Storyline A story of greed, a lust for power, and ultimate revenge. The Great Lord Hidetora Ichimonji has decided to step aside to make room for the younger blood of his three sons, Taro, Jiro, and Saburo, the Lord's only wish now being to live out his years as an honored guest in the castle of each of his sons in turn. While the older two sons flatter their father, the youngest son attempts to warn him of the folly of expecting the three sons to remain united; enraged at the younger son's attempt to point out the danger, the father banishes him. True to the younger son's warning, however, the oldest Son soon conspires with the second son to strip The Great Lord of everything, even his title.
Opening Weekend: $90,000
(USA)
(22 December 1985)
(15 Screens)
Gross: $2,132,974
(USA)
(2 February 1986)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
A scene which required an entire field to be sprayed gold was filmed but left out of the final film during editing.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
During the first scene (while the Land Lord and his sons are hunting wild boars) the first shot that shows every single wild boar running in front of the camera is probably a single shot of the same wild boar repeated 3 times.
Quotes: Kyoami:
Are there no gods... no Buddha? If you exist, hear me. You are mischievous and cruel! Are you so bored up there you must crush us like ants? Is it such fun to see men weep?
User Review
The Best Film based on one of Shakespeare Best Works. This Masterpiece is recommended for anyone that loves movies . Truly one of the Greatest Films of all time!
Rating: 10/10
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. This is recognized as
the most expensive film ever made by Akira Kurosawa, it was at that
time, Japan's most expensive film ever. Being at the age of 75, he
still showed us, he's one of the best in the business.
This movie is about an aging lord, head of the Ichimonji family,
decides to retire and to pass the power to Taro, the eldest of his
three sons. He will however have to banish Saburo, the youngest one,
who dared to speak the truth to him. Soon, the former lord is chased
away from the castles of his sons and becomes mad when he understands
that one of his sons is trying to kill him. The three brothers are
fighting for control of the Kingdom, as their lust for power grows
every day. Four armies are facing each other on the prairie. Lord
Ichimonji's former peaceful kingdom is nothing but a distant memory.
Akira Kurosawa redefines what an epic film is, with astonishing story
telling, entirely believable characters and real life battle scenes
without the use of Special effects/CGI. He retells the story of King
Lear in his own way and no one would recognize that it was actually a
adaptation beforehand. But just like Shakespeare, there is humor,
irony, death and not a happy ending. Everyone who played a part in the
production of this film, deserves some kind of recognition. The acting
is pretty much excellent and certainly believable.
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