(Film Review) The Fall of Tradition in Kurosawa's Ran

The Fall of Tradition in Kurosawa’s Ran

(Film Review) 

            Kurosawa’s films can be epic war dramas like Seven Samurai or small personal struggles like Ikiru. In Ran, Kurosawa blends both narratives together to create a film with a complete variety of themes to address. The story is immediately reminiscent of William Shakespeare’s great play King Lear, but the modifications made through Kurosawa’s own talent and Japanese folklore makes Ran quite a unique story. Though the film may call on earlier tales for inspiration, the plot itself breaks many conventions in its narrative structure and the characters themselves seem set on disrupting every common tradition they can.

            The one major difference between King Lear and Ran is that the “king” of Ran is/was as violent and power hungry as his sons Taro and Jiro that take over his position. Including so many scenes that remind the viewer that Hidetora burned castles to the ground and destroyed families keeps a formidable barrier between Hidetora and redemption. He even seems to be aware of this himself when he meets with Jiro’s first wife Sue in the second castle. Hidetora burned her castle and killed her parents and yet Sue won’t show anger towards him because of her Buddhist beliefs. As Hidetora says, her smile hurts the most to see. All of the other survivors of his conquests refuse to punish him directly as well. Kaede ultimately plans and succeeds in destroying the Ichimonji family, but her revenge is slow and subtle. The only interaction between Kaede and Hidetora is when Hidetora pledges to serve Taro. Hidetora makes a comment on how Kaede is controlling Taro and kicks over the candle between him and Kaede. This action and the subsequent shot focused on the fallen candle seems to suggest that Hidetora wouldn’t mind burning the castle again and shows little regret toward what he did to Kaede’s family. Tsurumaru is the only survivor of Hidetora’s crimes to survive the rest of the film. He attempts to follow his sister Sue’s Buddhist sense of forgiveness but judging by the final shot it appears he is unsuccessful. To start with, he loses his sister to the whims of Kaede, a fellow survivor so bent on destroying the Ichimonjis that she sacrifices another victim to take down Jiro. The last sequence of the film has Tsurumaru holding the Buddhist scroll of his sister out before him as he almost steps over a cliff. He catches himself but loses the scroll off the side of the cliff in the process. We see a close-up of the image of Buddha on the rocks below and cut back to a long shot of Tsurumaru alone with a setting sun behind him and the sounds of Tsurumaru’s flute in the background. The flute had been his only way of expressing his anger towards Hidetora and its presence here shows that Tsurumaru has not forgiven him. Despite all that Hidetora goes through in this film, he never finds the redemption he truly needed. Kurosawa breaks the tradition of emphasizing redemption and instead reemphasizes the pain of those that suffered from Hidetora’s rule.

            Kurosawa does not only break tradition in terms of the narrative, he also breaks the tradition of his own epic film battles. The first major battle is entirely silent, save for the ominous music playing in the background. The assault on the third castle is instead punctuated by a montage of red scenes from the red flags of Jiro’s troops to the bloody wounds of Hidetora’s warriors. The sound only returns once Taro is suddenly shot from a tower in the distance. Doing this accentuates the immense betrayal Jiro commits by having his brother killed.

The sudden death of Taro also shakes Hidetora out of his trance and allows him to fully face the realization that his sons have been trying to permanently remove him from potential power. At the same time, Hidetora also fails to meet Jiro’s expectations that he will commit seppuku as others in the castle had already done. We also expect Hidetora to fight at least somewhat here as he had shown off his excellent bow skills earlier to protect Kyoami. However, he instead just sits cross-legged on the floor and stares straight ahead.

            In Ran, the costume design itself also seems to mock tradition. The great lord Hidetora is dressed quite differently to every other character in ran. The actor is dressed in grand flowing robes and his face is masked with so much makeup he looks like a character out of a Noh play. At first, this actually seems to bring honor and wisdom to his character because he appears so regal centered in every frame above the rest at council with him. However, as the story develops, his bright clothes become dirty and grey while his mind deteriorates. The mask of make-up demeans and humiliates him from his former position.

