# Ran (乱) (film)
**Ran** (乱, "chaos" or "turmoil") is a 1985 epic war drama directed, edited and co-written by [Akira Kurosawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/akira-kurosawa), a France–Japan co-production that transposes Shakespeare's *King Lear* to Japan at the end of the [Sengoku period](https://www.edgepedia.org/sengoku-period), with segments drawn from legends of the daimyō [Mōri Motonari](https://www.edgepedia.org/mori-motonari).[1](https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/ran-kurosawa-akira-1985/) Produced by Serge Silberman and Masato Hara and running 160 minutes, it was the most expensive Japanese film yet made at the time and Kurosawa's last jidai-geki (historical period film).[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/83e5a91d-a298-5a21-9dee-e44ff79fec7d/ran) • [3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/45125.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Identity | 1985 epic war drama, France–Japan co-production, directed and co-written by Akira Kurosawa; title means "chaos"[1](https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/ran-kurosawa-akira-1985/) |
| Source material | *King Lear*, combined with legends of the warlord Mōri Motonari[1](https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/ran-kurosawa-akira-1985/) |
| Budget and gross | Estimated $11,500,000; $4,135,750 in the US and Canada, $4,166,319 worldwide[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/) |
| Production scale | Eight months of shooting in 1984; thousands of handcrafted costumes and hundreds of horses[3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/45125.html) • [5](https://jffau.jpf.go.jp/film/ran/) |
| Key creatives | Music by Tōru Takemitsu, costumes by Emi Wada, production design by Yoshiro Muraki and Shinobu Muraki[3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/45125.html) • [6](https://www.dfi.dk/viden-om-film/filmdatabasen/film/ran) |
| Recognition | One Academy Award among 30 wins and 23 nominations; Metascore 97[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/) |
| Restoration history | Opened the Tokyo International Film Festival in 1985; returned there in 2015 with a 4K restoration; Japanese theatrical re-release in 2017[5](https://jffau.jpf.go.jp/film/ran/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Tatsuya Nakadai plays Hidetora Ichimonji, an aging Sengoku-period warlord who abdicates in favor of his three sons, assigning his three castles among them.[1](https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/ran-kurosawa-akira-1985/) • [7](https://www.svenskfilmdatabas.se/sv/item/?itemid=6867&type=film) The sons are Tarō (Akira Terao), Jirō (Jinpachi Nezu) and Saburō (Daisuke Ryu); Saburō is exiled, and the machinations of Lady Kaede (Mieko Harada) fuel the war between the brothers that destroys the clan.[5](https://jffau.jpf.go.jp/film/ran/) • [7](https://www.svenskfilmdatabas.se/sv/item/?itemid=6867&type=film) Around the Lear plot stand Lady Sué (Yoshiko Miyazaki), Tsurumaru (Mansai Nomura), and the court fool Kyoami (狂阿弥), played by Peter.[1](https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/ran-kurosawa-akira-1985/)
## Origins and development
The screenplay has a double root. Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni and Masato Ide drew on *King Lear* and on the legend of Mōri Motonari, a warlord admired in Japan for his conquests and wisdom.[3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/45125.html) Kurosawa referred to his previous film, *Kagemusha* (1980), as a "dress rehearsal" for *Ran*, and spent years storyboarding every shot in the film as paintings, published with the screenplay.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/) Sources differ on how long this took: the Cinémathèque française records two years spent painting the storyboard, while IMDb states ten years.[3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/45125.html) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/) Financing came together through Silberman's French involvement and the Japanese companies Nippon Herald Films and Herald Ace Inc., with Greenwich Film Productions also credited as a production company.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/83e5a91d-a298-5a21-9dee-e44ff79fec7d/ran) • [8](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/58890) • [7](https://www.svenskfilmdatabas.se/sv/item/?itemid=6867&type=film)
## Production
Kurosawa shot the monumental film over eight months in 1984.[3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/45125.html) The production featured thousands of handcrafted costumes and hundreds of horses, with scenery at [Mount Aso](https://www.edgepedia.org/mount-aso) and [Mount Fuji](https://www.edgepedia.org/mount-fuji); filming locations included Aso-Kuju National Park in Kumamoto.[5](https://jffau.jpf.go.jp/film/ran/) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/) The final confrontation was filmed on Mount Fuji, all made without the aid of digital special effects.[9](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/8644)
