 Even "Kagemusha", though it chronicled the fall of the Takeda clan and their disastrous defeat at the Battle of Nagashino, had ended on a note of regret rather than despair.By contrast, the world of "Ran" is a Hobbesian world, where life is an endless cycle of suffering and everybody is a villain or a victim, and in many cases both.Heroes like Saburo may do the right thing, but in the end they are doomed as well.