Ran

D: Akira Kurosawa

Toho / Herald Ace / Nippon Herald / Greenwich Film Productions (Masato Hara & Serge Silberman)

Japan/France 🇯🇵 🇫🇷 1985

162 mins

Drama/Adventure

W: Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni & Masato Ide [based on the play “King Lear” by William Shakespeare]

DP: Takao Saito, Masaharu Ueda & Asakazu Nakai

Ed: Akira Kurosawa

Mus: Toru Takemitsu

Tatsuya Nakadai (Ichimonji Hidetora), Akira Terao (Ichimonji Takatora), Jinpachi Nezu (Ichimonji Masatora), Daisuke Ryu (Ichimonji Naotora), Mieko Harada (Lady Kaede)

Akira Kurosawa’s take on Shakespeare’s King Lear, relocated to medieval Japan where an ageing warlord retires and relinquishes his empire to his three sons, who each become corrupted with power, turning on each other as well as himself.

Whilst Ran isn’t quite of the high calibre of Akira Kurosawa’s best work (Seven Samurai), it’s easily the best film of his late career and the last great film he made.

The cinematography, costume and production design are exquisite, and it does a brilliant job adapting a work of classic Shakespearean literature to a novel setting.

8/10