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10[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ran_30.png]]
11[[caption-width-right:350:''In a mad world, only the mad are sane.'']]
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13->''"You spilled an ocean of blood. You showed no mercy, no pity. We too are children of this age... weaned on strife and chaos. We are your sons, yet you count on our fidelity. In my eyes, that makes you a fool. A senile old fool!"''
14-->--'''Saburo Ichimonji'''
15
16''Ran'' (乱, Japanese for "rebellion", or "disturbed/confused") is a 1985 film by Creator/AkiraKurosawa, made late in his career. The third and last of Kurosawa's Shakespeare adaptations (after ''Film/ThroneOfBlood'', based on ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', and ''Film/TheBadSleepWell'', loosely based on ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''), it was [[WordOfGod heavily influenced]] by ''Theatre/KingLear'', [[RecycledInSpace relocated to the Warring States period in Japan]].
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18Warlord Hidetora of the Ichimonji clan (Creator/TatsuyaNakadai), once a feared and powerful man, is now in his twilight years. He decides to divide his domain between his three sons Taro, Jiro, and Saburo, while he remains a figurehead. Saburo, the youngest, disagrees with the plan and is banished. [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples Sound familiar?]]
19
20With Saburo away, Taro and Jiro begin feuding over succession as head of the clan. Egged on by his wife, [[LadyMacBeth Lady Kaede]], Taro uses Hidetora's insolent jester Kyoami as a pretext for stripping him of his powers. Hidetora is made persona non grata and forced to relocate to Saburo's abandoned castle, which is then sacked by Taro and Jiro's forces. Unable to find a blade to commit seppuku with, Hidetora goes mad and wanders, dazed, from the burning castle, [[WorldHalfEmpty as his world crumbles around him]].
21
22Kurosawa wrote the screenplay ten years before its eventual release, during which he meticulously painted storyboards for every scene while he sought funding. At the time of its release--five years after ''Film/{{Kagemusha}}'', a film considered by Kurosawa a dress rehearsal for ''Ran''-- it had the largest budget of any Japanese film ever made until then. While it garnered praise from critics worldwide, its box office performance was lackluster, [[AwardSnub and was passed over for the Academy Awards in both the United States and Japan]]. In the years since, [[VindicatedByHistory it has come to be seen as one of Kurosawa's best films, and one of the best films of all time]].
23
24Not to be confused with a [[Franchise/TouhouProject certain nine-tailed kitsune]], nor [[Manga/RanmaOneHalf a sex-changing martial artist]], [[Manga/CaseClosed Shinichi Kudo]]'s LoveInterest, or a [[Myth/NorseMythology Norse sea goddess]].
25
26----
27!! ''Ran'' contains the following tropes:
28
29* AdaptationalVillainy: In a sense, if comparing this film to ''Theatre/KingLear''. For the most part, Lear in Shakespeare's work was at worst merely a naive old king unjustly betrayed. Kurosawa, for his part, saw it fit to give his Lear-figure Hidetora an appropriately bloody past--who to an extent deserved everything that happened to him for the duration of the film.
30* AllLovingHero: Lady Sué, due to her fervent UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}}. [[spoiler: Ultimately leads to her death when, despite Tsurumaru's begging her not to, she goes back to his house to check on a servant that hadn't come back, running right into one of Jiro's assassins in the process.]]
31* AllThereInTheManual: The sons' names (Takatora for Taro, Masatora for Jiro, Naotora for Saburo), which are almost never used in the film.
32* AmbiguouslyGay: Kyoami. His actor Pîtâ is openly gay.
33* AmbitionIsEvil: One of the main themes.
34* AnalogyBackfire: The film references an apocryphal tale of Mori Motonari that Hidetore replicates: knowing his three sons would succeed him, he gives each of them an arrow to break, which they do easily, but then he gives each of them a bundle of three arrows kept together, to teach them the importance of staying united. Taro and Jiro fail to break it, Saburo however [[CuttingTheKnot manages to snap the three bundled arrows using his knee to apply leveraged force]], which only asserts his belief that his brothers are inadequate and not to be trusted. Hidetora is understandably [[OhCrap not excited by this reinterpretation]].
35* AnyoneCanDie: Like in historical Japan, the introduction of gunpowder weapons can easily bring down a powerful ''daimyo'' through impersonal combat. By the end of the story, very few main characters are left standing.
