Ran

"In a mad world, only the mad are sane."

1985 2h 40m JA

🙌

8.0

BANGER

★8.0TMDB · 1,939

ActionDramaHistory

Synopsis

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Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.

“In a mad world, only the mad are sane.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Tatsuya Nakadai
Lord Hidetora Ichimonji
Akira Terao
Taro Takatora Ichimonji
Jinpachi Nezu
Jiro Masatora Ichimonji
Daisuke Ryū
Saburo Naotora Ichimonji
Mieko Harada
Lady Kaede
Yoshiko Miyazaki
Lady Sue
Mansai Nomura
Tsurumaru
Hisashi Igawa
Shuri Kurogane

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writers: Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Akira Kurosawa
Languages: Japanese
Countries: Japan, France

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 160 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

41 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Japan, France.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Akira Kurosawa, shot by Asakazu Nakai. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Tōru Takemitsu. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Akira Kurosawa shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Tatsuya Nakadai and Akira Terao and Jinpachi Nezu carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "In a mad world, only the mad are sane.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Akira Kurosawa directs. Asakazu Nakai behind the camera. Tōru Takemitsu scores. Akira Kurosawa cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in Japan, France. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 160 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
241 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3International production across 2 countries: Japan, France.
4Directed by Akira Kurosawa, shot by Asakazu Nakai. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Tōru Takemitsu. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Akira Kurosawa shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Tatsuya Nakadai and Akira Terao and Jinpachi Nezu carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "In a mad world, only the mad are sane.".
9IMDB entry: tt0089881 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 23 themes, including "assassination", "kingdom", "gun", "greed".

The technical file

Cinematography: Asakazu Nakai
Original score: Tōru Takemitsu
Editing: Akira Kurosawa
Production design: Yoshirō Muraki
Costume design: Emi Wada
Makeup / hair: Shohichiro Meda
Runtime: 160 min · 2h 40m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $12,000,000
Box office: $23,334,156
Return: 194% of budget
Original language: JA
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Ran (1985)

Awards

Amanda Award for Best Foreign Feature Film
Academy Award for Best Costume Design

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Akira Kurosawa

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Filipe Manuel Neto2023-04-23
★ 7/10
A good film, full of detail and historical verisimilitude, but painfully long without needing to be. I've already seen two of Akira Kurosawa's most renowned films and, quite frankly, I still can't understand why this Japanese director is so commonly considered a cinematic genius. His films are quite good, they're meticulous, there's a lot of attention to detail, but they're not particularly unforgettable… that's what I think. This film is an adaptation of the plot of “King Lear”, by Shakespeare: a warlord, in the middle of the Japanese feudal era, decides to withdraw and divide his lands, power and castles among his three sons. Only one of them disagrees and warns him that it is highly unlikely that they will stay together as brothers, which provokes the old father's wrath. However, the future proves true for the younger son's words when the two older brothers despise their father and conflicts begin. Driven mad and accompanied only by a fool, the old man ends up mad while the brothers fight each other. I won't talk about the cast because I don't know these actors. I can only say that they worked well, within the context and the type of film we are talking about. There is an excessive stylization, both in terms of interpretation and in terms of dialogues, which sounds theatrical, forced, but I don't know if that was on purpose. On a technical level, the film has a lot of points in its favor, starting with an excellent cinematography, very colorful and with good lighting. The sets are superb, in particular the castles, recreated to the smallest detail, and the costumes are also good, beautiful and historically credible. I don't think I'll be being unfair if I say that this film probably has some of the best war scenes in period films set in Japan. There is no CGI, special effects have been used judiciously, and the war has been recreated to be as authentic as possible, with hundreds of extras dressed to the nines and a lot of effort on the part of the production. For a historian, you can't ask for more. The big problem with this movie is that it wasn't made to entertain but to make you think, and it's full of scenes and sequences designed to make the viewer think about what they're watching. It's something that would work, if it weren't sometimes overly cryptic. The audience needs to understand what the director wants to convey, and that often doesn't happen. Furthermore, it is a film that does not spare the audience: it starts very well, it ends very well, but everything in between is unbearably prolonged and distended. What could be said or done in two minutes is done in five minutes, and there are a lot of dialogues and scenes that don't seem to have any function other than to make the film take longer.

Production companies