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One of the most breathtaking sites
in all of cinema:
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the mass ranks of warriors
charging up the flanks of Mount Fuji.
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Their brightly coloured banners
flattering in the wind,
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armies subdivided
into primary colours:
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red, blue and yellow.
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Their 16th century Japanese armour
magnificent in every detail
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as they storm a once mighty castle.
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So, let's... let's talk
about Ran and Akira Kurosawa.
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Well, what an amazing film.
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I saw it again the other day
and I couldn't believe what I saw.
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I mean... when I met him at Cannes,
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I had an interview with him.
He didn't do too many interviews.
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But I asked him about Ran,
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and he said, "Well, I'm a
sentimentalist." And I said, "What?"
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When you look at Ran,
it's hardly sentimental,
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but he said, "Well, to me...
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it's about the Gods, or God,
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being very upset with the human race
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because the human race
is intent on destroying itself,
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and when you look at Ran,
everybody is destroyed."
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A decade in the making
and finally released in 1985
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when Kurosawa was an old man,
Ran is a staggering achievement,
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at once a bleak report
on a world forsaken by God,
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and an astonishing testament
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to what one extraordinary artist
could do with the medium.
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(SPEAKING JAPANESE)
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INTERPRETER: I'm very pleased
to think that...
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I'm understood in foreign countries.
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And... it's a nice thing to know
that one country after another
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reaches some ability
of understanding in
what I'm trying to say.
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And I think film
has a very important role
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in fostering
this sort of understanding.
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One of the greatest directors
cinema has ever known,
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Akira Kurosawa applied himself
to dramas, comedies, and thrillers,
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but his reputation was founded
on the samurai epics
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00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:22,480
he made in the '50s and '60s.
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Legendary titles
like Rashomon, Yojiimbo,
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Hidden Fortress, and Seven Samurai.
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Nicknamed the Emperor
for his physical stature,
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his total command of the medium
and his uncompromising nature,
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Akira had followed his beloved older
brother, Heigo, into filmmaking.
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Heigo, a master narrator
of silent film,
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encouraged his younger sibling
to read foreign literature
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and watch foreign films and plays.
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And it was Heigo who had taken
his brother to see the aftermath
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of the Great Kanto earthquake
of 1923,
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forbidding him from turning away
from the scattered corpses,
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a brutal image
that would echo through his work,
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and never more so than in Ran.
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Akira Kurosawa is a phenomenally
interesting Japanese director
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because in a way he encapsulates a
particular spirit and time in Japan
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with his work, but as an artist,
he moves his work beyond that.
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He was born the son of, basically,
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a man who had
a long line of samurai,
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part of a samurai clan, but who was
also quite modern in his thinking,
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and he wanted his children
to watch Western films
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and engage in Western culture.
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00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:51,159
Akira Kurosawa made films
in many genres.
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00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:53,680
He made comedies,
he made gangster thrillers,
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he made social realist films,
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but the ones, of course,
that we really remember him for
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00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:01,840
are his samurai movies.
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00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:05,640
The samurai movies -
Throne of Blood, Rashomon,
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00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:08,440
Sanjuro, Yojimbo, Hidden Fortress,
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and, of course, Seven Samurai -
are canon.
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00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:14,680
They are sort of a canon
of samurai movies.
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And what they do is
they establish a genre
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00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:22,080
and they establish
the kind of political
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00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:24,880
and also social and...
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00:05:24,920 --> 00:05:28,520
the characters
of the samurai for all time.
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00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:31,200
Unique amongst Japanese filmmakers,
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00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:35,159
Kurosawa found inspiration
in foreign literature and films.
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00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:38,720
He was keenly influenced
by the great Westerns of John Ford
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00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:42,560
and the work of DW Griffith
and Cecil B De Mille.
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00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:45,880
He loved the morally complex
novels of Dostoyevsky
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and the plays of Brecht,
and he thrilled to the great scope
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and dimension offered by Shakespeare.
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He had transformed Macbeth
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into the elemental samurai epic
Throne of Blood
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00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:01,320
and reconfigured Hamlet
as The Bad Sleep Well.
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00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:04,320
At the peak of his career,
Kurosawa's 15 glorious years,
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from 1950 to 1965, he made 12 films.
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00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:12,280
From 1970 for the next 20 years,
he only made four,
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and those films were
very difficult for him to make.