36* ArchEnemy: Hidetora Ichimonji has Lady Kaede, whose parents he killed and who manipulates an entire war to bring him down.
37* ArrowsOnFire: Used in assaulting the Third Castle.
38* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Hidetora didn't become the sole head of the Ichimonji clan through sycophantic grovelling. He paved his way to kingship through war and battle. But when he retired...
39* TheAtoner: Hidetora sports shades of this by the end. Sadly, by then, it's too late for him to help anyone.
40* AttackAttackAttack: What Jiro's battle strategy ultimately amounts to. [[CurbStompBattle It doesn't end well for his army]].
41* AuthorAvatar: Kurosawa remarked "Hidetora is me". He was an aged big-shot moviemaker in his twilight, old-fashioned and with chronic problems finding support for his projects in his own country. Furthermore Kurosawa had a BungledSuicide episode, reminiscent of the intended {{seppuku}} of Hidetora, whose life is saved by his inability to procure a sword.
42** Critics, on the other hand, also see some of Kurosawa in Tsurumaru, whose tragedies and symbolic presence in the film are read as markers of Kurosawa's own insecurities, crises of faith and fear for his impending mortality (see RuleOfSymbolism below).
43* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: Despite her KarmicDeath, Lady Kaede has successfully destroyed the House of Ichimonji, right down to the castles. She, the undisputed villain and single most evil character in a film loaded with GrayAndGreyMorality, is the only character in the film that got everything she wanted.]]
44* TheBardOnBoard: Apparently written at first by Kurosawa without any previous knowledge of ''Theatre/KingLear'', but after he found the stories to be similar, he rewrote the script to fit even ''more'' closely.
45* BatmanGambit: A villainous version of this is used by Lady Kaede. [[spoiler: She effortlessly plays off of both Hidetora's, Taro's, and Jiro's biggest flaws, and despite the fact that her plan could fail at any time by either Taro or Jiro just saying ''no''... it never happens because she's so damn good at what she does.]]
46* BetrayalByOffspring: Hidetora's sons, Taro and Jiro, turn against their father and strip him of his power.
47* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: During the attack on the Third Castle, Hidetora's concubines are seen killing themselves to avoid being captured.
48* BigBad: Lady Kaede is manipulating the entire war.
49** BigBadDuumvirate: Jiro thinks that he and Lady Kaede are this. [[UnwittingPawn He's wrong.]]
50* BigBadWannabe: Taro believes that being named Hidetora's heir gives him limitless power, all the while unaware how he is being callously manipulated by his wife and the film's true BigBad, Lady Kaede.
51** Jiro is a step up from Taro, having the cunning and tenacity to back up his ambitions, but he still can't measure up to Lady Kaede.
52* BolivianArmyEnding: The First Castle is stormed at the end. It is up to viewer's imagination [[spoiler:whether Jiro, Kurogane and Jiro's other retainers survive victorious, are killed in the battle, or commit {{seppuku}} off-screen]].
53* BreakableWeapons: Hidetora's sword breaks during the battle for Third Castle, shortly before he realizes that the battle is lost and that he needs to commit seppuku. The fact that he then can't because he doesn't have a sword is the final straw for his decaying grasp on sanity.
54* BreakTheHaughty: Hidetora, once a powerful warlord, is reduced to an insane and remorseful shell of himself by the film's events.
55* BrutalHonesty: Saburo's specialty, like when he bluntly points out that Hidetora's succession plan is foolish and calls him a senile old man.
56* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Played with, Tsurumaru, brother of Lady Suè is recognized by Hidetora, who is the one surprised by the reciprocity. Tsurumaru bitterly points out the impossibility of forgetting the man who burned his castle and removed his eyes when he was only a child.
57* CallingTheOldManOut: Saburo rebukes his father reasoning that Hidetora, a warlord who gained his power through perpetual violence, becomes worse than naive expecting a peaceful and harmonious coexistence between his heirs. It gets Saburo and Tango banned, but the predicament turns out to be a CassandraTruth.
58* CampGay: RealLife flamboyant gay man and drag queen [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_(actor) Peter]] plays Kyoami, after the fashion of traditional Japanese ''Noh'' theater.
59* CharacterTic: Whenever he suspects somebody is trying to be sneaky, Saburo develops an itch.
60* ChekhovsGunman:
61** After Saburo's exile, he and Lord Ayabe stay offscreen until the last twenty minutes of the film, where they [[spoiler:invade Ichimonji grounds to save Hidetora]].
