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Tatsuya Nakadai

Akira Terao

Jinpachi Nezu

Daisuke Ryu

Mieko Harada

Akira Kurosawa

Yoshiko Miyazaki

Hisashi Igawa

Masayuki Yui

Kazuo Kato

Norio Matsui

Toshiya Ito

Kenji Kodama

Takeshi Kato

Seizo Kato

Jun Tazaki

Hitoshi Ueki

Hideo Oguni

Masato Ide

William Shakespeare

Masato Hara

Serge Silberman

Toru Takemitsu

Asakazu Nakai

Takao Saito

Films

Drama: Historical

15/12/1998

BBC Four - Ran

Reworking of Shakespeare's King Lear set in medieval Japan.

Reworking of Shakespeare's King Lear set in 16th-century Japan. An ageing warlord announces his intention to retire and split his kingdom up among his three sons.

Akira Kurosawa's epic masterpiece is a reworking of Shakespeare's King Lear set in medieval Japan. 

After a lifetime of battles, 70-year-old Lord Hidetora announces that he is passing his authority to his eldest son Taro. The youngest son Saburo protests and is banished from the kingdom. But instead of fulfilling their father's wishes, eldest brother Taro, now in charge, and his middle brother Jiro are disloyal to the former lord and attack his castle. Hidetora survives, but, following his sons' betrayal, is now losing his mind. When Jiro has his brother murdered, the banished Saburo and his allies return to fight a battle against the remaining brother.

In Japanese with English subtitles.

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