In its epic scale, stylistic grandeur and tragic contemplation of human destiny, Akira Kurosowa’s final epic masterpiece RAN (literally, “chaos” or “turmoil”) brings together the great themes and gorgeous images of the director’s life work. A meditation on King Lear, crossed with Japan’s 16th-century civil wars, it stars the great Tatsuya Nakadai as an aging ruler who decides to abdicate and divide his land among his sons, unleashing a power struggle. This is a magnificent new restoration that must be seen on the big screen.
