10 Worst Opening Scenes In Otherwise Perfect Movies

2. After The Hunt - Ran

The Hateful Eight
Toho

Akira Kurosawa's late-career masterpiece, Ran, is one of the most visually stunning motion pictures ever made; as a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, it contains some of the biggest and most breathtaking battle sequences ever put to celluloid .

It's a shame that Ran starts out so freakin' slowly, however, with an extended opening scene - one that takes place after an admittedly great credits sequence that sees the main character, Lord Hidetora, and his hunting party chasing down wild bore - sitting down in a field discussing the nature of their situation.

It's all necessary exposition, I suppose, given that in this scene we learn that Lord Hidetora is getting old whilst introducing us to all the major players, including his sons and fellow Lords, but - aside from a few notable moments, like the one that sees one of Hidetora's sons shading his sleeping father with the branch of a tree - it's a slog to sit through.

Once the movie gets to that first huge battle sequence at the one-hour mark, though, the film really kicks into gear and it's plain sailing all the way to the end. So, yes, by the time the battle occurs, you've forgotten all about the slow opening, but I still think Kurosawa could've chopped 20 minutes off and not lessened the impact of his film.

Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.