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00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:20,080
In 1975, he was backed
by the Soviet Union for Dersu Uzala,
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a story of a Mongolian woodsman
helping a Russian Explorer.
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00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:27,360
Then he was helped by Francis Ford
Coppola and George Lucas,
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who had persuaded 20th Century Fox
to back him for Kagemusha.
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In 1975, also,
he began working on...
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what he thought was his great story.
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It was the story Ran, the film,
which was going to end his...
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investigation
of the samurai tradition.
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Often with his work
alongside Toshiro Mifune,
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his amazing star actor who had
this great burly physicality to him,
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they were lauded around the world.
But times did move on,
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and the nickname
for Kurosawa was the Emperor.
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He was sort of revered
in some corners,
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but his films were
increasingly being seen
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by the late 1960s, early 1970s
as a bit old fashioned.
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Up to that point, up until 1970,
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00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:15,240
he'd only made films
in black and white,
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00:07:15,280 --> 00:07:18,280
and it was becoming
increasingly difficult for him
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to secure funding to make his films,
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which were often
slightly more expensive
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than the Japanese film industry,
and the Japanese studios wanted
to pay for.
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By his mid-seventies,
Kurosawa was forgotten man in Japan.
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His great partnership with star
Toshiro Mifune was long since over.
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His films had passed out of fashion,
much like the protagonist of Ran,
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Kurosawa had begun to wonder
what his life amounted to.
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Ran is Akira Kurosawa's
last great samurai masterpiece.
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Not only is it an incredible epic,
amazingly visual movie,
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but is it also a summation
of all of his work beforehand,
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as well as his own life.
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And at the same time, it reflects
back on his earlier samurai films
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because it moves into a completely
different kind of ethos.
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This is a film about an old man.
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This is not a film
about a young samurai.
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This is a man about...
who's been a warrior.
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He's been a conqueror.
He is a warlord,
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and he's surrounded by huge numbers
of samurai and armies,
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00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:04,960
and he's now reflecting back
on his achievements
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and finding them, in a way,
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giving him a sort of sense of guilt.
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So this is Kurosawa not only
looking at his own work,
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but he's also looking,
to a certain extent,
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00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:19,720
at his own life
and what he's achieved.
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So I gather that Kurosawa
was having a hard time
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getting financing
for his later films.
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Oh, he had a very hard time.
It really made him miserable.
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00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:32,800
He also felt the public was not
on his side anymore.
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The young people who went to the
cinema or watched television a lot,
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they were out of tune
with these big medieval epics,
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which didn't relate to them.
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They wanted something different.
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As for the film producers,
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they didn't really want
to spend vast sums of money
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on an old man
who's making great big epics,
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which they were by no means certain
that the public would like.
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So it was very difficult for him.
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He'd just done Dodes'ka-den,
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which was one of his...
working class films
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about the working class people,
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the poverty-stricken people
in Japan.
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The trouble was
there weren't very many
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and again,
the public didn't really like it.
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So, he then embarked on Ran,
which was...
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00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:30,880
..well, I think it's a bit
of himself as well.Yes.
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OK, it's Lear, of course it's Lear,
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but it's also Kurosawa,
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who had been rejected
after a lifetime of work
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and worldwide praise...
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..rejected by his own public.
That cut him very deeply.
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The title Ran translates
to Chaos or Turmoil or Revolt.
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The story famously follows the
contours of Shakespeare's King Lear,
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as the ageing warlord, Hidetora,
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chooses to divide his kingdom
amongst his three sons,
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a decision that will reap
devastating consequences
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as his land is engulfed by war.
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It's extraordinary.
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It's a portrait
of the world ablaze, isn't it?Yes.
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A portrait of the world
that has destroyed itself...
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..through this old man's
hopes and fears.
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Extraordinary film.
Every time I see it...
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..I think, goodness,
how can anybody go and watch this?
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Because, you know, people want
cheerful films, adventures.
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Are they going to like Ran? They
won't even understand it probably.
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But yes, it has a primal power...
It has a primal power.
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..you don't need the words, you know?
Yes, it is.
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That's why I love the idea
that he's adapting, on a loose level,
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he's adapting King Lear
without a single line of Shakespeare.
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Yet it's still the play
in a lot of ways.Yes.
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Well, he did
a very good Macbeth, too,
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which was a totally different
Shakespeare.Throne of Blood, yes.
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The setting is a Sengoku period
of the 15th and 16th centuries,
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when Japan was riven by civil war.
