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RAN
Kurosawa’s lasting impact
by Michael O’Sullivan
There’s a reason films like “Ran” get
25th-anniversary rereleases. It’s because there aren’t a heck of a lot of them. Based on Shakespeare’s “King Lear” and
set in 16th-century feudal Japan, Akira Ku- rosawa’s 1985 antiwar epic is almost over the top with betrayal, battle and blood. At times, the red stuff flows like paint from the brush of Jackson Pollock. It’s an angry and expressive spurt of pigment, emblem- atic of the director’s rage — the title is the Japanese character for “chaos” or “fury” — and not a realistic body fluid. Filmgoers raised on contemporary spe-
cial effects might balk at all the fake- looking gore, along with the Noh-style old- age makeup of the main character, Lord Hidetora
Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai),
whose actions set the story in motion. But the drama itself packs a powerful — and timeless — gut punch. As in “Lear,” Hidetora has decided to di- vide his kingdom among his three chil- dren, except here they’re sons instead of daughters. The eldest two, Taro (Akira Te- rao) and Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu), flatter their father, while the youngest, Saburo (Da- isuke Ryu), calls the old man a fool for thinking that Taro and Jiro won’t quickly turn their backs on their father. Saburo, like Shakespeare’s Cordelia, is banished for his blunt talk. Of course, Taro and Jiro almost immedi-
RIALTO PICTURES
Twenty-five years later, Akira Kurosawa’s epic “Ran” hasn’t lost its power.
ately let Hidetora down. It is at this point that Kurosawa goes well beyond his source material, adding a treacherous female character in the form of Taro’s wife, Kaede (Mieko Harada). Like Lady Macbeth, she’s the real instigator of Taro and Jiro’s perfi- dy, and her presence lends the film a Grand Guignol flair. At one point she demands the head of her sister-in-law after her own husband is killed and she has seduced Jiro. It’s wild, compulsively watchable stuff. But Kurosawa doesn’t care just about
“how sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.” Over the course of the film’s nearly three-hour length, Hidet- ora is shown to be something of a war criminal himself. He didn’t just inherit his kingdom but shed 50 years’ worth of his neighbors’ blood to get it and keep it. His betrayal by his sons makes him a tragic fig- ure, but so does the blood on his own hands.
By the time Kurosawa’s camera comes to rest on the film’s final, poignant image, a
painting of the Buddha that one character had promised another would protect him from harm, the movie seemingly has ac- complished the impossible: one-upping Shakespeare.
osullivanm@washpost.com
R. At Landmark’s E Street Cinema. Contains lots of blood and violence, and brief sensuality. In Japanese with English subtitles. 162 minutes.
BBBB
GET HIM TO THE GREEK
A gag fest that fails to deliver
by Aaron Leitko
TV spinoffs have a spotty record. “Rho- da” couldn’t carry the torch for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” “Joey” was a pale sub- stitute for “Friends.” It’s rare that a previ- ously established side character, no matter how well loved, can deliver the goods in his own show. Which is probably why nobody tries it with movies. Well, nobody but the makers of “Get Him to the Greek.” “Greek” is a spinoff of sorts, following
the further exploits of hedonistic British rock star Aldous Snow, last seen getting straight and sober in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” But Snow has fallen on hard times here. A well-intentioned but enor- mously offensive single, “African Child,” — imagine Spinal Tap trying to write “We Are the World” — has put his career into a nose-dive, sent his girlfriend and child packing, and caused him to relapse into substance abuse. In an effort to resurrect his public image,
GLEN WILSON
Jonah Hill, left, and Russell Brand aim for lowbrow laughs in “Get Him to the Greek,” which doesn’t quite match much funnier films from producer Judd Apatow.
the record company sends Aaron Green (Jonah Hill), an intern, to escort him from London to a comeback gig at L.A.’s Greek Theater. Green has his own problems, too. He’s trying to salvage a foundering ro- mance with his live-in girlfriend (“Mad Men’s” Elisabeth Moss), who’s ready to set- tle down. But at Snow’s insistence, this British assignment — which should in- volve little more than an airplane meal and an in-flight movie — devolves into a three-
day bender. Rather than acting like a grown-up, Green spends most of the film following Snow from party to party, guz- zling absinthe and hiding illicit substances in uncomfortable places. Like “Marshall,” “The 40-Year-Old Vir-
gin” and “Knocked Up” before it, “Greek” subscribes to the man-boy monomyth structure invented by its producer, Judd Apatow. You know, where oafish but kind- hearted guys are called to put aside child-
ish ways and, after having endured a cer- tain amount of comic humiliation, em- brace adulthood.
But the movie has trouble delivering on
that formula. Unlike its forebears, “Greek” lacks a truly sympathetic central character to hold things together when it’s time to get sappy. Russell Brand’s rock star — a speech-slurring Keith Richards-meets-No- el Gallagher parody of excess — feels like he dropped in from a “Saturday Night Live” sketch. Meanwhile, as the record company lackey, Hill is less straight man than human punching bag: His romantic subplot is quickly buried under a hail of crude gags and body blows.
“Greek” wisely puts the sentimental stuff on hold for as long as possible, delivering fake-out after fake-out — including a botched father-son reunion for Snow and a particularly uncomfortable reconciliation for Green and his girlfriend. When the heartfelt resolution comes, it’s tacked hap- hazardly onto the film’s final five minutes. And at that point, why bother? The laughs worked well enough.
leitkoa@washpost.com
R. At area theaters. Contains strong sexual content and drug use throughout, and pervasive foul language. 109 minutes.
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THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2010
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