Kurosawa’s late masterpiece adapts Shakespeare’s King Lear as a thrilling tale set in feudal Japan.
Drawing heavily on Shakespeare's King Lear and legends surrounding the 16th-century feudal lord Môri Motonari, Kurosawa took inspiration from the success of Kagemusha to broaden his canvass. Like Throne of Blood, at its heart Ran is a tale of family strife. But in its execution, particularly the stunning exterior sequences and its use of colour - as audacious as Teinosuke Kinugasa's 1953 classic Gate of Hell - the film plays out on an epic scale.