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The feudal system had collapsed
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and samurai warlords fought
for control of Japan.
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Ran is centred
on one such warlord, Hidetora,
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who has committed
his share of atrocities.
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Haunted by a dream
he chooses to abdicate and divide
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his kingdom between his three sons,
Taro, Jiro, and Saburo.
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So, Kurosawa was interested
in telling a story
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about the rival feudal warlords
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of the 15th and 16th century,
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in the Sengoku period in Japan.
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It was a sort of dissent into chaos,
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a word which roughly
could be translated as Ran,
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but he was interested
because he first read
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a story of a real feudal warlord,
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who was famous for having
three very good and loyal sons
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00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:27,000
that he could pass
and split up his kingdom between.
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But when he read the story,
he thought...
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what if the sons weren't so good?
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They weren't in the fashion
of the filial piety
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of traditional Japanese culture,
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but if they were
extremely treacherous instead?
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And so that was actually
the genesis for Ran,
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rather than what people
often say, later on,
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was simply just an adaptation,
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for example,
of Shakespeare's King Lear.
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But King Lear did come
onto the scene slightly later on,
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as the film was being developed
before it went into production.
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Kurosawa thought about King Lear
and about how well it applied
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in terms of the themes
of a stubborn ageing warlord
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who was foolishly banishing
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those closest to him
if they offended his pride
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and how, eventually,
this treachery would lead
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to nearly everyone's doom.
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00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:21,280
You can see the influences
of many Western artists
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in Kurosawa's films,
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particularly Ran: John Ford,
DW Griffith, Cecil B De Mille.
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He loved that big scale material
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and the locations in which men
were placed almost in miniature.
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I think that that gave rise to the
whole idea of having a landscape,
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which was not just an idea, but
something that people moved through.
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In spite of the fact
of what they could actually achieve.
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00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:56,520
Throne of Blood is clearly
a Japanese version of Macbeth,
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an absolutely wonderful, sort of,
translation of Shakespeare
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into Japanese samurai culture.
Marvelous.
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00:15:04,880 --> 00:15:08,840
The Bad Sleep Well
is something even more extreme;
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that is the sort of
Yakuza version of Hamlet.
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Both of them are very successful
in their own way, although
quite different.
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Kurosawa was inspired by two
separate stories to create Ran.
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The first was the story
of a Japanese nobleman
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who was explaining to his sons
why the three sons needed to unite,
226
00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:30,960
and he explained it with this arrow.
He broke a single arrow
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and then showed them that three
arrows would be impossible to break.
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That was the initial inciting
incident for Kurosawa.
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His other influence was King Leer.
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The story of a king at the end
of his life with three daughters
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and two of those daughters
are turning against him,
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00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:48,360
disloyal, treacherous,
and one loves him,
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00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:51,760
but he can't see that
and he pushes her away.
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00:15:51,800 --> 00:15:55,040
So, Kurosawa blended
these stories together:
235
00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:57,680
what would've happened
if the nobleman's sons had behaved
236
00:15:57,720 --> 00:16:00,280
like the daughters of King Lear?
237
00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:02,720
That two sons fought
against their father
238
00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:04,800
and one son who was expelled
from the kingdom?
239
00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:07,680
And that's the basis
of the story of Ran.
240
00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:10,360
Now, we can also see
very powerful influences
241
00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:13,320
from King Lear
in certain characters.
242
00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:15,920
This is a story
of a traditional samurai lord,
243
00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:19,520
but there are elements to this
which weren't accurate for the time.
244
00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,040
So for instance,
no Japanese lord would have a jester
245
00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:24,960
or a fool, for them that was just
not part of the Japanese tradition.
246
00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,120
The nearest thing would've been
a page, but they wouldn't have had
247
00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:30,400
the role of clown
or humorous character.
248
00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:33,280
So he was very much leaning towards
249
00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:36,440
Lear with sons
by the time he started shooting
250
00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:38,680
and by the time
he started writing the characters.
251
00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:02,520
The role of the fool from Lear
is played by a singer-songwriter,
252
00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:05,720
known only as Peter,
an angelic figure
253
00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:08,400
who refuses to leave
his master's side.
254
00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:11,040
The character's
androgynous qualities
255
00:17:11,079 --> 00:17:14,280
are seen as the sole antidote
to the violence.
256
00:17:14,319 --> 00:17:17,200
And Kurosawa spoke
about it afterwards.
