Ran (1985 Foreign Film)

April 1, 2026·1 hr 4 min·5 clips

The first battle in 'Ran' is a ten-minute silent spectacle that shows an old warlord losing his mind.

1. Awesome Movie Year covers Akira Kurosawa's 1985 samurai epic Ran as the foreign film pick of their 1985 season. 2. Josh Bell, a film critic and writer, hosts alongside Jason Harris, a filmmaker and comedian, with a third participant, Dave, also contributing. 3. The episode's core question is whether Ran represents a genuine late-career masterpiece or whether its spectacle outweighs its emotional engagement. 4. Ran was a French-Japanese co-production after the Japanese film industry largely stopped financing Kurosawa; it became the most expensive Japanese film ever made on a budget of approximately $11-12 million, grossing $19 million. 5. Kurosawa was 75 during production, had partially failing eyesight, and painted detailed storyboards for every shot in the film to communicate his vision to his three cinematographers. 6. He had been developing the project for over a decade and considered his 1980 film Kagemusha a dry run; Kurosawa said the King Lear parallel was serendipitous, as he independently conceived the story of disloyal sons before the Shakespeare connection was pointed out. 7. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards — Best Director (Kurosawa's only nomination), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design — winning only the latter, with Emi Wada's 1,400 handmade costumes recognised. 8. Sidney Lumet reportedly led a filmmaker campaign to get Kurosawa nominated; Out of Africa, directed by Sidney Pollack, won the Director, Cinematography, and Best Picture Oscars that year. 9. Roger Ebert gave the film two thumbs up with Siskel, calling it 'a great, glorious achievement' and noting that Kurosawa 'often must have associated himself with the old lord' given his own struggles to complete the film. 10. Pauline Kael in The New Yorker called it 'static' but acknowledged its 'ornery splendor,' while Paul Adonazio in the Washington Post described it as 'impressive and profound and vaguely dull.' 11. The story adapts King Lear by replacing three daughters with three sons, and draws on the historical 16th-century warlord Moro Motonari; unlike Lear, Ran gives the lord a backstory of 50 years of brutal conquest that explains why his sons know only conflict. 12. Tatsuya Nakadai, who was in his early 50s, plays the 70-year-old warlord Hidetora with Noh-influenced theatrical makeup and broad stylised movement; Josh finds the artificiality creates emotional distance, while Jason praises the depiction of the descent into madness. 13. Lady Kaede, the wife of the eldest son whose entire family was killed by Hidetora, is discussed as a standout supporting character; Josh compares her vengeful manipulation to Kill Bill and Park Chan-wook's films. 14. The Fool character, played by Japanese stage performer and comedian Peter, provides Shakespearean commentary on the action and eventually becomes the old man's sole caretaker. 15. The first major castle battle, approximately ten minutes long with multiple feudal factions entering in sequence, is praised by all three hosts as among the most impressive battle sequences in cinema. 16. The production scale in a pre-CGI era included 200 horses, the building and burning of a full-scale castle, and location shooting at actual ancient forts and fields across Japan. 17. The episode is discursive and enthusiastic, with frequent tangents into Kurosawa's other Shakespeare adaptations (Throne of Blood from Macbeth, The Bad Sleep Well from Hamlet), his collaboration with Toshiro Mifune, and the 1960s-era film Ikiru. 18. Tone is conversational and opinionated, with Josh the least positive of the three hosts, consistently noting emotional distance from the story even while acknowledging the film's technical brilliance. 19. This episode will appeal to listeners interested in world cinema, Japanese film history, Kurosawa specifically, or the mechanics of how directors get major passion projects made. 20. Listeners who have not seen the film or have little interest in slow-paced historical epics may find the episode's frequent plot references difficult to follow.

As heard by us

A candid Kurosawa conversation that stays respectful, funny, and easy to follow.

Awesome Movie Year uses its 1985 foreign-film pick to cover Ran, Akira Kurosawa's samurai historical epic and Shakespearean adaptation. The episode treats it as a late-career masterpiece while keeping the hosts' usual ribbing intact.

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Press play for a candid Kurosawa rundown with jokes, arguments, and film-history context.

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