Acting styles in Ran

One thing that has intrigued me about Kurosawa’s choices in making Ran is the acting styles. I can’t recall any other film I’ve seen where there is almost a complete spectrum of styles from highly formal near Noh type acting (Hidetora, Sue, Kaede, Tsuramaru), to a sort of traditional movie semi-comic style (Tango), to the much more naturalistic style of the brothers and most of the minor parts. This seems to me to be in contrast to all Kurosawa’s other films, where he used all those styles to some degree, but always consistent within the film.

I can’t find anything in the main sources I have that discusses this. I assume this was a conscious choice by AK. Was this perhaps just a pragmatic decision that for the entire cast to act ‘Noh’ would not have worked on the screen, or do you think there was a thematic reason behind this?

I hadn’t noticed this! my guess, for what it’s worth, would be that Kurosawa used the acting styles that best fit the combo of actor/role. Because Hidetora’s character is so entangled in formalities in his life, and every action must seem practiced and deliberate, a formal acting style fits him. I think Tango’s character is effective as one whose ridicules toe dangerous lines because Peter’s acting style is almost abrasively unique in the film.

My pretty subjective opinion as someone who has not researched Ran very much but has seen it 4+ times in the past 5 years, is that many of the characters feel cohesive and believable, while being archetypes. I think that variation of acting based on those archetypal differences may be another angle to consider.
I wonder if he sought out actors based on the desired style or if the style was created around the actors..

Life work of Akira Kurosaw is directed by Mitsuhiko Kawamura with English subtitle

Winner of New York international Gold Awards and Japan Film Pen Club Encouragement Award (2024)
Directed and Produced by Mitsuhiko Kawamura
In 1998, Akira Kurosawa received Japan’s People’s Honor Award.

Several making-of video recordings shot on the set of Akira Kurosawa’s 1984 film Ran were rediscovered. Of the original 150 hours of footage, about 70 hours were digitized, and 90 minutes of that are featured in this documentary.

I agree about the characters being archetypes, but I think the key performance with respect to the acting style discussion is Peter as Kyoami. He gets to display the full range of acting styles all within one character. Very theatrical when he’s performing for Hidetora (and others), comic at some points, tragic at others, and there are some real subtleties in his performance as well, some of which Kurosawa highlights with several of the (relatively few) close-ups in the film. I’m thinking in particular of the moment in the ruined castle when Kyoami starts to abandon Hidetora, but then can’t bring himself to do it. That might be the most heartbreaking moment in the film to me, and Ran is not lacking in heartbreaking moments.

I’ve been trying to formulate my thoughts on this but haven’t really managed to produce anything meaningful to say. But I very much think that you might be onto something here, Ugetsu.

It has been suggested that the film presents a “gods’ point of view”, perhaps in a way that reduces the characters to mere players that have their exits and entrances, to rephrase Shakespeare. Some of the characters, like the fool, seem to actively question the fairness of this arrangement. Why should they suffer for the gods’ (the audience’s?) benefit?

Could the various levels of acting have something to do with this? Or is the acting style division a marker of social status, a bit like Sam suggested, or a division between the old and the new social order? Like Higher and Lower writes, Kyoami seems to travel between the strata, as is the fool’s prerogative. Would we say that the fool is also the character that the audience most identifies with?