'Men Prefer Sorrow Over Joy'; (Ran)

Akira Kurosawa directed this masterpiece {pronounced 'ron'} while still mourning his recently dead wife. He had been working on the script for the movie for years, but when his wife became ill and ultimately died, he hesitated no longer. He dedicated the King Lear makeover to her, and the result is a masterpiece that explains the King Lear story more clearly than any Shakespeare play.

The story takes place in the 1500, when Japan was still ruled by feudal lords similar to Medieval kings; Top Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu only united the country under a single government after 1600. It involves the major feudal lord Hidetora Ichimonji, who is feeling his age and wants his three children to have a good inheritance when he dies. His three son, Taro, Jiro, and Saburo, are clearly feuding over how much their money and land they will inherit from their aging father. Jiro and Taro, the two oldest sons, flatter the father and act intimately towards him, but the third son, Saburo, questions his own loyalties. Needless to say, he ends up with the smallest amount of feudal land. That doesn't stop him from continuing to question his father's decisions, and an enraged Hidetora finally orders Saburo exiled to a neighboring feudal land along with his chief retainer Tango.

Saburo repents his earlier misgivings and decides to rebuild himself, allying himself with a neighboring feudal lord for support and guidance until he can reconcile with his father. Little does he know that Taro and Jiro are planning to betray their father and maybe turn on him as well.

What happens next is similar to the plotline for King Lear, where an aging king divides his kingdom between three daughters, two of whom turn against him. The third realizes her father's predicament and decides to help him, only to run afoul of the two wicked sisters. In the end, all three sisters and the king are dead.

The movie based on this play takes place in the stunning scenery of Japan’s mountains and small plains and streams and beautiful and traditional castles. The people follow strict customs and keep themselves clean and polite as is the custom. Yet the evil rot under the surface is never far away and often explodes into violence.

The worst character is a female courtesan named Lady Kaede, loosely modeled after the evil Lear character Edmond. She had a hand in the shotting death of Taro, and is now influencing Jiro. Her half-sister and nemesis is Suye, whom Kaede wants dead. She also wants revenge for the death of her entire household at the hands of Hidetora's forces; she was seized as a courtesan afterwards. The influence she wields on Taro and then Jiro is very chilling; in one scene she offers a present to Jiro for destroying Hidetora's castle, the next moment she whips out a knife from under her kimono with out any warning and threatens Jiro into revealing that an assassin shot Taro under his guidance.

The overall atmosphere is that of serene natural beauty and a orderly society puntctured and disrupted more than once by blood, steel, and burning buildings. Kurosawa did a good job emphasizing the fact that evil can rear its ugly head even in the most peaceful of circumstances. It shows itself most keenly when Taro and Jiro besiege Hidetora's castle, killing all his bodyguards and attendees, and he is driven insane by this harsh reality. Taro is mysteriously shot dead during the assault, a victim of treachery within his own inner circle it turns out.

This is where the Fool enters, played by a Japanese pop star whose name I don't remember. As Hidetora's former jester, Kyoami is the main comic relief of sorts int eh movie. He plays a vital role in keeping the old man's fragile mental stability from collapsing after his sons destroy his castle. The riddles and parable he utters are better analyzed for their hidden meaning than laughed at. Here's one example:

A snake's egg is white and pure. A bird's egg is speckled and soiled.
The bird leaves the speckled egg for the white.
the egg cracks; out comes a snake.
The bird is gobbled by the snake.

The portrayal of Hidetora by acclaimed Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai is the focal point of the story, and the way the actor made the character change from powerful though aged warlord to a destitute mental patient facing his inner demons one after another is nothing short of chilling. There is one scene where Hidetora and Kyoami end up in the house of a blind young man who lost his family to Hidetora's armies. He flees, only to encounter the blind man and his sister on top of a ruined castle; Hidetora runs again, uttering "This isn't a dream. It's a nightmare!"

Hidetora's madness can no longer be controlled, and Tango, Saburo's former retainer, goes off to tell saburo All this leads to the final confrontation, where Jiro and his army march to confront Saburo's forces. Jiro has decided to go to war because of Saburo's alliance with another feudal lord who's had a long hostility towards the Ichimonji clan. As always, I can't give away he ending for good movies, but it is where the tragic climax involving all the main characters will happen, and where the quote "men prefer sorrow over joy... and suffering over peace." will really take on its metaphorical meaning, just as Kurosawa intended it.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa