This film is good but unfortunately not one of Akira Kurosawa's best. It is a bit too long and not as gripping as his films from the 50's and 60's, like yojimbo or seven samurai.
I'll begin this by saying I agree with the above, though Ran is one of my favourite Kurosawa movies (and I love kurosawas 50's/60's work too), and I also love Dersu Uzala, I think this one lacks a lot for me, you don't really connect with any of the characters like you would in other Kurosawa films, I'm thinking like in Red Beard, Seven Samurai, Ikiru and the other 2 I mentioned. Nakadai is a brilliant actor though so he deserves special mention, I just think like many other reviews have said on the internet this was more of a stepping stone to Ran, it's worth a watch especially for Kurosawa fans like me, but it does begin to feel long winded, today I rewatched an hour of it and it was already feeling lacklustre, I gave it 3* though as it has it's moments, and an intriguing storyline, though it lacks interesting characters and interesting dialogue like many other Kurosawas films.