Quick take: Two of Kurosawa's best get the Criterion treatment. Essential.
By Glenn Abel
Hearts of darkness pump the lifeblood of two of Akira Kurosawa's greatest films, "Throne of Blood"
The films, separated by three decades, share a royal lineage: They're blood-soaked tragedies adapted from Shakespeare and set in feudal Japan of the 16th century. The many Kurosawa fans who love these works will be well served by the new DVDs, both bearing incisive commentaries. Those who know Kurosawa's work only from his heroic samurai adventures will find the films a revelation.
"Throne of Blood," (1957), loosely based on "Macbeth," is widely regarded as one of the most successful film adaptations of a Bard play. "Ran" (1985) continues many of the same nihilistic themes, this time following the "King Lear" plot. Kurosawa dares to edit Shakespeare's story lines, adding back stories and deleting major characters, but the motivations and emotions remain true.
The works contain a half-dozen of Kurosawa's strongest scenes, shot and acted with a force that continues to astound and influence contemporary filmmakers. The impact is magnified in both films by significant audio and video restorations and high-definition transfers.
The black-and-white "Throne of Blood"
In a wildly unorthodox piece of packaging, the "Throne of Blood" DVD offers two separate sets of subtitles, dramatically different in tone and text. The authors explain their philosophies in the DVD's handsome booklet.
The first (default) subtitles come from Linda Hoaglund, who admits that she "brazenly strays from literal translations" in an effort to spare Western audiences exposure to confusing and outdated traditions. The second subtitler, Donald Richie, says he aspires to create transparent translations, with a "scrupulously anonymous kind of English." (His subtitles were rejected by the Japanese producers when the film was released.)
"In this degenerate age, one must kill so as not to be killed," Kurosawa's Lady Macbeth counsels her husband in Hoaglund's translation.
Richie hears it as: "This is a wretched world. To save yourself, you often first must kill."
The startling differences continue throughout the film, offering a rare perspective into a craft that would seem to be literal and straightforward.
The academic approach continues in the commentary by Japanese film expert Michael Jeck, recorded in the fall. Jeck's voice sounds like a cross between Casey Kasem's and Mister Rogers', taking quite a while to get used to but well worth the effort.
In "Throne of Blood," "Kurosawa even makes the elements act," Jeck observes. The black-and-white film is full of fog, wind, rain and lightning -- sound and fury, indeed -- reflecting the descent into madness of the film's Macbeth, Lord Washizu (Toshiro Mifune). It was the closest Kurosawa came to a horror film, Jeck says.
Of Kurosawa and his longtime star Mifune, Jeck notes, "Both were great, but together they were even greater." A match for Mifune is the veteran actress Isuzu Yamada, arguably the most chilling Lady Macbeth of them all.
Jeck explores the film's unusual circular, time-based structure, noting that it was an experiment that deviated widely from Kurosawa's other work of the time. Kurosawa presented parts of his murderous tale as Noh theater, with Mifune and Yamada often made up in imitation of traditional masks.
"Throne of Blood" never lacks for action, however, as its warlords play out their unhappy fates. In the film's famous final scene, in which Mifune's evildoing ends in a hail of arrows, the actor insisted on real arrows and real archers. When complimented on his acting, Mifune responded that he was, in fact, terrified by the barrage of wood and steel. (Mifune was protected only by wood concealed under his armor.)
Of course, "Nobody does action like Kurosawa," says Stephen Prince, one of two commentators on "Ran."
The film shows that the master had lost none of his appetite for destruction as he aged into his mid-70s. "Ran's" battle sequences were so convincing that Japanese press reports claimed he used as many as 120,000 extras as soldiers (really about 1,400).
Prince, author of the Kurosawa book "The Warrior's Camera," devotes much of his talk to the director's signature techniques, like shooting scenes from afar with multiple cameras fitted with telephoto lenses.
"His long lenses transform space, completely changing realities as they existed in front of the camera," Prince notes.
"Ran," perhaps even more than "Throne of Blood," is filled with amazing performances. Tatsuya Nakadai plays the pathetic Lord Hidetora (King Lear), whose three sons turn into blood rivals as they battle for his kingdom. Mieko Harada plays his vengeful daughter-in-law Kaede, one of Kurosawa's most powerful characters, male or female.
The Criterion Collection's double-disc set of "Ran"
In the 1985 documentary, Kurosawa says there are so many beautiful images to be found around a location shoot, it's a shame no one ever films them. Marker does.
The docu maker, in his narration, cites the temptation to feed off Kurosawa's gorgeous set-ups, but promises to film the proceedings from "our level" -- as in, the grunt's-eye level. Not much of a handicap for Marker as he wanders around the location on Mount Fuji, with its prefab castles and armies of feudal-warrior extras.
The documentarian is uncharacteristically content to remain still much of the time, letting "A.K." be carried by images, the music, the sounds of men and horses, and Kurosawa's observations on filmmaking.
Appropriately, Marker takes to calling Kurosawa "sensei," meaning master. Kurosawa is observed closely, but never interviewed on camera. The master's comments come from low-fi audio cassette recordings, which Marker says were recorded as Kurosawa spoke with friends. (Marker, presumably, counts as a friend.)
Marker marvels at the precision of Kurosawa's production: In the time that the master needs to film eight battles, he says, someone else would just be able to set up a poker game.
Kurosawa, the docu notes, sees these massive scenes of violence and death as "technical problems to be resolved." As a child, Kurosawa had already seen too much of death.
The Criterion DVD set also includes an appreciation by Sidney Lumet and a 35-minute video piece that reconstructs "Ran" through Kurosawa's paintings and sketches.
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© 2003/2007 Glenn Abel
