Ran by Akira Kurosawa

Ran is a film directed by the same person who directed Throne of Blood. Just as Throne of Blood this film is loosely based on another Shakespeare play King Lear. The film revolves around a ruler who seperates his kingdom among his three sons due to the fact the his old age is beginning to creep on him. But the youngest son foretells of the risks in dividing the kingdom amongst them by breaking a bundle of arrows which was meant to symbolize the strength of the 3 together. The family ends up going into all out war for power and the plot further unfolds from there.
This movie is done in vibrant color and bright lighting. A tremendous contrast to THrone of Blood which was filmed in black and white. But nonetheless this film has an excellent use of great landscapes and a wide variety of colors. It really hold syour attention the brightness of the whole production. The most grittiest parts of the movie are the scenes in which all the chaos of warfare and confusion and despair of the great lord reveals itself to the audience. The emotion really relays itself. When the father was going through time sof anguish the whole ambience of teh film seemed to change also. The brightness dissapeared and the scene became dark and very gritty.
The makeup in this movie also really gets the emotions across and are very evocative. The makeup of the great lord when he's experiencing so much pain and confusion is an grey pale look on his face. Also the wrinkles and lines in his face are strengthened with black outline in order to really get all the emotion out of the facial expressions. Every wrinkle in his face seems to go deeper than it would in actual reality.
Furthermore, the camera angles in the scenic views are very beautiful. There's a scene at the beginning of film in which Subaro and Tango are on their horses on a mountainside. And the camera zooms out to get a whole view of the side of themountain with the two on top of it. It's such an amazing view and excellent shot. Thsi film also uses a good bit of whole body shots with two people inthe frame facing each other. So you can really see the gestures and body movements of both characters along with the background which adds real depth to the whole shot.
There is a point in this movie where all audio plays through for what has to be a good 5-7 minutes straight. The scenes are during a battle at the castle and where people are dying left to right. The castle is on fire and it seems like hell. Almost hell on earth. The audio just plays and tells ypu what to feel in other words. It adds the element that causes no need for words jus th epalying of the music.
But now that i think about it the chaos and confusion of teh whole scene sort of reflects what the great lord was experiencing in his mind. The confusion and pain of losing his sons and what he could do to alleviate all the conflict.
The movie is pretty good, sort of long but has a great story line and made pretty well too.

Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood is a film which is supposed to be a japanese remake of MacBeth. It's filmed entirely in black and white which sort of add grittiness to some of the scenes.
There are several scenes in this movie which are made very cleverly according to the thoughts of the characters. For instance, most of the scenes in which Lord Washizu is contemplating about what actions he should take is done in an empty little room. The walls are bare and the room is filled with nothing but emptiness. It really adds a sort of an allure to the mystery of his thinking. The room is also surrounded in shadows which sort of reflects his unsyredness of what to do.
There is also a scene in which Lord Washizu wife goes into a pitch black room in order to receive a "sake" or drink of some sort to give the guards of the Great Lord in order to kil him. Well in the scene the wife goes into the room and slowly becomes engulfed in shadows. It gives a really eerie and dubious feeling to the whole thing. Then she emerges out of the shadows walking ever so slowly. The scene really showcases the evil and dark intentions that are at hand.
The camera angles really usee a lot of close up facial shots to show the anguish or confusion on some of the characters faces. Such as when they are to accept their titles as teh Lord of the North Garison and such. When they see that the prophecy comes to pass the camera angles really facial shots really capture the suspense and reactions of the characters. Other camera angles are ones in which two characters are shown in one scene facing each other. The shots really capture the background of the scene very well but at the same time teh relationship betwen the two characters according to their distance from each other.
Throne of Blood is made and directed well, and to me probably the best on screen version of Macbeth that I have seen.