            Initially Hidetora compares himself to an old boar, tough and inedible. The film actually starts with men on horseback hunting the same boar Hidetora is referring to. It’s worth noting that the soundtrack here is unusually ominous in direct contrast to the light banter that follows with Hidetora and his council of family and comrades. Contrary to Hidetora’s boasting, it is clear that the boar actually represents his susceptibility to attack within his own home. The boar is arguably a pure and defenseless icon, hunted here to signify that nothing is safe or sacred for that matter.

            Hidetora himself never truly seems to follow the tradition of his world. As his youngest son Saburo points out, his initial goal is to suddenly put an end to a cycle of war and violence that he himself participated in. However, the problem is that he thinks he can do this by following the tradition of passing on his rule to his eldest son. The one tradition he decides to follow throws everything into chaos. He tries to assert that this will work by setting up an analogy to show the strength in numbers. He first gives each a son an arrow and asks them to break it. They do so easily. When he hands his first son Taro a bundle of arrows and asks him to break it he cannot. The second son, Jiro also tries and fails. Up to this point, we watch a very traditional metaphor of strength and numbers and are prepared as an audience to accept Hidetora’s wisdom. However, Saburo disrupts the whole routine by taking the bundle and breaking it over his knee. The traditional metaphor is shattered and the audience is taken out of the trance. Here Saburo not only literally breaks a common metaphor apart, he also disrespects his father’s authority by arguing that the brothers’ unity was never very strong to begin with.

            This is also arguably the only place where Saburo breaks tradition. However this act and everything that comes after is also ultimately an attempt to save his father. As a result, Saburo is the one of the few to maintain a high level of honor alongside advisor Tango who is also unbreakably loyal to Hidetora. Although Saburo is absent for the majority of the second act, when he does return he is always pictured on horseback with a full set of armor. He looks just as regal as his father once did and arguably more so than Jiro who fights back against him.

            To return to costumes for a moment, it is important to look at just how Kurosawa has chosen to dress the three sons and their respective armies. Saburo is blue, Jiro is red, and Taro is gold. As previously mentioned, Hidetora wears white and this makes sense as his clothes turn grey to mark a physical change as he undergoes his own spiritual transformation. Saburo’s blue colors mark that he is the noble, good son that consistently tries to honor his father despite being misunderstood. Jiro is marked by angry and jealous red colors to match his surge to overthrow his brother Taro and to suppress the rise of his younger brother Saburo. Taro is a difficult character to assess as he doesn’t live for too long before Jiro’s counselor shoots him down. The gold at first seems to represent regality and prosperity. However, this ends up being a false symbol and Kaede’s chastising proves that the gold really serves as yellow cowardice since Taro fails to assert himself as a leader.

            Indeed Kaede herself seems to be the one really leading all of the antagonistic forces in this film. In the scene she has with Taro and Hidetora as Hidetora signs the contract, Kaede talks the most and informs Hidetora of what he is being presented with. The camera also tends to linger on Kaede’s side of the room who is also dressed much more vibrantly than Taro as well. She asserts her dominance in an even stronger fashion with Jiro when she locks him in his room, tackles him and nicks both sides of his neck to torture him into telling her what she wants to hear. Kurosawa then makes the shocking decision to have Kaede sexually force herself upon Jiro and essentially rape him. This is also implied not once, but arguably twice as another scene shows Jiro’s counselor walking in on the Kaede finishing an almost identical scene before she precedes to demand Sue’s head be cut off. It certainly takes the villainous female archetype to a whole new level not typically seen in film. Also, it’s worth noting here that Kaede’s rise to villainy almost works in a sense as a foil to Hidetora’s fall from villainy. With Hidetora, the audience wants him to see the error of his ways and reunite with his son though the constant reminders of his actions suggest he doesn’t deserve the reunion. For Kaede, we learn early on of her tragic history and encourage her to seek revenge to a degree until she decides to take out her vengeance and the most innocent character of Sue by violently removing her head and morbidly displaying it.