62** Literally with Jiro's arquebusiers, [[spoiler: who kill Saburo at the end.]]
63* TheChessmaster: Lady Kaede manipulates the entire war to accomplish her revenge.
64* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Hidetora eliminates families to which he is supposedly allied by marriage.
65* ColorCodedCharacters: Taro, Jiro, and Saburo are yellow, red, and blue respectively ([[ColorCodedArmies as are their respective armies]]). Hidetora is for the most part coded with white. These may even help highlight their key characterization in the story.
66** Taro, despite being the eldest and expected heir, does not exhibit explicitly any form of valor in combat--with even his assault on his father done as practically a backstab. A proverbial descriptor for a DirtyCoward is [[CowardlyYellow 'yellow-bellied']].
67** Jiro, noticeably the one who exhibits the worst caricature of a Sengoku-era samurai (the predilection for RapePillageAndBurn and ChronicBackstabbingDisorder), is [[RedIsViolent coded red]]. This helps highlight his subsequent RedOniBlueOni dynamics with Saburo, as the remaining sons of Hidetora seeking to reclaim their father's legacy for themselves.
68** Saburo, despite being defined by BrutalHonesty, remains the most level-headed and moral of the brothers, nicely contrasting him with Jiro. Saburo's flags, blue with white stripes in them, hints to [[BlueIsCalm his more pacific and reasonable mien]], as well as his true loyalties.
69** Hidetora wearing a WhiteShirtOfDeath is not only appropriate for his status as a powerful and feared warlord who heralded death for his enemies, but foreshadows how the death of his sons, his realm, and his legacy will come to haunt him in turn.
70* CostumePorn: Aristocrats in medieval Japan have fabulous clothes.
71* CrapsackWorld: Only the crappiest.
72* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler:Saburo's arquebusiers completely wipe out Jiro's cavalry despite their lesser numbers, mainly due to Jiro's tactical incompetence.]]
73* DarkerAndEdgier: Easily one of the darkest films Creator/AkiraKurosawa ever made.
74* DeadpanSnarker: Kurogane, while mocking Kaede to her face.
75* DeathByDespair: [[spoiler:Hidetora suffers a heart attack immediately after Saburo's [[DroppedABridgeOnHim sudden death]]]].
76* DecapitationPresentation:
77** During the final battle, a soldier hands a wrapped severed head to Kurogane. Kurogane expects that it's Saburo's head. [[spoiler: It's Lady Sué's.]]
78** Before that, Lady Kaede expects the head of Lady Sué. Instead, it's the head of a fox statue. Kurogane tells her "Lady Sué must have been a fox in disguise! A clever fox indeed!"
79* DefensiveFeintTrap: During the final battle. [[spoiler: Jiro and his men attack Saburo's men, only to find that the enemy they ''thought'' was watching from atop a hill is actually off storming the First Castle. Oops.]]
80* DemotedToDragon: [[spoiler: Jiro is initially making his own grab for power, but the moment he is alone with Lady Kaede, he is so intimidated by her that he is soon bobbing his head up and down for her like an obedient dog.]]
81* DespairEventHorizon:
82** Hidetora hits this - then [[SanitySlippage goes crazy]]. Also at the end, after [[spoiler: his son, Saburo gets shot, causing him to suffer a heart attack induced DeathByDespair]].
83** Kyoami gets one from Hidetora's, and moans about how the King has become a fool and the fool has become the rational one.
84* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Hidetora finally reconciles with Saburo, and they ride off to put down the rebellions... then Saburo gets shot, and Hidetora dies of a heart attack. Kyoami is left crying and wondering if the gods exist, and if so, whether or not they're sadists. Kurogane learns of Kaede's manipulations, kills her in front of Jiro as she declares her victory, and they make a last stand in an uncertain fate against the Ayabe army. And also, Tsurumaru, the blind man, is left alone atop the desolate ruins of his family's old castle, not knowing that his sister has been murdered. As he blindly walks around trying to find a way out of the ruins, he runs up against a cliff and ends up dropping the scroll of the Buddha that Sué gave him for protection, leaving him completely alone without even the comfort of the gods, as the sun sinks over the horizon and the screen fades to black]].
85* TheDragon: FourStarBadass Kurogane serves as Jiro's and is probably the most balanced character of the story.
