Grand Kurosawa Film Still Falls Short of "Seven Samurai" and "Throne of Blood"

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2008)

Director Akira Kurosawa takes Shakespeare's "King Lear" and sets it in feudal Japan.
What I love about Kurosawa films is true about "Ran" as well: he was capable of making popcorn entertainments that were infused with an art-house intellectualism. He made thinking man's action movies. "Ran" is right up there with some of his best work, but to me it falls short of what remains my favorite Kurosawa film, "Seven Samurai," and even as his Shakespeare adaptations go, I was more wowed by "Throne of Blood," his visceral re-telling of "Macbeth."
Incidentally, "Ran" brought Kurosawa his only Academy Award nomination for Best Director, and as it has done with so many tremendous film artists, the Academy had to admit that they'd botched things and handed him an honorary award as a consolation prize a few years later.
Grade: A-