Ran
乱
1985 · Japan · France · 162 min · 1.85:1 · Color
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Introduction
Ran is a 1985 Japanese and French co-production directed by Akira Kurosawa, with Tatsuya Nakadai as the ageing warlord Hidetora Ichimonji and Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede. It takes the structure of Shakespeare's King Lear and moves it into the warring-states period: Hidetora divides his domain among three sons, is betrayed by the elder two, and loses his reason on scorched ground. The three armies are dressed in yellow, red and blue, and colour is used to hold the factions and their movements apart. The sequence in which the Third Castle falls and burns drops the location sound entirely and carries only Toru Takemitsu's score. Kurosawa spent about ten years preparing the film and painted several hundred storyboards in colour. It received the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
Trust, Withdrawn
Kurosawa could not raise the money in Japan, and the film was financed by the French producer Serge Silberman at a cost of about eleven million dollars, the most expensive Japanese production of its day. The Third Castle was built on the slopes of Mount Fuji and burned for real, with Tatsuya Nakadai filmed inside it.
Kurosawa's wife, Yōko Yaguchi, died during the shoot. Emi Wada won the Academy Award for costume design and Kurosawa was nominated for direction, but Japan did not submit the film for the foreign-language award, which drew comment at the time.
Titles
- Mainland China
- 乱
- Hong Kong
- 亂
- Taiwan
- 亂
- English
- Ran
- Original
- 乱
Cast
- Tatsuya Nakadaias Hidetora Ichimonji
- Mieko Haradaas Lady Kaede