindered by Saburo managing to break it anyway.
• Theme Naming: Taro, Jiro and Saburo literally mean "first son," "second son" and "third son."
• Too Dumb to Live: There are some things worth leaving behind...
• Tragedy
• Trash the Set: The burning of the Third Castle.
• Unfriendly Fire: Taro meets his end this way.
• War Is Hell
• What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: The boar hunt and the final shots of Tsurumaru.
• What the Hell, Hero?: His most loyal son gives Hidetora one when he decides to divide the kingdom into three duchys.
• Wise Prince: Saburo.
• Yandere: Lady Kaede.
• Youngest Child Wins: Subverted. Saburo is assassinated just as he is reunited with Hidetora.