Ran (1985)

Made late in his career, the last of Akira Kurosawa’s great historical epics transposes the story of Shakespeare’s King Lear to feudal Japan.

A magisterial final testament from one of Japan’s greatest directors (though he would make three more smaller scale films), Akira Kurosawa’s Ran was the most expensive Japanese film yet made. Returning to Shakespeare for inspiration – three decades after his version of Macbeth, Throne of Blood (1957) – Kurosawa found his Lear in Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai), an ageing warlord who divides his kingdom between his three sons.

Swirling mist, rumbling clouds, shade passing across a battlefield – the director harnesses the elements to tell the tale of Hidetora’s growing madness as his offspring jostle for power. For the remarkable central sequence, when Hidetora’s Third Castle is ambushed by the forces of his elder sons, Kurosawa omits sound, relying on Toru Takemitsu’s score to help impart the dreadful force of the battle.

1985 France, Japan
Directed by
Akira Kurosawa
Produced by
Serge Silberman, Masato Hara
Written by
Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Masato Ide
Featuring
Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu
Running time
160 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Ran

Critics

Mallory Andrews
Canada
Catherine Bray
UK
Katie Goh
UK
Toby Haggith
UK
Harlan Jacobson
USA
Jennie Kermode
UK
Andro Martinovic
Montenegro
Santiago Navajas
Spain
Ben Nicholson
UK
Mohammed Rouda
UK
Jasper Sharp
UK
Anne Thompson
USA
Paul Wells
UK
Michael Wood
USA
Adrian Wootton
UK
Adham Youssef
Egypt

Directors

Faouzi Bensaïdi
Morocco
Paul Bush
UK
Armando Iannucci
Uk
Bernard Rose
UK/USA
Theodore Witcher
USA

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