Kurosawa was concerned that Shakespeare gave his characters no past, and he wanted to give his version of King Lear a history. The complex and variant etymology for the word Ran used as the title has been variously translated as "chaos", "rebellion", or "revolt"; or to mean "disturbed" or "confused".
Akira Kurosawa's 1985, Ran, is based one of Shakespeare's greatest works, King's Lear. The Film proudly stands along with his other classic such as Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Roshomon, Sanjuro and the Hidden Fortress. He is a master in the art of filmmaking, no one can film an epic battle scene quite like Kurosawa.
Akira Kurosawa's acclaimed adaptation of King Lear set in Japan is re-issued to mark both its own 30th anniversary and Shakespeare's 400th. Ran, made in 1985 and following on from Kurosawa's much earlier Throne of Blood (1957) based on Macbeth, was the Japanese master's second film to be derived from Shakespeare.
Mori Motonari was a daimyo in western Honshu, Japan, during the turbulent Sengoku period in the 16th century. Ran (meaning discord) is based on his life and on the Celtic-Shakespearean story of King Lear.
The title: “Ran” means “chaos” or “turmoil” and in some combinations “revolt.” The characters (so you'll have the names: for the action, see the film; for the credits, see the Internet Movie Data Base, http://us.imdb.com):
Ultimately, the sad truth RAN demonstrates is how men and women may die, but war and chaos never will. In one moment toward the end of the film, a character chastises the Gods above for allowing these atrocities to exist, to which another character shoots him down for blasphemy.
Kurosawa's eyesight had deteriorated almost completely by the time principal photography began. He could only frame shots with the help of assistants, who used his storyboard paintings as guidelines.
Kurosawa had not intended the film to be his last. Despite his declining health, he continued to work on new ideas. Yet Madadayo nevertheless presents the perfect closing statement on a life and career; a poignant meditation on mortality as the narrow road nears its inevitable end.
Throne of Blood (a.k.a. Cobweb Castle or Kumonosu-jo) (Japan, 1957) is an adaptation of the Macbeth story to a Japanese setting. Teenage Gang Debs (United States, 1966), setting the theme around a teenage girl who joins a street gang.
While Saburo (Hidetora's youngest son) stands in for Lear's youngest daughter, Cordelia, some of her quality emerges also in Sue, Jiro's wife. Most of the destructive force unleashed against Hidetora comes not directly from his sons, but from his daughter-in-law, the Lady Kaede (wife to Taro, the eldest son).
Their roles are divided to several different characters in the movie such as Lady Kaede, who at some level takes the role Edmund when she seduces Jiro after becoming widowed from Taro, Tsurumaru in turn inherits his blindness from Gloucester.
“Kagemusha,” meaning “the shadow warrior,” is a three-hour action film based, in part, on the story of Shingen Takeda, a powerful warlord and clan leader in 16th century feudal Japan.
Hidetora loses his mind with anguish and horror, and roams the vast plain, with his jester Kyoami (Pîtâ) and his doggedly loyal vassal Tango (Masayuki Yui).
There is a film that students will embrace—Akira Kurosawa's Ran—a Japanese telling of the Lear story and one of the best catalysts for the study of English and Asian culture in an interdisciplinary format.
Kurosawa's three Shakespeare films were Kumonosu-jo/Macbeth (1957), first translated as Castle of the Spider's Web, then Throne of Blood; The Bad Sleep Well/Hamlet (1960); and Ran/King Lear (1985), respectively qualified as period, 'foreign', 'translation and expropriation' 3 films, in any case based-on-Shakespeare ...
Yes, its name means Chaos (Ran, 乱, alternatively translated as “The Chaos of War,” referring to the dynastic carnage of war the movie depicts, or “Disturbed,” referring to the mad king at the center of the film). But for a movie named Chaos, though, the sights we see are anything but chaotic.
The RU (Radio Unit), often referred to as an Open RAN Radio Unit or O-RAN RU, resides closest to the user, typically mounted on cell towers or base stations. It acts as the workhorse of the network, performing the critical task of converting radio signals into digital data and vice versa.
In summary, RAN is a powerful tool for identifying children at risk for reading problems and understanding the causes of reading difficulties and dyslexia.
In Ran, Jiro's wife, Lady Sue, is the only purely good person in the film. Her innocence and faith in Buddha translate to Hidetora as naivety. There is no Buddha in such dark times, Hidetora tells her. And indeed Kurosawa himself might have been questioning religion at this time in his life as well.
An adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear set in 16th-century Japan, the film uses sons instead of daughters as the aging monarch's ungrateful children. Ran was acclaimed as one of Kurosawa's greatest films in the grandeur…
The film begins with Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai), an aging warlord, announcing his decision to divide his kingdom among his three sons: Taro (Akira Terao), Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu), and Saburo (Daisuke Ryu). Hidetora plans to retire and let his sons rule, expecting peace and harmony.
