After long delay, I have finally seen Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran”. Kurosawa is one of, if not my favorite filmmaker that ever lived, and until now I had not even seen his magnum opus. “Ran” is based on Shakespeare’s play, “King Lear” and follows an elderly, senile lord of an empire, who sees how old and frail he is becoming and decides to leave everything to his three sons.

Mistrust and jealousy lead to two of his sons betraying him. The battle scenes in this film are unmatched by anything. The blood is abnormally vibrant (similar to one of Kurosawa’s earlier films, “Kagemusha”) and the set design is beautiful at every single shot. It’s harder to judge the acting in movies that aren’t in a language you speak, however the acting in this movie is simply remarkable. If you haven’t checked out any of the amazing films by Akira Kurosawa, this certainly isn’t a bad place to start.