Akira Kurosawa

Ran

Ran

With Ran, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reimagines Shakespeare's King Lear as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan. Majestic in scope, the film is Kurosawa's late-life masterpiece, a profound examination of the folly of war and the crumbling of one family under the weight of betrayal, greed, and the insatiable thirst for power.

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Film Info

  • Japan
  • 1985
  • 160 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • Japanese
  • Spine #316

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Audio commentary featuring film scholar Stephen Prince
  • An appreciation of the film by director Sidney Lumet
  • A.K., a 74-minute film by director Chris Marker
  • A 30-minute documentary on the making of Ran, from the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
  • A 35-minute video piece reconstructing Ran through Kurosawa’s paintings and sketches, created as part of the series Image: Kurosawa’s Continuity
  • Video interview with actor Tatsuya Nakadai
  • Theatrical trailers
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Plus: an essay by critic Michael Wilmington, and interviews with Kurosawa and composer Toru Takemitsu

    New cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Audio commentary featuring film scholar Stephen Prince
  • An appreciation of the film by director Sidney Lumet
  • A.K., a 74-minute film by director Chris Marker
  • A 30-minute documentary on the making of Ran, from the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
  • A 35-minute video piece reconstructing Ran through Kurosawa’s paintings and sketches, created as part of the series Image: Kurosawa’s Continuity
  • Video interview with actor Tatsuya Nakadai
  • Theatrical trailers
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Plus: an essay by critic Michael Wilmington, and interviews with Kurosawa and composer Toru Takemitsu

    New cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang
Ran
Cast
Tatsuya Nakadai
Hidetora Ichimonji
Akira Terao
Taro
Jinpachi Nezu
Jiro
Daisuke Ryu
Saburo
Mieko Harada
Kaede
Yoshiko Miyazaki
Sue
Takeshi Nomura
Tsurumaru
Hisashi Igawa
Kurogane
Peter
Kyoami (the fool)
Masayuki Yui
Tango
Kenji Kodama
Shirane
Toshiya Ito
Naganuma
Norio Matsui
Ogura
Credits
Director
Akira Kurosawa
Producer
Katsumi Furukawa
Producer
Masato Hara
Producer
Serge Silberman
Screenplay
Akira Kurosawa
Screenplay
Hideo Oguni
Screenplay
Masato Ide
Production managers
Teruyo Nogami
Production managers
Seikichi Iizumi
Production managers
Satoru Izeki
Production managers
Takashi Ohashi
Production coordinator
Hisao Kurosawa
Cinematography
Takao Saito
Cinematography
Masaharu Ueda
Lighting
Takeji Sano
Production design
Yoshiro Muraki
Production design
Shinobu Muraki
Costume design
Emi Wada
Music
Toru Takemitsu
Sound
Shotaro Yoshida
Sound
Fumio Yanoguchi
Sound effects
Ichiro Minawa
Associate director
Ishiro Honda
Assistant directors
Kunio Nozaki
Assistant directors
Ichiro Yamamoto
Assistant directors
Okihiro Yoneda
Assistant directors
Bunsuki Okada
Assistant directors
Koizumi Takashi

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Explore

Akira Kurosawa

Writer, Director

Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa

Arguably the most celebrated Japanese filmmaker of all time, Akira Kurosawa had a career that spanned from the Second World War to the early nineties and that stands as a monument of artistic, entertainment, and personal achievement. His best-known films remain his samurai epics Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, but his intimate dramas, such as Ikiru and High and Low, are just as searing. The first serious phase of Kurosawa’s career came during the postwar era, with Drunken Angel and Stray Dog, gritty dramas about people on the margins of society that featured the first notable appearances by Toshiro Mifune, the director’s longtime leading man. Kurosawa would subsequently gain international fame with Rashomon, a breakthrough in nonlinear narrative and sumptuous visuals. Following a personal breakdown in the late sixties, Kurosawa rebounded by expanding his dark brand of humanism into new stylistic territory, with films such as Kagemusha and Ran, visionary, color, epic ruminations on modern man and nature.

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