86* TheDreaded: Hidetora is a feared LivingLegend, being remembered as a merciless warlord who spared no blood in conquering all of his neighboring kingdoms. During the storming of the Third Castle, the mere sight of him is enough to make the attacking armies back down.
87* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Taro, after being built up as a big threat, is unceremoniously shot by his own general while triumphantly riding into the Third Castle. His wife Kaede doesn't mind a bit.]]
88** The same thing happens to [[spoiler: Saburo]], right after it looks like he might have finally gotten his way.
89* DudeLooksLikeALady: Kyoami and Tsurumaru. Tango actually mistakes Tsurumaru for a woman at first.
90* EpicFilm: The most expensive Japanese film produced up to that time. A three-hour-long tragedy where the battle sequences involve thousands of extras.
91* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In the first dialogue scene of the film, Saburo gets two, back to back. In conversation, he seems hot-headed and brash; but when Lord Hidetora falls asleep, Saburo alone bothers to cut and erect some branches so that the old man might nap in the shade. [[spoiler: Saburo would be the only one of the brothers to not betray his father and offer kindness to him during his misery.]]
92* EtTuBrute: Hidetora and his sons. A subversion (also of MistreatmentInducedBetrayal) with the outspoken Saburo, who receives a lesser share and is outcast, but he is the one son who remains dutifully loyal.
93* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[TheDragon Kurogane]], a man who is no stranger to war, bloodshed and assassinations, is outraged when Lady Kaede orders [[ThePollyanna Lady Sué's]] death. [[spoiler: When another assassin brings the head of Lady Sué, this motivates Kurogane into such a state of fury that he murders Kaede himself.]]
94* EventTitle: Translates to "rebellion."
95* EvilCounterpart: Kaede to Sué. Both are the daughters of families that Hidetora slaughtered, who were forcefully married to his sons. However, while Sué takes refuge in her Buddhist faith and bears no ill will towards Hidetora or his family, Kaede seethes with hatred for all of them and plots to have them destroy each other when Hidetora's abdication provides an opening. [[spoiler: Hammered home when Kaede has Sué murdered as part of her plans.]]
96* EvilPlan: Lady Kaede seeks to destroy the Ichimonji clan by manipulating three brothers into going to war with each other.
97* EvilVsEvil. ''In spades'', but especially Taro vs Jiro. [[spoiler: Hey, this is King Lear transferred into Sengoku era Japan!]]
98* TheExile: Saburo is exiled after he forcefully tries to talk sense to his father.
99** Rather than kill him, Hidetora had Tsurumaru's eyes torn out and exiled him into the wilderness.
100* EyeScream:
101** Tsurumaru's eyes were gouged out in exchange for sparing his life. Done offscreen, thankfully.
102** One of the extras gets a painful looking arrow to the eye during a battle. Onscreen, unfortunately.
103* FaceDeathWithDignity
104** Attempted twice by Hidetora when the Third Castle is attacked. First he grabs his sword and runs out to meet the attackers, intending to die in battle, but it breaks against the armor of the first person he hits it with. After this he runs back inside and attempts seppuku, but cannot find a sword to do it with, and so he [[HeroicBSOD just sits motionless in the burning tower and waits to die.]] Even then, the men assume him to be dead anyway and don't come to kill him. [[TraumaCongaLine Hidetora isn't getting off the hook that easily.]]
105** Lady Kaede calmly admits to everything and accepts her death when Kurogane beheads her. Justified as even though she dies, she got everything she wanted.
106* FlawExploitation: Lady Kaede exploits [[spoiler: Hidetora's pride, Taro's lack of assertiveness, and Jiro's obsession with virility]].
107* ForWantOfANail: As noted elsewhere in the page, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ran_(film)#Development Kurosawa got the idea for the film]] from tweaking the story of daimyo Mori Motonari, who had very loyal sons working together to preserve their clan. He imagined the story as what would happen if these sons acted more ambitious and disloyal than in RealLife.
108* FourStarBadass: Kurogane, see rest of page.
109** Saburo's general also counts, managing to defeat [[spoiler: Jiro's much larger army]] in the field without losing a single man.
110* FromBadToWorse: Hidetora sees the dissension among his sons as a risk to his family's power. His solution to that problem annihilates the clan.
111* GenderFlip:
112** The feuding children are male, as opposed to the ones in ''Theatre/KingLear''. A literal instance of ShesAManInJapan, in fact.