257
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:20,440
It was actually one of the first
roles he cast, simply called Peter.
258
00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:23,240
He's quite androgynous
259
00:17:23,280 --> 00:17:26,079
and is supposed
to be essentially there to entertain
260
00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:28,560
the sort of 'better born'.
261
00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:32,440
But he's able to say things that
the others wouldn't get away with,
262
00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:34,840
because he's not bound
by the same social codes
263
00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:37,760
and maybe
no one takes him as seriously.
264
00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:39,960
If you notice,
he doesn't wear a sword,
265
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,080
so he's not a part
of the samurai class,
266
00:17:42,120 --> 00:17:44,120
which means there's some leeway.
267
00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:48,760
And Kurosawa puts words in his
mouth that I think stand very much
268
00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:52,800
in the latter part of the film for
how Kurosawa feels about suffering
269
00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:55,720
and how man is drawn to suffering
270
00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:58,120
more than he is to joy or to peace.
271
00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:48,840
(HORSE NEIGHS)
272
00:18:54,760 --> 00:18:56,760
(HORSE NEIGHS, INDISTINCT COMMOTION)
273
00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:16,080
(LOUDER COMMOTION, HORSE NEIGHS)
274
00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:19,120
(HORSE NEIGHS)
275
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:38,800
Ran takes a very bleak view of the
world, in particular Japan's history.
276
00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:42,600
This is a film as much
about the catastrophe of war
277
00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:45,720
as it is about Hidetora's,
fragmenting psyche.
278
00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:49,240
Kurosawa's fame was founded
on his use of black and white,
279
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:53,120
but his late films,
Kagemusha, and above all, Ran,
280
00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:55,160
made full fulsome use of colour.
281
00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:58,240
What is most startling
is the contrast
282
00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:01,280
between the ashen mountain sides
or stone walls
283
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:03,960
and the brightly regaled armies.
284
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:09,200
In a way, it's perfect
for what he wanted to do.
285
00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:11,520
Depressing as it is, you know?
286
00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:16,320
I mean, the amount of people
who die in the film is phenomenal,
287
00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:18,720
the traitorous nature of it
288
00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:21,360
and there's this poor old man
who's lived.
289
00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:26,560
This Lear has been violent
all his life, and been triumphant.
290
00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:30,760
Now he's going to pass it
onto his sons, and what happens?
291
00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:33,440
They quarrel with each other.
They quarrel with him.
292
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,880
The whole thing goes up in smoke.
What is he left with?
293
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:40,760
A life which is worthless.
Extraordinary.
294
00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:43,880
He has spent over 50 years at war.
295
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:48,280
He says, "You know, I started
my conquest at the age of 17.
296
00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:51,840
I'm now 53 and I'm getting tired."
297
00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:56,600
In order to retire,
he decides to pass on responsibility
298
00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:59,160
of his territory to his three sons.
299
00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:03,400
His youngest son decides that
that's not such a good idea,
300
00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:06,240
partly because he doesn't trust
his two elder brothers
301
00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:11,480
and so he gets disenfranchised,
he gets actually sent away.
302
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:15,200
Hidetora will then take
his retinue of 300 samurai warriors
303
00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:19,800
and basically stay at each
of his son's castles in turn.
304
00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:21,280
This is his grand plan.
305
00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:26,360
Of course, it goes horribly wrong
because the two sons that are left.
306
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:29,400
in order to be able to control this,
really don't want him.
307
00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:32,680
They want to sort of get rid
of him and then control
their own destinies.
308
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:34,720
They don't want him
hanging around as well.
309
00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:01,120
Within the fury, our eyes are drawn
to a figure in a white robe
310
00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:03,480
staggering down the castle steps.
311
00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:06,240
An old man driven to madness
312
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:09,480
by this vision of destruction
he has wrought.
313
00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:13,320
Somehow, the arrows
and flames never touch him.
314
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:32,160
Ran was three years in production.
315
00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:34,480
The making of the costumes
and the building of the sets
316
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:36,960
was enormously laborious tasks,
317
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:39,840
and then once everything was
in place, it took a year to shoot.
318
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:43,760
It was a vast epic in scale
319
00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:46,120
for a number of reasons.
He was using real castles.
320
00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:48,800
He built an entire castle
from nothing
321
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:50,880
on the slopes of Mount Fuji,
322
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:54,000
something which costs
at the time $1.6 million.
