Ran (1985) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

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.

Cast

Hidetora Ichimonji	Tatsuya Nakadai
Taro	Akira Terao
Jiro	Jinpachi Nezu
Saburo	Daisuke Ryu
Kaede	Mieko Harada
Sue	Yoshiko Miyazaki
Tsurumaru	Takeshi Nomura
Kurogane	Hisashi Igawa
Kyoami (the fool)	Peter
Tango	Masayuki Yui
Shirane	Kenji Kodama
Naganuma	Toshiya Ito
Ogura	Norio Matsui

Credits

Director	Akira Kurosawa
Producer	Katsumi Furukawa, Masato Hara and Serge Silberman
Screenplay	Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni and Masato Ide
Production managers	Teruyo Nogami, Seikichi Iizumi, Satoru Izeki and Takashi Ohashi
Production coordinator	Hisao Kurosawa
Cinematography	Takao Saitô and Masaharu Ueda
Lighting	Takeji Sano
Production Design	Yoshiro Muraki and Shinobu Muraki
Costume design	Emi Wada
Music	Toru Takemitsu
Sound	Shotaro Yoshida and Fumio Yanoguchi
Sound effects	Ichiro Minawa
Associate director	Ishiro Honda
Assistant directors	Kunio Nozaki, Ichiro Yamamoto, Okihiro Yoneda, Bunsuki Okada and Koizumi Takashi

Disc 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: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Wilmington and interviews with Kurosawa and composer Toru Takemitsu

From the Current

Ran: Apocalypse Song

by Michael Wilmington Nov 21, 2005

Ran is the late masterpiece and testament of a great director contemplating his own twilight—and the world’s as well. It’s a tragedy fed by Shakespeare . . .