Ran Review

Kurosawa started from history rather than Shakespeare: the warlord Mori Motonari was famous for three loyal sons, and Kurosawa wondered what would happen if they were not. King Lear arrived later and supplied the madness. Tatsuya Nakadai's Hidetora Ichimonji puts his eldest son at the head of the clan, banishes the youngest for telling him the truth, and is stripped of everything by the two he trusted, while Mieko Harada's Lady Kaede works both brothers with a ferocity that nearly steals the film.

Each son's army marches under its own colour, yellow, red and blue, so the battles read from a hillside like moving paint. The assault on the Third Castle drops the natural sound entirely and plays under Toru Takemitsu's Mahler-inflected score until a single gunshot brings the noise back. Emi Wada won an Oscar for the costumes, and Nakadai's ghost-white make-up borrows from Noh masks.

The dialogue is formal and declamatory, with Peter's fool Kyoami getting nearly every line that stings, and the middle stretch moves at the pace of a procession. That is a small price. Kurosawa was 75, and the film earned him his only Oscar nomination for directing.