Save for one startlingly staged battle sequence. . .might as well have been titled "Also Ran."
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
A magisterial film, but not quite a great one.
San Francisco Chronicle by Bob Graham
In Ran, the horrors of life are transformed by art into beauty. It is finally so moving that the only appropriate response is silence.
Philadelphia Inquirer by Desmond Ryan
The triumphant masterpiece of Akira Kurosawa's fertile twilight.
The Japanese title means chaos, and that is what is let loose when a powerful king foolishly tries to release the reins of power, in the hopes of enjoying a peaceful old age.
TV Guide Magazine by Frank Lovece
Stands separate from the rest, in a pantheon, a true cinematic masterwork of sight, sound, intelligence, and most importantly--passion.
San Francisco Examiner by G. Allen Johnson
Kurosawa pulled out all the stops with Ran, his obsession with loyalty and his love of expressionistic film techniques allowed to roam freely.
Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov
One of the 10 best films ever made, period.
Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy
In many respects, it's Kurosawa's most sumptuous film, a feast of color, motion and sound: Considering that its brethren include "Kagemusha," "The Seven Samurai" and "Dersu Uzala," the achievement is extraordinary. [01 Dec 2000, p.26]
I think if you're going to adapt Shakespeare, you have to have some new and interesting take. I just don't think changing some of Shakespeare's few female character's to male is a particularly groundbreaking adaptation. Lady Kaede, who is roughly analogous to Lear's Edmund character, is an interesting addition, and her actress does a commendable job but she just can't save this bloated film. The film is visually interesting, and I appreciated the brightly colored uniforms. I felt, however, that part of the reason the director had to have the different characters dress in distinctly different colors is that with no distinguishing features or unique personalities they would be impossible to tell apart. I read an interview with the director that said part of the decision to change Lear's daughters into sons was because Japanese audiences would not be able to imagine daughters inheriting property. I'm sorry, this is a fantasy film. You can't even imagine women inheriting property? Just yuck.
A cautious nihilism drives the events in one of the largest and most epically scaled wails of despair ever put to film