Akira Kurosawa's 1985 epic "Ran" is amazing and here's why you should (re)watch it today.

I'll let you in on a little secret; I'm not your regular movie watcher. I don't eat snacks during movies. I just sit there - breathing and watching. Minimal amount of blinking as to miss as little frames as possible. Because every one counts.

I've also been to a movie set. And not just to watch, mind you. I was actually an extra, dancing my ass off on the crowded dance floor in a poorly lit night club scene. I haven't even seen that movie, not only because I don't like to watch my own work, but also because I believe the past belongs - in the past.

With that being said, let's jump straight to 1985, the year an amazing movie came out. Akira Kurosawa, indie film favourite, was just catching his stride with his 27th film, when he accidentally made one of the best movies of all time. Yes, the critics saw his potential and "Ran" was praised by even the most hardcore subtitle haters of the time, but that's not why I'm writing this.

I'm writing this merely because I saw this movie yesterday and was blown away by it (fun fact - the wind is also blowing like 95% of the time in the movie). It's use of colours, costumes and green screens (exclusively natural green screens like green grassy hills and forests) is out of this world and it even won the movie it's only Academy award (for costumes, not the hills).

Not only there's no CGI armies in battle scenes, but almost every extra in those scenes has a flag duct-taped to his back, so you can better see what's actually happening in the scene. Historically accurate or no, watching humans run around with flags strapped to their backs is just plain fun to see, and Kurosawa knew you need to lighten the mood during those massacre scenes.

Despite it's critical triumph, the movie was only a modest financial success, which ensured the highly anticipated sequels never saw the light of day. But, the movie's subject and themes are still relevant, even more now than ever.

The point of the movie obviously being that you should always break arrows one by one - doesn't kinda directly translate to our times, because pretty much no one uses arrows anymore. But if you reach hard enough, you might just make it stick.

Oh, did I mention it was loosely based on the play "King Lear" by indie theater favourite William Shakespeare?

Yeah, go watch the movie.