Nearest says this is a good rendition of what flying shrapnel — especially flat metal — does to the human face.

I always turn to him for this kind of research.

We were watching Kurosawa’s Ran. There’s a moment when the vengeful woman’s head went off, slashed off by a samurai sword. We don’t see this; we see the drawn sword and see two crossed gouts of blood, one smaller, hit the wall.

As we were leaving the theater, we heard audience members sneering, “That’s not what happens when somebody’s beheaded. That’s too dramatic.”

Nearest said, on the other hand, that it’s exactly what happens. When a helicopter blade takes off a human head, the aorta and a smaller vessel both empty like a powerful fountain, their streams crossing in mid-air.

Kurosawa does his research.