“One of the supreme cinematic achievements of the last quarter-century.” –Philadelphia Inquirer

With Ran, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reimagines Shakespeare’s King Lear as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan. Majestic in scope, the film is Kurosawa’s late-life masterpiece, a profound examination of the folly of war and the crumbling of one family under the weight of betrayal, greed, and the insatiable thirst for power. Nominated for five Academy Awards, Ran won the award for Best Costume Design.

Thirty years after its original release, Studiocanal decided to restore Ran in 4K in collaboration with the Japanese company Kadokawa. In 1985, the production of the original film was possible thanks to a French-Japanese collaboration and 30 years later, Studiocanal and Kadokawa replicated this partnership to restore the film. Ran has been restored in 4K by the French laboratory Éclair, under Studiocanal’s supervision. Based on an original negative, the majority of the restoration work was done manually, image by image. Color grading was approved by Masaharu Ueda, one of Ran‘s three cinematographers and a close associate of Kurosawa’s.

This film is screening as part of Arkadin’s Weird Shakespeare series, featuring off-kilter adaptations of the Bard’s work.