Ran

Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Japan, 1985. 162 mins. 4K DCP. With Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Mieko Harada. The most expensive film ever made in Japan at the time of its release, Akira Kurosawa’s late-career masterwork is the legendary filmmaker’s searing version of King Lear, featuring an immense Tatsyua Nakadai as the aged emperor dividing up his kingdom amongst his three children. Never were Kurosawa’s battle sequences more furious and emotional, never was his use of color more bold and dramatic. Ran is among the screen’s most enthralling Shakespeare adaptations and undoubtedly one of the medium’s greatest epics.