113** In the opposite direction, Edmund has been turned into a woman.
114* GeneralFailure: Jiro, all the way. He ignores the advice of his more-experienced battle commanders, allows himself to get surrounded by three different armies, sends his men charging off only to get cut down by enemy gunfire, and all while leaving his seat of power open for attack. Needless to say, things don't end well for him.
115* {{Gorn}}: The battle scenes are remarkably brutal. The sack of the Third Castle inspired the aftermath of Omaha Beach in ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan''.
116* GoryDiscretionShot: You don't need to see a beheading when the results of it are even more obvious. Results in HighPressureBlood.
117* GreyAndGrayMorality: Except for Saburo, Sué, Kyoami and Tango, the characters are a morally mixed bunch at best.
118* GunsVsSwords: The musketeer units devastate the samurai who fight with more traditional weapons whenever they take the field (though they are also shown having an insane rate of fire for matchlock arquebuses).
119* HaveYouSeenMyGod: The film basically says that if there's a higher power, they're blind.
120* HemoErotic: In the scene where Lady Kaede seduces Jiro, she holds a knife to his neck and cuts him a couple of times. Then, after kissing him, she makes a point of licking the blood on his neck.
121* HenpeckedHusband: Taro. [[spoiler: Not that Jiro does any better.]]
122* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler: Saburo, the most heroic of the three brothers, is shot unceremoniously by a sniper and Hidetora has a heart attack in the end.]]
123* HeroicBSOD: Hidetora has a ''huge'' one after the Third Castle is burned. He stops speaking and can barely remember his own name.
124* HighPressureBlood: Blood sprays all over the wall when [[spoiler: Kaede is beheaded.]]
125* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: Saburo finds Hidetora and manages to finally reconcile with him, promising that they can live in peace in Lord Fujimaki's lands. As they ride away together, Jiro's arquebusiers finally arrive and shoot Saburo dead, causing Hidetora to die of a heart attack.]]
126* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: After the Third Castle falls, the mighty Hidetora is reduced to an insane fugitive who's barely aware of his surroundings.
127* HumanPincushion: Multiple people get absolutely riddled with arrows at the Third Castle.
128* HumanShield: A group of Hidetora's concubines put themselves between him and a group of Taro's arquebusiers at the Third Castle. All of them die.
129* HumansAreBastards: Perhaps the real message of the film, because nothing in the film was a random event or a capricious will of God. Everything that happens is due to the cycle of violence and revenge that no one can seem to sate.
130* IHaveNoSon: After Saburo calls out Hidetora for his delusional plans of a peaceful succession, Hidetora breaks their tides with Saburo, calls him a stranger and banishes him.
131* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Lady Sué. So much so that Hidetora is a little frightened by her.
132* InTheBack: In the chaos of the attack on the Third Castle, Taro is shot in the back out of nowhere by one of Jiro's generals.
133* IveComeTooFar: ''You've'' Come Too Far. When Jiro seems on the verge of following his dazed, catatonic father out of the third castle, General Kurogane tells him that there's no faltering now and he has to pursue his path to "absolute rule".
134-->'''Kurogane''': You cannot go back.
135* JerkAss: Lady Kaede is cold and abrasive to just about everyone. Hidetora was also a cruel man [[spoiler: pre-madness]].
136* JerkassHasAPoint:
137** Saburo insults his father for putting too much trust in his sons and is proven correct very quickly after Hidetora hands his leadership over to Taro.
138** Kyoami spends much of the film acting like an obnoxious idiot and provoking the more serious characters, [[CassandraTruth but he makes lots of correct observations that get ignored]], such as advising Hidetora not to take refuge in the Third Castle.
139* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
140** Saburo is simultaneously the most abrasive and one of the most pure-hearted and purely good characters in the film.
141** Kyoami is more thoughtful and caring than he lets on. He stays with Hidetora even after he's gone insane and been driven out into the wilderness. There are numerous points where the jester could easily desert Hidetora, but he stays loyal to his liege the entire film.
142* JidaiGeki: Set at some nebulous point in the Sengoku era, some time after the introduction of firearms to Japan in 1543.
143* KarmicDeath:
144** [[spoiler: Her revenge complete, Lady Kaede is treated by Kurogane to a well-deserved death.]]