323
00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:56,440
So in today's money,
that would be an enormous sum.
324
00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:58,040
It was incredibly ambitious.
325
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:12,080
I always remember the scene
of the burning castle
326
00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:15,800
when the old man staggers out. Of
course, they had to do it in one take
327
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:17,920
because the castle was burning.
328
00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:20,240
What a lot of pressure
on the actor that must have been!
329
00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:22,040
Of course, he's marvellous in it.
Yes.
330
00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:24,720
The actors were really...
331
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:27,400
had to be completely disciplined.
332
00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:29,480
Everything had to be right.
333
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:32,960
The light, the weather,
the costumes,
334
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:34,920
everything had to be right.
335
00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:37,880
To have that number of horses
in the film,
336
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:40,640
they cost more than human beings,
337
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:43,800
especially when you have
to ship them over from America,
338
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:47,080
and even the little bowls
from which they eat
339
00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:50,400
are absolutely perfect
for the period,
340
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:53,920
and made specially at great cost.
341
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:57,320
The costumes cost
an enormous amount.
342
00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:01,480
So the film was
terribly expensive to make,
343
00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:03,920
but what a film.
344
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,840
So originally Toshiro Mifune
was set to star
345
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:09,120
in Ran as Hidetora, the warlord.
346
00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:12,480
But things changed between him
and Kurosawa over the years,
347
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:15,400
and instead Kurosawa
turned to another actor
348
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:17,080
who he had worked with in the past.
349
00:24:17,120 --> 00:24:19,680
That actor was Tatsuya Nakadai,
350
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,400
who was 51 at the time of Ran,
though made up to look much older,
351
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:25,840
and he was already a big star,
often associated
352
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:28,240
to samurai films of that time.
353
00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:30,520
And he had been either
a star or a co-star
354
00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,440
in several other Kurosawa films.
355
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:37,600
So Nakadai had developed a good
working relationship with Kurosawa
356
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:41,280
in Kagemusha where he plays
this kind of dual role of a thief
357
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:44,000
pretending to be a feudal leader.
358
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:47,560
And he was really right
for this part
359
00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:50,080
in a way that maybe Mifune
might not have been
360
00:24:50,120 --> 00:24:53,960
because of his burly physicality
in his more action-orientated roles
361
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:55,960
that he had played
in the past for Kurosawa.
362
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:58,840
But this was a different style
and a different type of actor.
363
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:00,720
Nakadai was stage trained.
364
00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:03,520
He had a slightly
more intellectual energy,
365
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:05,560
and he also had
a comedic side to him,
366
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:07,800
even if it wasn't overtly comedic.
367
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:11,880
It suited the theatricality
of what Kurosawa was doing with Ran
368
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,280
because it wasn't strict realism
that he was dealing in.
369
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:17,480
It was something more heightened.
370
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:21,320
Kurosawa turned to traditions
in Japanese performance,
371
00:25:21,360 --> 00:25:24,360
like Noh theatre
for a lot of the work in Ran.
372
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:28,280
He had costume makers
from Noh theatre work
373
00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:30,320
with the costume designs
to create the costumes.
374
00:25:30,360 --> 00:25:32,600
They have a very
traditional feel to them.
375
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:35,560
He also had certain things that
he took from the performance style,
376
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:39,520
the makeup. So a lot of the makeup
resembles characters
377
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:43,080
from Noh and Kabuki theatre,
and also certain ways
378
00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:46,440
of delivering gestures
is from that performance style.
379
00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:50,280
So, if you like, he's paying tribute
to the long tradition
380
00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:52,560
of Japanese performance art,
as someone who
381
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,680
the Japanese had sometimes derided
for being too Western.
382
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:59,480
This is him showing you
what happens if you truly fuse
383
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:03,120
the performance and the filmmaking
styles of both cultures.
384
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:07,200
This is very much...
possibly the most beautiful
385
00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:09,840
fusion of the two in his career.
386
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:13,800
So Nakadai was made up to look
much older than he was at 51.
387
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:16,880
It's easy to forget,
he was a distinguished
looking gentleman under there,
388
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:20,040
but you have these thick eyebrows
and this long grey hair,
389
00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:23,760
and of course
this Kabuki-like white face makeup,
390
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:27,160
which only becomes more self-evident
391
00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:30,960
and becomes sort of exaggerated
as the film goes on,
392
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,720
until by the final scenes,
he's almost completely,
393
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,000
sort of, whiteface tinged
with grey.
