MovieChat Forums > Ran (1985) Discussion > Spoiler: Question about the last part of...

Spoiler: Question about the last part of the movie

posted 15 years ago by meshaky
2 replies | jump to latest

The movie was good, but there was a huge plot hole towards the end according to me. It may not really be a plot hole considering everything else that has happened till that point, but however I felt it was either the 3rd son was too foolish than all other of them (father and other 2 sons) or the story had a big plot hole.

Here is the point...

This is at the point when the 3rd son comes to know about his father and he wants to take his father to his castle.

Now the best thing to move a SINGLE OLD man would be by letting someone lie to the old man that they are going somewhere else and instead take him to the 3rd son's castle...the old man was anyways not in his senses and was fully dependent on others, so it would have been a really easy to somehow move him to whereever needed.

And the second son who had become king was anyways not aware of where his father was or didn't care where he lived or moved...so he wouldn't even care about if his father goes to the 3rd son or whatever.

This simple situation was over complicated by the 3rd son going with a full army to meet his father in the desert which was absolutely unnecessary and on top of that his father-in-law also got more army posted on the mountains, which led to all the foolishness that followed.

I would like to think that the 3rd son wanted to face the enemy and get his father with pride by fighting the war face to face and getting his father's kindom back or something like that, but it was clearly not the case as he sent the message to the kind that he is there with peace and only for this father, and also he did mention to one of his men that he does not wants to let the enemy know his father's location which means he really wanted to get his father out of there in secrecy or something....but if that was the case then you dont go out to do something secret with an army of men, that was to me pure foolishness.

Am I missing something here?

[–] yoda87960 15 years ago

Not entirely sure if it explains it, (a lot of stuff was going on), but here's what I interpreted. Saburo didn't really have an army. He was with the army of another warlord whose daughter he married. This was the same warlord who witnessed the dad's reckless behavior and was a friend of the family in some ways. Saburo and the other warlord also knew that the two other brothers attempted to kill the dad and that only one brother was left. This probably meant that the one guy, Jiro, was just trying a power grab (which he was), that he knew the dad was on the loose somewhere (which he did), and that he figured that Saburo might come looking for him (which he did). Of course Jiro would interpret the retrieval of the father as an attempt on his throne (which it ended up being).

If Jiro killed his own bro for land, then he probably was ready to go to war for some more. On top of that, there was yet another army going after Jiro as well. It's what you might call a cluster****. Regardless, people knew Jiro was acting nuts, including his own troops. So.....

If you're rich in feudal Japan and have power, you don't spend your cash on fancy cars and ipods. You can blow a good chunk of change on carrying an army with you. The reason Saburo went for his dad was because he knew the **** was probably going to hit the fan. Knowing this he brought an army with him just to be safe, but he also attempted a truce with Jiro beforehand. Jiro ignored it, started the fight, and lost.

I mean he had two choices. Try the secret agent thing, sneak in and grab the old man. I imagine it was not a quick short trip like the editing would have you believe. They had scouts, villages, and peasants everywhere that would send the message that the guy went into enemy territory. Thinking Saboru was regrouping, this would lead to war, Going with an army, he's saying "Hey we don't want any trouble, we're not going behind your back, we just want the old man and we'll leave." If he tried that without an army with him, he'd get slaughtered, since Jiro and his wife were crazy.

[–] yoda87960 15 years ago

Since the dad had gone nuts, they couldn't really just grab him and leave. He was running away constantly and they had to go bring Saburo to him. And the guy's royalty. He requires a large escort everywhere he goes. Sneaking around probably never occurred to anyone. And there might have been border crossings like there were in the Hidden Fortress. Again, it was his brother and he was probably expecting at least a little civility and wanted to express that the major powers could coexist. Or his buddy warlords wanted a shot at the land in case something happened.