Mieko Harada in Akira Kurosawa's Ran
Also, like Lear, all in the clan end up dead. But there are some major differences, aside from the depth and realism found in Kurosawa’s film. Lear’s past is an unknown. When we observe his suffering, we are apt to feel pity for him as a character — even in poorly wrought scenes. Hidetora, on the other hand, is (or was) a monster whose life entailed almost daily murder for fifty-plus years. Thus, Ran is an example of karma, not life’s randomness and folly. This also vitiates another of the most cribbed points of criticism about the film (one repeated in Stephen Prince’s audio commentary) — that it is somehow a meditation on war and violence, asking why it exists. There simply is no evidence of this.
It's true that Hidetora asks these queries, but he is not the film. Ran does not bask in needless violence. For instance, when Kurogane beheads Lady Kaede, we do not see the act, only the resultant arterial spray of blood on the wall behind her. Never does the film question, explicitly or implicitly, its world. Violence just is. Even Saburo, Ran's noblest character, is resigned to the world of violence and treachery he inhabits, while Lady Sue, in her retreat into Buddhism, has accepted the world and its evils.
Never does a character contemplate existentially on their world, the way, say, the soldiers in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line do. The few times Hidetora does, it is in a selfish — not existential — manner, as he regrets his own evil and all that has befallen his family. One might argue this is the only way in which King Lear is superior to Ran, but that presupposes that merely questioning something is an endpoint. The characters in Ran, if they are less introspective than those in Shakespeare’s work — and I do not fully accept that interpretation — are certainly more realistically engaged in their worlds. There is no poseur moment wherein a soliloquy will break out, no matter how inapt.
Then there is Lady Kaede, and much is made of her adaptation from Noh dramas. This may be so, but hers is also the character that is the least believable from a historical standpoint. That's because Noh drama was not reality. No female wielded such power in East Asian medieval societies, and her desires for revenge are so one-dimensional that she seems even less real than the male characters; in fact, she rivals some of the wackier versions of the female character portrayed by Machiko Kyo in Kurosawa’s Rashomon.
The scene where Lady Kaede dominates then seduces Jiro is a masterpiece of balletic drama, but as a piece of realism it is laughable. She would have been struck dead in an instant. It’s almost a precursor to the silly scenes that appear in virtually every Hollywood action flick now, wherein a sexy, buxom young female of 120 pounds or less somehow physically overwhelms a musclebound male over twice her size, and does so with ease. It’s become a cliché of modern action films (insert the name/idea of your favorite screen siren here) that it is interesting to see where it first began. But once that interest fades, we are left with a hollow character in dire need of expansion. This may, indeed, put Lady Kaede in the Noh tradition, but since it does not serve the film well, that fact is merely a bit of trivia.
Another mistake found in Ran — although it is a well-conceived and wrought mistake — is the distance maintained from the film's main characters. While Kurosawa wanted to portray war and familial squabbles as petty (hence the film’s title refers to the generic situation, not the particulars), thus opting for the view from on high, by doing so he made all the characters look like insects. As a result, it is hard to sympathize with their plight.
The Wellspring "The Masterworks Edition" DVD actually offers some different features than the later two-disc from The Criterion Collection. Both offer enhanced versions of the film. The Wellspring DVD still has some dirt and splotchiness, although the colors are well restored. And unlike Criterion, Wellspring uses gold subtitles, which are easier to read than the white ones.
Disc 1 offers production notes, Ran in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, a restoration demonstration, and two trailers. The chief difference lies in the commentaries: The Criterion version has a commentary by film historian Stephen Prince; French filmmaker Chris Marker's documentary on Kurosawa, AK; as well as Toho Studios' "It Is Wonderful to Create" series of documentaries on Kurosawa. Wellspring has no featurettes, but their DVD offer commentaries by Prince and film producer Peter Grilli.
Grilli’s commentary is flat and uninvolving, filled with sweeping generalities about film in general, and Ran specifically. It is also punctuated by several minutes of silence. Stephen Prince's is similar to the later commentary he did for Criterion. Prince, I should add, is a very hit-and-miss commentator, but his take on Ran is one of his better ones. While he always tends to over-prepare, coming across as bland while reading notes, this commentary is quite scene-specific; Prince even seems to have loosened up a bit.