394
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,680
Sort of looks like he's stained
by smoke and suffering
395
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,360
and he looks like a ghost.
396
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:47,800
So it has this incredible, almost
grotesque effect as it goes on.
397
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:51,280
Although we feel for him deeply,
there is something...
398
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:55,400
really striking about the use
of makeup in this film.
399
00:26:55,440 --> 00:27:00,160
Another element in the film,
which is Lady Kaede.
400
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:03,720
Lady Kaede is a crucial figure
in this story.
401
00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:08,320
She has been called The Lady Macbeth
of this particular film, Ran,
402
00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:12,960
because she is the one
who engages in a plot.
403
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:17,800
What we don't know until sometime
in the course of the story,
404
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:23,360
is that this is a very,
very intricate plot of revenge,
405
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:28,120
not only to get rid of Hidetora,
but also his entire family.
406
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:33,120
Lady Kaede is this sort of
Lady Macbeth-esque character,
407
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:36,120
this viper-ish,
manipulative seductress,
408
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,200
the wife of the oldest son,
409
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:43,400
and she basically manipulates
and convinces her husband to usurp
410
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,280
his father's kingdom
and then eventually also seduces
411
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:48,840
her brother-in-law
in order to do her bidding.
412
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:51,960
And although she is, sort of...
413
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:55,160
an incarnation
of a whirlwind of evil,
414
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:57,840
in a sense,
she also has her reasons.
415
00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:01,920
Her machinations are the things
that drive the story along.
416
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:05,880
We initially see her
as a very ambitious figure.
417
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,880
We think she's got her husband's
best interests at heart.
418
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:10,920
She wants him
to become more powerful.
419
00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,440
Over the film, we gradually
understand that in fact,
420
00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:18,040
the castle that they're living in,
the First Castle, there are
three castles,
421
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,320
imaginatively known as First Castle,
Second Castle, and Third Castle.
422
00:28:21,360 --> 00:28:24,560
The First Castle,
the biggest and the most powerful,
423
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:28,000
was hers and her families, and
when it was taken by the overlord,
424
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:32,480
her father and brother were killed,
and her mother committed suicide
and she was forced into marriage.
425
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,240
So she does have motivations
for what she's doing,
426
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:38,440
but she is desperate
to bring down this family
427
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:42,880
and regain control of her castle,
to regain her family's First Castle.
428
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:47,080
So she's really manipulating
all of the brothers in a way.
429
00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:51,920
The character is played
by an actress
430
00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:54,720
who I don't think had worked
with Kurosawa before.
431
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:58,880
Mieko Harada, and she's really
a force of nature in this film.
432
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:01,440
Really quite frightening,
and she also has
433
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:05,760
this unusual cosmetic,
sort of, kabuki-like look to her,
434
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:09,320
which makes her
sort of seem like this beautiful,
435
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:14,120
terrifying doll in some scenes
capable of great cruelty.
436
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:16,400
Words fail me about Kurosawa,
437
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:20,400
because he doesn't fit
into any bracket, does he, really?
438
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:22,920
No.
Not with all his films.
439
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,400
He's bit beyond bracketing,
isn't he?He is.
440
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:29,240
But I do like to think of him as
the man who invented action cinema,
441
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:32,280
whether he knew he was doing
it or not, because the West...
442
00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:35,240
I think once we'd had the samurai
films and right through to Ran,
443
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:38,160
I think the Western filmmakers were
saying, well, that's how you do it.
444
00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:41,880
That's how you move things
in in front of a camera.Yes.
445
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:47,080
And also must remember that he
trained as a painter for some time.
446
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:49,120
He wanted to be a painter.
447
00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:52,640
And it's very painterly,
Ran, isn't it?
448
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:56,240
You could stop it at any point
and you'd have an...
449
00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:59,520
amazing painting, wouldn't you?
One after the other.
450
00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:02,960
Yes. Phenomenal.
He had phenomenal control
451
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:07,160
of nearly every element of the
filmmaking process, within one film.
452
00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:08,840
Absolutely.
453
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:36,280
(SPEAKS JAPANESE)
454
00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:56,080
Ran only slowly gained
its status as a classic.
455
00:31:56,120 --> 00:32:00,040
It did modestly well in Japan
and much better in the West.
456
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:03,160
Critics were united
in their fulsome praise.
457
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:07,520
On this scale, there was no one to
match Kurosawa's barbaric lyricism.
458
00:32:08,400 --> 00:32:12,440
There were three more films to come,
quieter, elegiac pieces
459
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:15,560
such as Dreams
and Rhapsody In August.
460
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:17,880
But Ran stands as the capstone
461
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:23,000
on an astonishing unrepeatable
tradition of the Kurosawa Epic.
462
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:26,360
But the fact that
he was so disappointed
463
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:29,200
with the Japanese audiences,
464
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:35,120
and the fact that he was, oh,
75 or more when he made the film,
465
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:37,760
it's astonishing
that he could make such a huge,
466
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:41,680
brilliantly coloured,
amazing looking film
467
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:46,280
at that age, knowing full well, that
it probably wouldn't be received
468
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,720
very well
by the young people in Japan.
469
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:53,640
He's a Japanese director.
He wanted to appeal to his people.
470
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:56,960
He knew the traditions
of his people.
471
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:03,000
He knew about the samurai.
He really did.
472
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:05,520
He delved into the history
473
00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:09,280
and yet... young people didn't...
474
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,360
give a damn
about him at one point,
475
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:16,520
but now these films
are being revived in Japan.
476
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:19,200
They always get
full houses, apparently.
477
00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:22,960
Ran took over a year to shoot
as the director marshalled scenes
478
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,720
with over 1400 extras and 200 horses.
479
00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:31,000
The backdrop had to match
the apocalyptic nature of the drama,
480
00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:34,400
as well as the grassy planes
of the southern island Kyushu.
481
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:37,000
He filmed on the slopes of Mount Aso,
482
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:39,720
Japan's largest active volcano,
483
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:43,040
utilising the stunning
15th century castles
484
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:46,320
that still stood sentinel
on the planes.
485
00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:50,760
Kurosawa marshalled the enormous
army of extras that he'd hired,
486
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,800
including local villagers
who had no acting training,
487
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:57,200
by insisting that
everyone remain in role,
488
00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:00,000
essentially, behave
like soldiers all of the time.
489
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:04,440
So everyone was dressed in armour
and thought of themselves as
soldiers throughout the shoot,
490
00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:07,800
during the battle sequences, and
during the period they were on set.
491
00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:12,000
And as a result,
everything was disciplined
as if it was an actual army.
492
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,440
He turned to Ishiro Honda,
493
00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,440
a colleague from his earlier days
who'd been a soldier for eight years
494
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:20,960
to marshal the armies
in the second battle sequence.
495
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:23,920
There are two big battle
sequences in this film.
496
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:26,040
The first is in Third Castle,
497
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:30,280
where the end of our warlord's
ambitions become apparent to him.
498
00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:33,080
His retinue is entirely lost,
and he is reduced
499
00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:35,719
to just one man alone
in the wilderness.
500
00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:38,280
Then at the end,
his younger son comes to his aid,
501
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:40,360
comes to try to find him
and bring him home.
502
00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:42,320
Of the two older brothers,
one is dead,
503
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:46,199
so the other is in charge
of their combined military forces.
504
00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:48,719
There are two armies facing off
against each other,
505
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:50,840
the youngest and the older brother,
506
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:54,920
and then the youngest brother's
father-in-law turns up
507
00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:57,600
with his own army on one hill
and a neighbouring warlord
508
00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:00,360
turns up with his army on another
hill. So there are four armies
509
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:03,480
on this battlefield that have
to be arranged and marshalled,
510
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:05,960
and Honda has to oversee
this with his military training
511
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:11,200
because this is beyond the
intimate battle of the Third Castle.
512
00:35:11,240 --> 00:35:14,840
This is something where you are
actually fielding for full armies.
513
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:17,840
There are horses, there are guns,
514
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:21,360
there are soldiers who have
to be precisely maneuvered around.
515
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:25,360
And so that's where he turned for
help, a real soldier, if you like.
516
00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:28,880
I was fortunate enough to talk
to Akira Kurosawa
517
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:31,360
after seeing Ran at a film festival,
518
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:34,240
and... he showed me
519
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:37,360
several, actually several pieces
of the artwork
520
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:41,040
that he'd done for it about, maybe,
20 actually, he'd brought with him.
521
00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:44,720
And I have to say,
they were breathtakingly beautiful.
522
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:46,960
I mean, very, very detailed.
523
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,640
This was a man who
not had been a painter,
524
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,760
but he actually had
a complete visual idea
525
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:54,800
of how the film would look.
