Exam 3
Karl Serge ASWAD
12190627
The topic that
I am choosing
is Akira
Kurosawa
and his
movie, Ran.
Japan’s Golden Age
• The Japanese new wave
movement started after the
world war in the 1950s, where
there was a large movement
of directors who wanted to
express themselves, one of
which is Kurosawa.
• Although we will be speaking
about Ran, the main film that
put Japan on the spot was his
film called “Rashomon”,
which won the Golden Lion
award
Who is Akira Kurosawa
• Akira Kurosawa is known as the Beethoven of movie
directing.
• He is known for having great movements in cinema. This
means that he had is own unique, style, aesthetics and
cultural political objective.
• In total he has made 30 films.
• As side from being a director, he was also a painter, which
tremendously helped him directing films because of his
lose of vision.
His paintings and his
director vision
RAN The Movie
• Ran was released in 1985
and was directed by Akira
Kurosawa
• During the production of the
film, he had lost his wife. Not
only that, he was also loosing
his eye sight, which left him
almost completely blind.
• Ran means Chaos, which is
depicted heavily in his
movies because of its gory
scenes.
What is it about?
• Its about a Japanese war lord,
Ichimonji Hidetora who was going to
retire and split his kingdom amongst
his sons.
• Although most of the brothers agreed
to this split, one of them disagrees and
assumes that they will eventually fall
out. Because of his sons honesty, he
bans him from ever being around him.
• However as he is dying, he realizes his
sons will not live up to their promise.
• Its basically the remake of a
Shakespeare play - King Lear.
Cinematography
• Although most of his films
were made in black and white,
the ones that are made with
colors utilizes it to the max.
• He uses color to show blood
“bright red” and the color of
the sky bright green. This idea
comes back to how he uses
movement to keep audience
interested as the slow plot
progresses.
What made him unique in
the Golden Age Era
• As we previously said, he had
detailed movements in his
filmed, which meant that there
was always something going on
in the background a scene. For
example, there was always
heavy weather and fire in it.
• It was unique because even if
there was a slow scene, it was
interesting because the
background gave it some sort
of meaning. It made the viewer
feel something In spite of it
being slow.
His use of body language
• He uses blocking or body
language to reflect on the
feelings that a person has.
• For example, he would have a
man taking a large amount of
space to depict anger, or he
would hide the face of people,
when they are scared or sad.
He is a master of camera
movement
• What makes his movies
unique is his ability to have
one scene as a beginning, a
middle and end, Example,
• The shot on the top right
corner, is the beginning
• The shot on the middle right
is the middle
• The shot on the lower right
is the end
In Conclusion
• Akira Kurosawa was the master of using movement to depict the
beginning, middle, and end of scene.
• This technique made his scenes more interesting, and keeps the
audience engaged.
• Unlike movies that use dialogue to dictate the pace of a scene, he was
the master of using body language, weather, and color to tell the story
he wants to tell, which was proved in the movie Ran, where he used
the green weather and the bright red color for blood.
• That way, the dialogue can be minimal, but the audience would be
hooked because of movements going on in the background of the
scene. He also used body language and dark spots to depict the
feeling of a person without being verbal about it.