            The only character the audience firmly wants to succeed is Saburo. Though he appears rash and ill-mannered at first, Saburo quickly shows that he is one of the wisest and most caring characters in the film through his devotion to Hidetora. With that being said, it is indeed a wonder as to why Saburo is killed so suddenly and noiselessly. In a way, it echoes the death of Taro. Whereas Taro’s death brought noise rushing back to Hidetora, Saburo’s death brought crushing silence. The silence is in fact so forceful that it kills Hidetora himself not long after. Though it is in keeping with the King Lear source material, Kurosawa’s alteration to the king character make it all the more tragic. Hidetora had gone from a complete monster to the peace-seeking individual he had set out to be when he gave up his throne. He’s ready to apologize to Saburo and move on, but before he can even do so. Saburo is suddenly shot without so much as a cry from Saburo. It’s actually a quite graceless death as Saburo simply falls from his horse without any kind of fanfare from the soundtrack. It takes Saburo’s warriors a while to even realize he has died. The noblest character gets the least noble death in yet another break from narrative tradition.

            Ran embraces older stories but breaks every routine character trait or narrative plot point it comes across. The end scene with the Buddha scroll falling in particular lends to the sense that Kurosawa is essentially ending tradition with this film. As one of his last movies it certainly makes sense that as an esteemed director he would want to make one film that combined all of his style and character but also reversed old tropes in order to create new meaning.

Gojira: Preparing the Oxygen Destroyer Scene Analysis

Gojira: Preparing the Oxygen Destroyer

Shot 1: We start with Serizawa descending in his diving suit through a medium close-up. We know it’s Serizawa because the lighting highlights the oxygen destroyer he is holding. He descends behind a rock and we hear bubbles as we cut to:

Shot 2: A POV shot of the rocks passing in front of Serizawa as he descends. We cut to:

An example of the camera refusing to show Ogata fully.

Shot 3: A medium close-up of Ogata descending. It is important to note we only get to see from the torso down for the brief moment we see Ogata descending and no POV shot follows as we cut to:

Shot 4: A similar shot of Serizawa descending but with his full body in the frame as we waves to Ogata off to the right of the frame. We also hear bubbles again here as we cut to:

Shot 5: An almost exact replica of shot 3 with Ogata descending but a refusal to show his whole body. Only from the torso down is shown with his head located off of the top of the frame. We cut to:

Shot 6: A medium close-up of Serizawa holding the oxygen destroyer out towards the middle of the frame as he himself is turned to the side. We cut to:

Shot 7: A medium shot of Ogata plummeting off-screen to the bottom of the frame as Serizawa follows off to the right of the frame. Serizawa slides down a rock wall to the right of the frame that enters slowly until Serizawa lands next to Ogata in the middle of the frame. We cut to:

Shot 8: A medium shot of fish swimming away from the camera and then we cut to:

Shot 9: A similar shot but with the fish swimming directly in front of the camera. We then cut to:

Shot 9: An official on the boat talks into a receiver in the center of the frame and then listens for a response by putting a hand to his ear. We cut to:

Shot 10: A close-up shot of Emiko looking worried down and to the right with her eyes beginning to tear up. She swallows with difficulty and continues staring down and to the right. We cut to:

Shot 11: A voyeuristic long shot watching Godzilla from behind a couple of rocks. We only see his back for a time until he turns slightly and looks toward the camera. We cut to:

Shot 12: A medium shot of Serizawa on the right and Ogata on the left moving towards the camera with difficulty. We cut to:

Shot 13: A close-up shot of Serizawa moving his head from right to left until he stares directly into the camera, his face seeming determined and grim. We cut to:

Shot 14: A similar shot but of Ogata who inversely moves his head from left to right. Ogata moves slower and the shot ends with Ogata still looking slightly off to the left with an almost confused expression on his face. We cut to:

Shot 15: A POV shot of Ogata (if it is match-on-action) rapidly looking from left to right at the rocks before him. We cut to:

Shot 16: A medium close-up tracking shot of Ogata moving left to grab onto something. We cut to:

Shot 17: A similar tracking shot, this time with Serizawa. We cut to:

Shot 18: A shot of the surface bubbling in a similar fashion to Godzilla’s first attacks at the beginning of the movie. We cut to:

Shot 19: A medium close-up of Ogata moving similar to shot 16 but slightly closer. We cut to:

Shot 20:A similar shot of Serizawa moving but with the camera closer. As he releases a stream of bubbles we cut to:

Shot 21: A medium shot of Serizawa and Ogata standing next to each other. They turn to look at each other briefly before facing the camera again. We cut to:

Shot 22: A close-up of Ogata with his face visible moving his head from right to left in a way mirroring shot 14. As he looks slightly off to the left the camera pans over to the right until Serizawa’s face comes into view following Ogata’s line of sight. We cut to:

Shot 23: A long shot of Godzilla standing. The camera tilts upward from the bottom to slowly reveal Godzilla. The shot is murky and Godzilla is almost entirely in shadow save for a light coming from the right of the frame. Godzilla moves his arm down slightly but it is difficult to say exactly which way Godzilla is facing due to the murkiness of the shot. We cut to:

Shot 24: A medium tracking shot similar to shot 17 but in reverse as Serizawa is backpedaling from left to right. We cut to:

Shot 25: A medium shot where Ogata is at the left of the frame and looks rapidly to the right and then to the left in front of him. We cut to:

Shot 26: An almost identical shot to 24 but closer of Serizawa backpedaling. We cut to:

Shot 27: A medium close-up of Ogata backpedaling. The bubbles of air seem to mark each cut here. We cut to:

Shot 28: A medium shot of Serizawa moving off-screen to the right while Ogata comes in from the left and follows Serizawa’s movements to the center of the frame. The dark emptiness of the sea fills most of the space above them within the frame. We cut to:

Godzilla's slow movements in a shot similar to his first appearance.

Shot 29: A medium shot of Godzilla with the lower half of his body hidden behind rocks. The shot is somewhat similar to shot 23 but with more clarity. Godzilla is facing towards the camera but positioned slightly to the left of the camera and appears to be moving forward slightly. We cut to:

Shot 30: A medium tracking shot of Serizawa and Ogata backpedaling with Serizawa displayed prominently in the center and Ogata displayed below with his lower half off-screen. Ogata gradually raises himself as they backpedal to become almost on equal level with Serizawa. We cut to:

Shot 31: The official from earlier now looking downward and to the right slightly. Another official nearby turns and motions to someone behind him. We cut to:

Shot 32: A medium close-up of Dr. Yamane looking downwards in concentration with two men on either side of him following his gaze. We cut to:

Shot 33: A medium close-up of Emiko looking downwards similar to shot 32. We cut to:

Shot 34: An official looking down like shot 33. We cut to:

Shot 35: A long shot of all of the previous close-up subjects gathered over the edge of the boat with Emiko and an official holding Serizawa and Ogata’s ropes. The press photographer turns to look up at a nearby official. We cut to:

Shot 36: A shot identical to shot 18 with the surface bubbling. We cut to:

Shot 37: A shot similar to shot 29 of Godzilla. He moves to the left past a rock wall to look forward and to the right. The shot is similar to previous long distance views of Godzilla earlier in the film. We cut to:

Shot 38: A medium shot of Serizawa standing behind Ogata and to the left. He pats Ogata on the back. The camera pans to Serizawa as he fiddles with the oxygen destroyer and pans back to Ogata as he ascends into the center of the frame. As Ogata ascends off-screen to the top, Serizawa holds the oxygen destroyer above his head as one would a trophy. We cut to:

Shot 39: A POV shot of Ogata’s ascent. We start with a view of the rocks that becomes blocked by bubbles that fill the screen as the rocks leave the bottom of the frame. We cut to:

Shot 40: A medium shot of Ogata by himself ascending in darkness with bubbles above his head. We cut to:

Shot 41: A blur of bubbles cover the screen. We cut to:

Shot 42 A medium close-up of Ogata’s face ascending from the bottom of the frame to off-screen at the top as he screams Serizawa’s name. We cut to:

Shot 43 A medium shot of bubbling near the boat before Ogata pops up to the surface. We cut to:

Shot 44: A medium close-up of Godzilla’s legs moving forward to the left. There’s a slightly murky quality again to the shot. We cut to:

Serizawa "presenting" the oxygen destroyer.