526
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:57,600
I looked at a few of them
527
00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:00,280
and I realised that
what I was looking at was the film.
528
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:04,440
I was looking at a frame of the
film, so they were almost identical
529
00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:06,840
to my memory of the film,
which I'd only just seen.
530
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:12,120
So to actually go from that
to the film meant that...
531
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:16,000
Kurosawa was wholly in command
532
00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:21,160
of his own mental image of
what he wanted to see on the screen.
533
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:23,480
With Ran, you have...
534
00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:28,480
a director who has taken all
the combined decades of experience
535
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:31,600
of all the great films
that he had made prior
536
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:34,520
into a late career masterpiece,
537
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:38,600
and I think there's this great
telling thing about Kurosawa,
538
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:41,200
who I think could be
quite a self-lacerating character.
539
00:36:41,240 --> 00:36:44,040
When he received, in 1990,
the Academy Award
540
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:46,080
for Lifetime Achievement
as a director,
541
00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:49,640
he said that he was still learning
about cinema and he didn't feel
he deserved it,
542
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:51,680
he was still learning
everything about cinema,
543
00:36:51,720 --> 00:36:53,720
and he was in his 80s at that point,
544
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:57,840
which I think is such
a generous and modest response
545
00:36:57,880 --> 00:36:59,680
for a filmmaker of his calibre.
546
00:36:59,720 --> 00:37:02,160
But with Ran,
there was something really great,
547
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,320
which is that people used
to ask him what his favourite
548
00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:08,200
or his best film was in his career
549
00:37:08,240 --> 00:37:12,240
and he always used to say
his stock answer was 'my next film.'
550
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:15,040
But after Ran in 1985,
551
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:17,960
people would ask
and he would say, it's Ran.
552
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:22,880
It is a hugely influential film, and
was from the moment it was released.
553
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:26,640
From the day that it was out,
really, people started
to steal from it.
554
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:30,080
So there was the film Excalibur,
which was made very shortly
afterwards,
555
00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:33,760
which copies the battle sequences
very, very closely.
556
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:36,240
The films go on all the way through
557
00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:38,720
to Game of Thrones recently,
558
00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:41,840
copies the battle sequences
from Ran. It's sampled again
559
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:44,000
and again and again
from the moment it's released.
560
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:48,240
So, he's the poet who's honoured
in other lands, in a sense,
561
00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:51,840
and it's seen as such
a masterpiece outside Japan,
562
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:54,520
and in Japan now it is recognised,
but at the time,
563
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:58,720
it perhaps... he wasn't given
the welcome home he was expecting.
564
00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:02,600
It's a film that works
on so many levels.
565
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:07,360
It's not just about a man
who is... beyond redemption.
566
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:10,800
The thing about Hidetora is that
567
00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:13,480
the guilt that he is now feeling...
568
00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:17,440
gives him a sense that
he has to somehow find peace.
569
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:20,320
He has to find atonement,
and he cannot find it
570
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:23,520
because he's gone
too far down the line.
571
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:27,440
This is Kurosawa
at his most fatalistic.
572
00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:30,280
This is a very,
very bleak philosophy,
573
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:34,760
that there is no sense
that Hidetora...
574
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:38,800
will actually find redemption,
even though there are
one or two characters
575
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:41,080
and one or two moments in the film
576
00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:44,720
where there is a spark of hope,
there was a little spark of hope.
577
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:46,880
You think he will, or at least
578
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,560
there will be somebody
who will come up to save him.
579
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,280
He said he was a sentimentalist,
580
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:56,680
but I think he was deeply
humanistic, wasn't he really?Yeah.
581
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:00,200
In everything he did...
582
00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:02,920
he felt very strongly about...
583
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:05,440
how the world was going and...
584
00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:07,880
Always...
585
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:10,440
with one individual at the centre,
586
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:15,720
like the old boy in Ran, who ruined
his life, wrecked his life.
587
00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:21,120
Somehow... every decision
he takes is wrong,
588
00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:25,560
..and it's done
with the best motives at first.
589
00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:30,800
An extraordinary film,
from an extraordinary director.
590
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:35,280
We won't see it like again,
that's for sure.Yeah, true.
591
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:50,840
(HORSE NEIGHS)
592
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:57,440
(HORSE NEIGHS)
593
00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:07,360
(HORSE NEIGHS)
594
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:13,520
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51996
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