40th anniversary 4K restoration
At age 75, the great Akira Kurosawa made the samurai epic to end all samurai epics. That’s saying something considering he already made Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Kagemusha. Kurosawa’s take on Shakespeare’s King Lear—spliced with the legend of the daimyō Mōri Motonari—is the Japanese master’s most impressionistic and experimental film, filled with swathes of clashing colors, clouds of arrows, buildings engulfed in flames, and oceans of soldiers doing battle. Ran translates roughly to “chaos,” a fitting summation of this historical epic about a feudal kingdom riven by power struggle and descending into epic bloodshed. But amidst the colossal upheaval, Kurosawa wields incredible control of every aspect of these gorgeous widescreen canvases—from the intimacy of the family dynamics to the maneuvers of armies to the majesty of the natural world around them. He spent 10 years painting storyboards of every frame of the film and the result is one of cinema’s greatest visual feasts.
Ran was Kurosawa’s last historical epic—and his final adaptation of the Bard after Throne of Blood (1957) and The Bad Sleep Well (1960)—and by far his most expensive film. In fact, it was the most expensive Japanese movie ever made at the time of its release. Kurosawa himself called it an allegory for nuclear warfare, so it makes sense that Godzilla director Ishirō Honda was one of his main collaborators, no doubt contributing to the film’s unparalleled sense of scale. Emi Wada won an Academy Award for her brilliant color-coded costume designs (a wardrobe that included over 1,400 uniforms and suits of armor for the legions of extras). And Kurosawa received his only career Oscar nomination for Best Director, thanks to a campaign boost from Sidney Lumet. The triumphant capstone of Kurosawa’s tumultuous “third period,” Ran is one of those rarified movies that demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible to appreciate the scope of its artistry.