Ran (film) - Plot

Plot

Ran is "a relentless chronicle of base lust for power, betrayal of the father by his sons, and pervasive wars and murders that destroy all the main characters." It is a tale about the downfall of the once-powerful Ichimonji clan after its patriarch Hidetora decides to give control of his kingdom up to his three sons: Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. Taro, the eldest, will receive the prestigious First Castle and become leader of the Ichimonji clan, while Jiro and Saburo will be given the Second and Third Castles. Hidetora will remain the titular leader and retain the title of Great Lord. Jiro and Saburo are to support Taro, and Hidetora illustrates this by using a bundle of arrows. Saburo criticizes the logic of Hidetora's plan. Hidetora achieved power through violence and treachery, he reminds his father, yet he foolishly expects his sons to be loyal to him. Hidetora mistakes these comments for a threat; and, when his servant Tango comes to Saburo's defense, he banishes both of them. Later, Fujimaki, a warlord who had witnessed these events, invites Saburo to his dominions and offers him his daughter to marry.

Following Hidetora's abdication, Taro's wife Lady Kaede begins pushing for Taro to take direct control of the Ichimonji clan, and engineers a rift between Taro and Hidetora. Lady Kaede resents Hidetora for massacring her family in a previous war and forcing her to marry Taro. Matters come to a head when Hidetora kills one of Taro's guards who was threatening his fool Kyoami. When Taro subsequently demands that Hidetora renounce his title of Great Lord, Hidetora storms out of the castle. He then travels to Jiro's castle, only to discover that Jiro is more interested in using Hidetora as a pawn in his own power play. Hidetora and his escort leave Jiro's castle to wander, finding no food in the villages abandoned by the peasants. Eventually Tango appears with provisions. In a moment of anger Hidetora orders his escort to burn the villages down. Tango intervenes and Hidetora learns from him of Taro's decree: death to whoever aids his father. Hidetora journeys thus to the Third Castle, which had been abandoned after Saburo's forces followed their lord into exile. Tango and Kyoami only do not follow him.

They take shelter in the castle only to be ambushed by the combined forces of Taro and Jiro. In a horrific massacre that is the centerpiece of the film, all of Hidetora's bodyguards fall in battle, two of his concubines stab each other to death in a mutual suicide, the others are shot during the storming, and the castle is set on fire. Hidetora is left to commit seppuku. However, to his dismay, Hidetora's sword has been broken and he cannot. Instead of killing himself, Hidetora has a psychotic episode and wanders away from the burning castle, his attackers unable to kill him because of their low status and too awe-struck by his transformation to stop him. As Taro and Jiro's forces storm the castle, Jiro's general Kurogane assassinates Taro by shooting him down in the confusion of the battle.

Hidetora is discovered wandering in the wilderness by Tango and Kyoami, who along with Saburo remain the only people still loyal to him. They take refuge in a peasant's home only to discover that the occupant is Tsurumaru, the brother of Lady Sué (Hidetora's daughter-in-law), whom Hidetora had ordered blinded years ago. Upon his return from battle, Jiro begins having an affair with Lady Kaede, who quickly becomes the power behind his throne. She demands that Jiro divorce his wife Lady Sué and marry her instead. When he does so, she also demands that he have Sué killed. Kurogane is given the order but he publicly disobeys and warns Jiro not to trust his wife. Instead he warns Sue and Tsurumaru to flee, who will eventually reach their former home, a ruined castle that Hidetora had destroyed in an earlier war. Meanwhile, Hidetora's party hides out in the remains of the same castle.

At one point Tango chases two men from Hidetora's bodyguard who he discovers had betrayed their former master. As Tango fights and kills the two traitors, one of them says that Jiro is talking of trying to hunt down and kill Hidetora, and since Hidetora refuses with terror to meet his youngest son, Tango rides off to bring Saburo to Hidetora instead, while Kyoami stays to assist the mad man. In his madness Hidetora is haunted by horrific visions of the people he destroyed in his quest for power. The insanity finally becomes too much for him to bear; eluding his servant, he flees into the wilderness.

With Hidetora's location a mystery and his plight now known, Saburo's army crosses back into the kingdom to find him. Alarmed at what he suspects is treachery by Saburo and by the entry of two rival warlords on Saburo's side, Jiro hastily mobilizes his army to stop them. The two forces meet on the field of Hachiman. Sensing a major battle, Saburo's new patron Fujimaki marches to the border. Another rival warlord, Ayabe, also shows up with his own army. After arranging a truce with Jiro, Saburo rides off to find Hidetora. Against the advice of Kurogane, Jiro orders an attack, and his forces are decimated by arquebus fire from Saburo's army, who had fled into the nearby wilderness for cover. In the middle of the battle, word reaches Jiro and Kurogane that Ayabe has slipped away with much of his army and is marching on the First Castle. Jiro's army promptly disintegrates and flees back to the castle.

In the end, Saburo finds Hidetora. The two are reunited and Hidetora comes to his senses. However, Saburo is promptly shot and killed by shooters that Jiro had sent out earlier. Overcome with grief, Hidetora dies, marking the end of the Ichimonji clan.

When Kurogane hears that Lady Sué has been finally murdered by one of Jiro's men, Kurogane beheads Lady Kaede after she admits that all of her actions were to avenge herself against the Ichimonji clan and destroy it.

Jiro, Kurogane, and all Jiro's men die in the battle with Ayabe's army that follows.

The film ends with a shot of Tsurumaru, blind and alone, on top of the ruined castle.