Ran
Akira Kurosawa's RAN (literally, Chaos), the director's re-imagining of Shakespeare's King Lear, transposed to medieval 16th century Japan. Resting after a wild boar hunt, warlord Tatsuya Nakadai (star of Kobabyashi's Hara Kiri and The Human Condition, Kurosawa's Yojimbo, High and Low, and Kagemusha) decides to divide his domain among his three sons. And then...a giant battle between color-coded armies is fought solely to the great Toru Takemitsu's plaintive music; an entire castle burns to the ground, as Nakadai's glassy-eyed lord staggers down its steep stone steps; ice-cold, knife-wielding seducer Mieko Harada, giving the film's second tour de force performance, stops post-coitus to squash a moth... A decade-long dream, Kurosawa's Shakespeare adaptation (designed from his own watercolor storyboards) proved the master's flair for epic sweep and stylistic innovation undimmed at the age of 75, the culmination of his career. Clarified Kurosawa, "I said culmination, not conclusion." Four Oscar nominations, including Best Director, Cinematography, and Art Direction, with Emi Wada winning for her dazzling costumes. RAN came in as #1 on Vulture's list of the 50 greatest war movies of all time (with Kubrick's Paths of Glory as #2 and Coppola's Apocalypse Now as #6).WarPT2H45MR2025-08-08Akira Kurosawa
Ran"Ran"Showtimes
Loading...