**The Third Castle ambush.** In the film's central battle sequence Kurosawa omits sound, relying on Tōru Takemitsu's score to help impart the dreadful force of the battle.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/83e5a91d-a298-5a21-9dee-e44ff79fec7d/ran) The painted storyboards gave the film its formal precision: Kurosawa had spent years painting them, and the resulting color harmony underlines the chaos ("ran") within the family.[3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/45125.html)
## Music, design, and cinematography
Tōru Takemitsu's score is austere and mournful, with restrained orchestration and lingering passages heightening the sense of tragedy and inexorable decline.[5](https://jffau.jpf.go.jp/film/ran/) Emi Wada designed the costumes, and Yoshiro Muraki and Shinobu Muraki the production design; the film was photographed by Takao Saito, Masaharu Ueda and Asakazu Nakai.[3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/45125.html) • [6](https://www.dfi.dk/viden-om-film/filmdatabasen/film/ran)
The palette is central to the film's meaning. The Swedish critic Hans Schiller, writing in *Svenska Dagbladet*, observed that Kurosawa handles color film as the painter and visual artist he originally was, the colors meaning a great deal in *Ran*, not least for clarity.[7](https://www.svenskfilmdatabas.se/sv/item/?itemid=6867&type=film) *Ran* came three decades after Kurosawa's Shakespeare adaptation *Throne of Blood* (1957), his version of *Macbeth*.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/83e5a91d-a298-5a21-9dee-e44ff79fec7d/ran)
## Themes and interpretation
The film offers a universal meditation on power, madness and death.[3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/45125.html) [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) characterizes it as Kurosawa's late-life masterpiece reimagining *King Lear* in sixteenth-century Japan, examining the folly of war and a family's crumbling under betrayal, greed and thirst for power.[10](https://www.criterion.com/films/754-ran) The casting carries Noh inflections: Peter (Shinnosuke Ikehata), Japan's celebrated drag performer, plays the court fool, and Mansai Nomura plays Tsurumaru.[9](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/8644) • [1](https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/ran-kurosawa-akira-1985/) The formal precision of the compositions stands against the chaos the title names, a tension the painted storyboards built into the film's design.[3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/45125.html)
## By the numbers
The estimated budget was $11,500,000, and the film earned $4,135,750 in the US and Canada and $4,166,319 worldwide after its Japanese release on June 1, 1985.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/) It runs 160 minutes by the records of the BFI, Criterion and the Korean Film Archive, though MoMA lists its 35mm print at 162 minutes.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/83e5a91d-a298-5a21-9dee-e44ff79fec7d/ran) • [10](https://www.criterion.com/films/754-ran) • [8](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/58890) • [9](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/8644) IMDb records one Academy Award among 30 wins and 23 nominations total, and a Metascore of 97.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/)
## Reception, legacy, and what has changed since 2023
*Ran* premiered as the opening film of the Tokyo International Film Festival in 1985, returned to the festival in 2015 with a celebrated 4K restoration, and was re-released theatrically in Japan in 2017.[5](https://jffau.jpf.go.jp/film/ran/) Criterion releases it as spine #316 with a restored high-definition digital transfer, an audio commentary by the film scholar Stephen Prince, a Toho Masterworks making-of documentary, and a program on Kurosawa's paintings and sketches.[10](https://www.criterion.com/films/754-ran)
## References
1. [Ran – MIT Global Shakespeares](https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/ran-kurosawa-akira-1985/)
2. [Ran (1985) – BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/83e5a91d-a298-5a21-9dee-e44ff79fec7d/ran)
3. [Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985) – La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/45125.html)
4. [Ran (1985) – IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/)
5. [Ran (乱) – The Japanese Film Festival Australia](https://jffau.jpf.go.jp/film/ran/)
6. [Ran – Det Danske Filminstitut](https://www.dfi.dk/viden-om-film/filmdatabasen/film/ran)
7. [Ran (1985) – Svensk Filmdatabas](https://www.svenskfilmdatabas.se/sv/item/?itemid=6867&type=film)
8. [란 – 한국영상자료원 (Korean Film Archive)](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/58890)
9. [Ran. 1985. Directed by Akira Kurosawa – MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/8644)
10. [Ran (1985) – The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/754-ran)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › War action and adventure › War action films released through 1999 › Released 1963 to 1998*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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