With Ran, legendary director Akira Kurosawa re-imagines Shakespeare’s tragic King Lear as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan. Tatsuya Nakadai stars as Lord Hidetora, a warlord who cedes authority over his vast dominion to his eldest son, setting off a familial power struggle for control of the kingdom. Majestic in scope, Ran is a visual masterpiece in which Kurosawa contrasts the immensity of war with the crumbling of one family under the weight of betrayal, greed, and the insatiable thirst for power.
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Language Notes Text: English, Japanese
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A new digitally restored, hi-definition transfer of the Akira Kurosawa classic. This masterpiece retells Shakespeare's "King Lear" against the backdrop of Japanese history.
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Akira Kurosawa's brilliantly conceived re-telling of Shakespeare's King Lear magically mixes Japanese history, Shakespear's plot and Kurosawa's own feelings about loyalty in the epic masterpiece, RAN.
Set in the 16th century Japan, an aging ruler, Lord Hidetora, announces his intention to divide his land equally among three sons. This decision to step down unleashes a power struggle between the three, when Hidetora falls prey to the false flattery bestowed upon him by the two older sons and banishes the youngest when he speaks the truth. The ruthless betrayal ultimately drives the Hidetora insane, destroying his entire family and kingdom.
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For his 27th film, the "sensei" of Japanese cinema, Akira Kurosawa, transposes Shakespeare's KING LEAR to feudal Japan. RAN, which translates as "chaos" or "turmoil," is the tragic tale of Lord Hidetora, a warlord who decides to divide his empire among his three sons on the eve of his 70th birthday. However, Hidetora's youngest and most compassionate son, Saburo, defiantly objects to this hasty decision and is disowned by the proud, stubborn ruler. Once the two eldest sons take control of the empire, they quickly turn on their father and begin vying for total control over the land. As Hidetora is banished from his own kingdom in a bloody battle, he must confront the consequences of his violent, ruthless past.
Ten years in the making, RAN represents the culmination of Kurosawa's career by revisiting his skill at adapting Shakespeare, as evidenced in THRONE OF BLOOD, and displaying the cinematic splendor of his other landmark films such as SEVEN SAMURAI and RASHOMON. With its magnificent costumes, breathtaking settings, and amazingly photographed battle sequences, the film is truly stunning. An epic on the grandest of scales, RAN is not only one of Kurosawa's finest films, it is a glorious masterpiece of Japanese cinema.
(18 votes)
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