After finishing three of Kurosawa's most decorated films, I now know why men like George Lucas and Coppola, would help finance his projects. I feel like Kurosawa liked to leave things mysterious on purpose. He wanted to have people guessing and debating the truth vs. the imaginary.
Throughout all three movies, there was one scene that jumped out at me the most, and it just happened to be one that contained this tool Akira loved to use. The scene was the final scene from "Ran".
In this scene, "Tsurumaru", a blind Japanese man, is alone on a large precipice, with an orange/pink sky in the backround. The scene's first shot consists of an extreme longshot establishing the cliff, sky and isolation of Tsurumaru. He is indeed a blind man, left alone next to an extreme cliff with only his blind walking rod, and a rolled up scroll with a painting of Buddha on it. The painting was given to him by the last person to leave him alone in assurance that the painting would watch over him and keep his defenseless self safe.
As the scene continues, the next shot is a medium range shot that portrays him slowly walking up to the edge and when he feels the edge with his walking rod, he becomes scared and fidgets and accidentally drops his painting over the edge. The film ends shortly thereafter following a long panning shot of the sky after he drops the painting.
In doing this, I feel Kurosawa is not only trying to cause controversy by ending the movie at a point where not all problems are patched up, but also in doing this scene, I feel he is making a religious statement.
I don't know if Akira is a religious man, but I feel he may have intended to show that if we lose Buddha or God in our life, that we will be in a world-of-hurt with a lack of their presence. By having Tsurumaro drop his religious portrait, and then ending the film, the director appears to me that he is saying we are lost in our lives without the guidance of a god in our lives. Which Tsurumaru was after he dropped his portrait.
All three respectable movies. Fun unit
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2 comments:
Dan i would agree with you and can see how you would think how he got money to fund the films. I also liked how you described the last scene. Doing so you let your imagination run free and explain the scene beautifully. I could also agree with you about the religious part too...
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