145** Hidetora was a cruel warlord who murdered countless people to build his empire and never showed an ounce of pity or mercy to his victims. [[spoiler: By the end, because of his own hubris and the machinations of one of his victims, his lands are in ruins, his children dead, and he is reduced to an insane, remorseful wanderer who can barely remember his own name. When he finally dies of a heart attack, it's with the knowledge that all the blood he spilled and the empire he built was meaningless.]]
146* KillItWithFire: What happens to the Third Castle. Hidetora did this years earlier to Sué and Tsurumaru's castle.
147* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler: Lady Sué, the most innocent and kindhearted character in the film, is murdered by her own husband at Lady Kaede's behest.]]
148* LadyMacbeth: Lady Kaede, who pushes her husbands into conflict with their father and each other.
149* LaserGuidedKarma: Hidetora gets a big, heaping helping of it.
150* LastStand: Jiro as his castle is stormed.
151* ManipulativeBitch: Lady Kaede, a captive who winds up marrying into the family of the man who destroyed her family and eventually brings about its destruction by playing her husbands like fiddles.
152* MeaningfulName: Taro, Jiro and Saburo literally mean "First son, second son and third son".
153** ''Hidetora'' (秀虎), their father, meaning "outstanding tiger".
154** ''Kurogane'': "Black Steel"
155* MurderTheHypotenuse: Invoked by Lady Kaede, to further ingratiate herself with Jiro.
156* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Kurogane. The name literally means "Black Steel." Likewise Hidetora, "Outstanding Tiger".
157* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Almost indistinguishable by the end-product (especially as the references to ''Theatre/KingLear'' become more apparent), but:
158** As mentioned in ForWantOfANail above, the three sons of Hidetora were supposedly parallel to the three sons of Mori Motonari--these being the generals [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mori_Takamoto Mori Takamoto]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikkawa_Motoharu Kikkawa Motoharu]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayakawa_Takakage Kobayakawa Takakage]].[[note]]Curiously, their lives were indeed reflected a bit in the film: the eldest son Takamoto (i.e. Taro) was assassinated after succeeding to the clan, second son Motoharu was a bit more belligerent against the family's enemies (but was way more competent than Jiro), and Takakage, just like Saburo, was a talented general and tactician--with the added bonus of actually dying peacefully, having served and led well for most of his life.[[/note]]
159** Hidetora himself, beyond the plot function borrowed from Motonari's myth, borrows a lot more from the blood-soaked reputations of RealLife UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod warlords like UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga (particularly his disdain for the Buddha), not to mention a brusquer take on UsefulNotes/TakedaShingen, who Creator/TatsuyaNakadai previously portrayed in ''{{Film/Kagemusha}}''.
160* NobleTopEnforcer: Kurogane, the honorable samurai, is this to Jiro.
161* OffWithHerHead: [[spoiler: Lady Sué, then Lady Kaede.]]
162* OffstageVillainy: Hidetora's bloody conquests. We meet some of the survivors, who are, understandably, rather ticked off. Keeping Hidetora's bad acts offscreen, to an extent, helps us sympathize a bit with him--even if the film is clear that his sufferings are, in many ways, deserved.
163* OldSoldier: Despite his declining condition, Hidetora demonstrates he hasn't completely rusted when he snipes one of Taro's soldiers with an arrow for trying to kill his jester. This is no longer the case after he fully gives into madness, and ironically, his killing of that soldier helped lead to that.
164* OneWordTitle: And one short word, at that.
165* OnlySaneMan:
166** Kurogane plays this role in Jiro's circle. He's the only one maintaining anything resembling a code of ethics. Naturally, his insight - which could have prevented half the tragedy in this movie - is discarded. Instead, Jiro opts to bend over for Kaede.
167** The Jester certainly feels like the OnlySaneMan when he has to look after an increasingly maddened Hidetora.
168** Among the three brothers, Saburo does not succumb to any lust for power.
169* ParentalFavoritism: While casting out his youngest son, Hidetora proclaims that he loved Saburo the most, and regrets that he spoiled him.
170* ThePollyanna: Lady Sué, due to her strong Buddhist faith. She doesn't even hate Hidetora for murdering her family and burning their castle, something that disturbs him.
171* PlayingTheHeartStrings: During the sack of the third castle. [[spoiler: The music is cut short by Taro's assassination]].
172* PragmaticAdaptation: Averted regarding CourtJester, the medieval European court jester lacks a clear Japanese counterpart ([[ServileSnarker a low-birth wouldn't dare pestering around nobles]]), but it was transplanted directly because of his important {{Foil}} role.
173* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Kyoami the fool, who gets a reply [[ShoutOut/ToShakespeare very reminiscent]] of ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar''; the fault is in ourselves not in the gods (stars), who are the ones who should be mad at the mortals.
174* RainOfArrows: The attack on the Third Castle.
175* RealitySubtext: It was probably unintentional, but the very conflict that erupted between Hidetora and his sons is nigh-similar to the rebellions English king [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet Henry II suffered against his sons]]--which was borne out of Henry's own attempts to allot parts of his empire equitably to all of them. Closer to this trope, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ran_(film)#Themes many scholars and critics]] identified the crisis, fear and insecurities of the 20th century being perfectly invoked by the conflicts that erupted throughout the film.
176** On a more personal level, many of the actors and staff Kurosawa worked with had died by the time the film was made, and Kurosawa had had a falling-out with actor Toshiro Mifune in 1965, giving a definite RealitySubtext to scenes where Hidetora banished his son and was himself isolated. Furthermore, the Kanji for Kurosawa's first name "Akira" features a sun and moon, and the crest for the House of Ichimonji is a sun and moon.
177* RecycledInSPACE: ''Theatre/KingLear'' in feudal Japan. Kurosawa claimed he based the movie on the history of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C5%8Dri_Motonari Mori Motonari]] and he only became aware of the striking similarities of both stories once his project was underway. Be that as it may, Kurosawa had already used the trope in ''Film/ThroneOfBlood'', ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' in feudal Japan.
178* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Hidetora sees the error of his ways and the wisdom of Saburo's way of thinking in the end, but dies shortly thereafter.]]
179* RedSkyTakeWarning: See AStormIsComing below.
180* RetiredMonster: Hidetora is a ruthless warlord and an infamous LivingLegend who decides to retire and divide his realm among his sons.
181* {{Revenge}}: The driving force behind [[spoiler: Lady Kaede]]. A TheDogBitesBack story.
182* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Two retainers help defeat their master, Hidetora. Hidetora's son rewards them as they agreed, however he then explains that he can't very well have retainers who obviously disregard loyalty to their master, and kicks them out. Later on they wander too close to one of Hidetora's loyal followers and get chased down and killed.
183* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Lady Kaede's family was murdered by Hidetora, who took their ancestral castle for his own and married her to one of his sons. Years later, when Hidetora's old age provides an opening, she seizes the opportunity to manipulate his house into a civil war, [[spoiler: bringing about the deaths of him and all his sons and the ruination of their lands.]]
184* RuleOfSymbolism: The very last scene of the film is [[https://i1.wp.com/wherethelongtailends.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Ran_29.png Tsurumaru (probably the only unambiguously good character to survive) having wandered close to a cliff edge]], accidentally dropping his scroll portraying the Buddha to the abyss--with the very real possibility of him looking for it and inadvertently hurtling to his doom. With this immediately following Tango and Kyoami's bitter ruminations about how [[TheGodsMustBeLazy the gods cannot (and do not) intervene against humanity's evil]] (plus the general nihilism of the entire story), it makes for a suitable DownerEnding. (One might suspect a line from ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' might be apropos: "The fault, dear Brutus, lies not within the stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.")
185* {{Samurai}}: Hidetora's family, its retainers, and their rival clans are all samurai.
186* SanitySlippage: Hidetora. Kyoami moans that the fool is now acting like a King, and the King is acting like a fool.
187* SceneryPorn:
188** Some of the establishing shots are quite likely amongst the most beautiful in cinema history.
189** The framing is ''excellent'' in this film: it would be fair to say that any scene where the camera doesn't move would be just as good a painting.
190** The colors! The colors!!
191* SceneryGorn: Oh, man, the attack on the Third Castle scene. Oh. God. That will overlap as NightmareFuel for a lot of people. The sheer brutality of that scene was even the basis for the Omaha Beach scene in ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'', right down to the soldier holding his torn arm. In fact, some have considered the Scenery Gorn to be Scenery ''Porn'' at the ''same time''.
192* {{Seppuku}}:
193** Lady Kaede's mother after Hidetora took the First Castle; Hidetora's concubines during the attack on the Third Castle. In addition, [[spoiler: Jiro, Kurogane, and Jiro's other main retainers presumably do so offscreen when the First Castle is about to be destroyed. Unless, of course, they get killed in the battle or emerge victorious on their LastStand.]]
194** Subverted in Hidetora's case. [[BreakableWeapons It pays to have an extra sword on hand in times like these.]]
195* ShesAManInJapan: See the notes on the GenderFlip. Shakespeare’s openly assertive princesses would look less plausible in feudal Japan. In contrast, the LadyMacbeth-ish Lady Kaede (rooting from Edmund) is instead a very well-recognized trope in Sengoku period historiography.[[note]]The figures of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hino_Tomiko Hino Tomiko]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodo-dono Lady Chacha]] come to mind.[[/note]]
196* ShootTheShaggyDog: After his army wins a great victory and he has rescued and reconciled with his father, [[spoiler: Saburo is shot dead by one of Jiro's snipers, causing Hidetora to die soon afterwards of a heart attack.]]
197* ShoutoutToShakespeare: Again, it's ''Theatre/KingLear'' in Feudal Japan! And considered by critics to be one of the best adaptations of Lear ever made.
198* TheSonsAndTheSpears: Hidetora tries to use this to encourage his sons to stick together. The fable is deconstructed by Saburo managing to break it anyway, but Hidetora takes the intended reality check as a mockery.
199* SparedByTheAdaptation: Kyoami, compared to Shakespeare's Fool.
200* SpeakTruthToPower: Tango defends the validity of Saburo's objections, which gets him [[TheExile exiled]].
201* StaggeredZoom: Two paired together end the film. A distance shot shows Tsurumaru, blind, standing on the battlements of his family's wrecked castle. A staggered zoom in ends with him in closeup--whereupon he drops the image of Buddha that his sister had left with him to protect him. Then there's a staggered zoom out, back to the distance shot of Tsurumaru on the walls, and that is the last shot of the film.
202* AStormIsComing: Both literally and figuratively. The gathering of clouds in the sky is a recurring visual motif.
203* SuccessionCrisis: Hidetora thinks he's preventing one with his dividing of the realm, but it's only postponed as the three sons esteem there are still two [[TheWrongfulHeirToTheThrone wrongful heirs]].
204* ThemeNaming: Taro, Jiro and Saburo literally mean "first son," "second son" and "third son."
205* TokenGoodTeammate: Kurogane for Jiro's faction, Saburo for Hidetora's sons.
206* TooDumbToLive: There are some things worth leaving behind...
207* {{Tragedy}}: Not completely devoid of humor, but it's no comedy.
208* TragicHero: Hidetora is a classic example, a great man brought low by his own flaws and mistakes.
209* TrashTheSet: The burning of the Third Castle.
210* TraumaCongaLine: Part of Hidetora's CharacterDevelopment, from ruthless warlord to traumatized, lonely, [[TheAtoner remorseful old man]].
211* UndyingLoyalty: Tango continues to serve Hidetora even after being exiled by him.
212* UnfriendlyFire: [[spoiler: Taro meets his end this way.]]
213* VillainDecay: Jiro initially demonstrates some real cunning in his bid to wrestle power away from his father and brother. However, he winds up becoming Lady Kaede's puppet and turns out to be a spectacular GeneralFailure.
214* WanderingWalkOfMadness: Hidetora as the Third Castle burns; Jiro and his armies don't stop him or follow.
215* WarIsHell: Fire, confusion, dead bodies; war is not presented as glamorous in any way once it breaks out. The storming of the Third Castle is particularly hellish.
216* WhamEpisode: The attack on the Third Castle, which kills Taro, drives Hidetora insane, and leads Jiro to gaining power over Ichimonji.
217* WhatTheHellHero: Saburo, his most loyal son, gives Hidetora one when he decides to divide the domain in three parts.
218* WildHair: Tsurumaru's hair is appropriately long and unkempt for a blind hermit. Hidetora's gets this way after going completely insane.
219* WisePrince: Saburo. Not only is he the only one who realizes that his father's plan to divide the Ichimonji lands is madness, he's also just to his subjects and men (even if he is a bit of a dick in personal interactions).
220* {{Yandere}}: Lady Kaede pretends to be one to [[spoiler: push Jiro into murdering Lady Sué. It works.]] In truth, she hates him just as much as the rest of his family.
221* YoungestChildWins: [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]] Saburo is assassinated just as he is happily reunited with Hidetora.]]

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