Shot 45: A medium shot of Serizawa still holding the oxygen destroyer above him like a trophy. We cut to:

Shot 46: A close-up shot of Serizawa similar to previous close-ups of him except with the oxygen destroyer clearly in view in front of him now. We cut to:

Shot 47: A medium shot of Godzilla that starts from his head with his hand raised and tilts down to his feet like in shot 43. He moves to the left and we cut to:

Shot 48: A medium close-up of Godzilla’s foot lifting up and moving to the left. As his foot falls, we cut to:

Shot 49: A medium close-up of the oxygen destroyer on the ground. Bubbles start pouring out of the right side slowly at first, and then rapidly increasing in speed. We cut to:

Shot 50: A medium shot of the oxygen destroyer hidden slightly behind rocks as large clouds of bubbles emerge from it and ascend upward. We cut to:

Shot 51: A blur of bubbles similar to shot 40. We cut to:

Shot 52: A medium shot of Serizawa backpedaling to the right until his back meets a wall similar to previous backpedaling shots. We cut to:

Shot 53: A medium close-up of Serizawa’s face staring slightly off to the left like previous shots. We cut to:

Shot 54: A medium close-up of Godzilla rearing his head back in pain as bubbles obscure the screen. We cut to:

Shot 55: A less clear close-up of Godzilla tumbling in the water as bubbles obscure the shot. We cut to:

Shot 56 An identical close-up to shot 52. We cut to:

Shot 57: A similar shot to 54 of Godzilla tumbling. We cut to:

Shot 58: A long shot of everyone on the boat. Emiko is on Ogata’s shoulder as he screams “Serizawa” into the receiver. Everyone turns to look towards Ogata except Dr. Yamane who is fixated on the water. He turns briefly when Ogata feels he isn’t getting a response. We cut to:

The explosion of bubbles, now signifying the end instead of the beginning.

Shot 59: An extreme long-shot of the boat. A large mass of bubbles form around the boat in a similar fashion to how the boat in the first scene of the movie was taken out.

            The scene does go on for a bit longer but I feel as if I’ve gone on for a bit too long as it is. What’s important about this scene is the deliberate attention to Serizawa while setting up the oxygen destroyer before the audience or the characters know he’s about to sacrifice himself. Ogata is often clipped off-screen while Serizawa is placed in the center of the frame in his entirety. The bubbles of air representing their breaths, while often just at cuts to new shots, are loudest when Serizawa is dominant in the frame. Also of note here (and of more importance as the scene goes on) is how Godzilla is portrayed as a voyeuristic target from a distance. He clearly sees Ogata and Serizawa but his movements towards them are very slow and almost hesitant. When Serizawa sets up the oxygen destroyer he does so of course in a sacrificial way because we know he’s giving up his life to protect the design of the oxygen destroyer from future hands. However, it also seems through the editing of the scene that he’s presenting a sacrifice to Godzilla. The way Serizawa presents the oxygen destroyer to Godzilla and the way Godzilla almost calmly notes Serizawa’s actions leads to what I assume is a mutual understanding that they both don’t belong in this world anymore. Back on the boat, Ogata and Emiko are worried about retrieving Serizawa while Dr. Yamane, in focusing on the water, almost seems to understand arrangement occurring below without actually being able to see anything. The mass of bubbles at the boat resemble the destruction from the first few scenes of the movie but here they symbolize the end of the chaos rather than the beginning. The fact that this occurs during the day instead of at night, reemphasizes the fact that this is a positive sign rather than a negative one. The ending on the water hopes for a peaceful end that everything will stay below the surface, but Dr. Yamane in his firm almost emotionless stance on the boat sends a cautionary sign that this could all very well happen again if humankind isn’t careful.

I Was Born, But... 

Mise-en-scène

This image is a medium shot of a man that appears to be in his 30's or 40's with dark ragged hair that implies stress. He is looking back and to the left off-camera. The back of his chair takes up the left corner of the frame where we can see his hand gripping the edge of it. The folds of his robe billow over a small circular table in the center of the frame (the man is set slightly off center to the left). Remains of the man's deteriorating cigarette he is holding low to the table are scattered over the center of the table. To the right of the table's surface is a bottle of alcohol and a small secondary container on a small dish. A light is shining on the bottle and most of the man's face. The top of the frame and the bottom left corner are shrouded in darkness. An empty chair can be seen in the background to the bottom right of the frame. The man's mouth is hanging open slightly with his head tilted to the right.

This image serves as a startling contrast to how we've seen the father earlier in a formal business suit and serves to show that his son's outburst certainly has affected him to some degree. As a still image this could be argued to portray the father in a worse way than he actually carries himself in motion. In motion he attempts to give a show of being unaffected by his son's harsh criticism but the alcohol does stay in the shot to remind us that all is not quite well.