Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Grandchildren Moon<\/p>\n
Saw Ran yesterday.\u00a0 The film’s remastering did not make it as crisp as I imagined, but it was good.\u00a0 The storyline is similar, though not identical to Lear.<\/p>\n
The lead character, the Lear equivalent, is Lord Hidetora, the terror of the Azusa plain in yesteryear, now old and wanting to lay down his reign.\u00a0 He chooses his eldest son, Taro to replace him.\u00a0 Primogenitor lies at the heart of many classic tales and Ran shares this theme with Lear and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Well, passing over the eldest son created an automatic schism based on traditional expectations.\u00a0 Choosing the eldest son, however, is not a meritocratic approach and can yield, as it does in Ran, a weak leader at the top.\u00a0 Result?\u00a0 The same as the other option.\u00a0 Oh, well.\u00a0 You’d think they’d figure this out.<\/p>\n
Hidetora finds Taro and Jiro, his eldest two sons, unwilling to have him in their homes, spurred on by Lady Kaeda, the scheming and heartbroken daughter born in Hidetora’s first castle to the father and mother he killed in taking it.\u00a0 Her scheming drives the movies plot dynamics as male pawns shove soldiers around the chessboard in response to her plans.<\/p>\n
I said she was an evil woman.\u00a0 Sheila said, no, she was avenging her family.\u00a0 Not exclusive ideas.\u00a0 Yes, she avenged her family with the tools she had available to her, sex and inside knowledge of power politics, but that doesn’t excuse her from judgment.\u00a0 You could say, in fact, that Hidetora, Jiro, Taro and Lady Kaede were all evil in their way, while the third son, Saburo, who plays Cordelia to Jiro and Taro’s Goneril and Regan, dies an innocent, loyal to his father.\u00a0 The quadrumvirate hacked and murdered and intrigued their way to power.\u00a0 They died, each of them, as a direct result of their behavior and, in turn, killed the only filial child.<\/p>\n
This is a movie about power, violence, loyalty, existentialism, group and family honor and angst.<\/p>\n
Here is a key moment, early in the movie, with Saburo speaking to his father, Lord Hidetora:<\/p>\n
Sabour: What kind of world do we live\r\nin?\r\n\r\nOne barren of loyalty and\r\nfeeling.\r\n\r\nHidetora: I'm aware of that.\r\n\r\nSaburo: So you should be!\r\n\r\nYou spilled an ocean of blood.\r\n\r\nYou showed no mercy, no pity.\r\n\r\nWe too are children\r\nof this age...\r\n\r\nweaned on strife and chaos.\r\n\r\nWe are your sons,\r\nyet you count on our fidelity.\r\n\r\nIn my eyes,\r\nthat makes you a fool.\r\n\r\nLater, the Jester says: Man is born crying.\r\n\r\nWhen he's cried enough, he dies.\r\n\r\nLater:\r\n\r\nHidetora: I'm lost.\r\n\r\nJester: Such is the human condition.\r\n\r\nHidetora: This path...\r\n\r\nI remember...\r\n\r\nWe came this way before.\r\n\r\nMen always travel the same road.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Grandchildren Moon Saw Ran yesterday.\u00a0 The film’s remastering did not make it as crisp as I imagined, but it was good.\u00a0 The storyline is similar, though not identical to Lear. The lead character, the Lear equivalent, is Lord Hidetora, the terror of the Azusa plain in yesteryear, now old and wanting to lay … Continue reading Worth Seeing. Again.<\/span>