Akira Kurosawa's Ran is a perfect example of how a director portrays their strong personal views in a film. In Ran, it becomes very evident that Kurosawa is criticizing today's modern warfare. He uses Japan's history and past to comment on present day issues. Kurosawa even stated:
"If you look at the situation of the world around you, I think its impossible in this day and age to be optimistic"
His pessimistic outlook is portrayed throughout this entire movie and can even be seen in his other film as well, such as Yojimbo.
In Ran, this newage warfare is conveyed through Saburo's use of arquebusers (an early firearm that came out in the 1500s in Japan). His army uses these newage weapons to wipe out Jiro's military, whom use simple fighting weapons such as swords and horses. The violence is really emphasized in each battle scene by the excessive use of red blood (gross!!) and Kurosawa uses long shots a lot to portray the massive chaos.
Overall he makes it very clear that the way in which present day people fight is no better, and even far worse than how they used to. A leaving thought...
"all the technological progress of these last years has only taught human beings how to kill more of each other faster"
-Akira Kurosawa
I like that quote and find it pretty true, as well as exemplified in both Yojimbo and Ran.
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