Box office
Released on June 1, 1985, it was modestly successful financially in Japan. It earned ¥2.51 billion ($12 million) in Japan, just enough to break even.[28] In France, where it released on 18 September 1985, the film sold 813,081 tickets,[29] grossing an estimated 24,392,430 F ($2,439,243).[30]
In the United States, where it released in December 1985, the film grossed $3,763,760 in its first four weeks of release.[31] Later re-releases between 2000 and 2016 grossed $528,357 in the United States and Canada,[32] bringing its total North American gross to $4,292,117.
In Germany, where it released in 1986, the film sold 222,862 tickets,[33] grossing an estimated €735,440[34] ($714,912).[35] The film also grossed $18,692 in the United Kingdom,[36] and $16,215 in Portugal,[37] bringing the film's total estimated gross to approximately $19,481,179 (equivalent to $55,000,000 in 2023) worldwide.
Critical reviews
Ran was critically acclaimed upon its premiere.[38] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 96%, based on 89 reviews, and an average rating of 9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Akira Kurosawa's sprawling, epic take on King Lear should be required viewing for fans of westerns, war movies, or period films in general."[39] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 97 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[40]
Shawn Levy, of the Portland Oregonian wrote, "In many respects, it's Kurosawa's most sumptuous film, a feast of color, motion and sound: Considering that its brethren include Kagemusha, Seven Samurai and Dersu Uzala, the achievement is extraordinary."[41] Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert said, "Ran is a great, glorious achievement."[42] In the San Francisco Examiner, G. Allen Johnson stated: "Kurosawa pulled out all the stops with Ran, his obsession with loyalty and his love of expressionistic film techniques allowed to roam freely."[43]
Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Graham stated: "In Ran, the horrors of life are transformed by art into beauty. It is finally so moving that the only appropriate response is silence."[44] Gene Siskel, writing for the Chicago Tribune, wrote: "The physical scale of Ran is overwhelming. It's almost as if Kurosawa is saying to all the cassette buyers of America, in a play on Clint Eastwood's phrase, 'Go ahead, ruin your night' – wait to see my film on a small screen and cheat yourself out of what a movie can be."[45] Vincent Canby, writing for The New York Times, stated: "Though big in physical scope and of a beauty that suggests a kind of drunken, barbaric lyricism, Ran has the terrible logic and clarity of a morality tale seen in tight close-up, of a myth that, while being utterly specific and particular in its time and place, remains ageless, infinitely adaptable."[46]
Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars, with extended commentary, "Kurosawa (while directing Ran) often must have associated himself with the old lord as he tried to put this film together, but in the end he has triumphed, and the image I have of him, at 75, is of three arrows bundled together."[47] In 2000, it was inducted into Ebert's Great Movies list.
Notoriously acerbic critic John Simon of the National Review wrote, "I find it as an almost total failure by a genius in his old age".[48]
Michal Sragow, writing for Salon in 2000, summarized the Shakespearean origins of the play: "Kurosawa's Lear is a 16th century warlord who has three sons and a career studded with conquests. Kurosawa's genius is to tell his story so that every step suggests how wild and savage a journey it has been. At the start, this bold, dominating figure, now called Hidetora, is a sacred monster who wants to be a sort of warlord emeritus. He hopes to bequeath power to his oldest son while retaining his own entourage and emblems of command. He hasn't reckoned with the ambition of his successor or the manipulative skill of his heir's wife, who goes for the sexual and political jugular of anyone who invades her sphere."[13] In 2009, the film was voted at No. 59 on the list of The Greatest Japanese Films of All Time by Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo.[49]
Accolades
Ran was completed too late to be entered at Cannes and had its premiere at Japan's first Tokyo International Film Festival.[50] Kurosawa skipped the film's premiere, angering many in the Japanese film industry. As a result, it was not submitted as Japan's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Oscars. Serge Silberman tried to get it nominated as a French co-production but failed. However, American director Sidney Lumet helped organize a campaign to have Kurosawa nominated as Best Director.[51]
Ran was nominated for the Academy Awards for art direction, cinematography, costume design (which it won), and Kurosawa's direction. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. In Japan, Ran was conspicuously not nominated for "Best Picture" at the Awards of the Japanese Academy. However, it won two prizes, for best art direction and best music score, and received four other nominations, for best cinematography, best lighting, best sound, and best supporting actor (Hitoshi Ueki, who played Saburo's patron, Lord Fujimaki). Ran won two awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, for best foreign language film and best make-up artist, and was nominated for best cinematography, best costume design, best production design, and best screenplay–adapted. Despite its limited commercial success at the time of its release, the film's accolades have improved greatly, and it is now regarded as one of Kurosawa's masterpieces.[16]
Ran won Best Director and Best Foreign Film awards from the National Board of Review,[52] a Best Film award and a Best Cinematography award (Takao Saitō, Shōji Ueda, and Asakazu Nakai) from the National Society of Film Critics, a Best Foreign Language Film award from the New York Film Critics Circle, a Best Music award (Toru Takemitsu) and a Best Foreign Film award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, a Best Film award and a Best Cinematography award from the Boston Society of Film Critics, a Best Foreign Feature award from the Amanda Awards from Norway, a Blue Ribbon Award for Best Film, a Best European Film award from the Bodil Awards, a Best Foreign Director award from the David di Donatello Awards, a Joseph Plateau Award for Best Artistic Contribution, a Director of the Year award and a Foreign Language Film of the Year award from the London Critics Circle Film Awards, a Best Film, a Best Supporting Actor (Hisashi Igawa) and a Best Director from the Mainichi Film Concours, and an OCIC award from the San Sebastian Film Festival.[53][54]
In the British Film Institute's 2002 Sight & Sound polls of the greatest films ever made, Ran ranked 41st in director's poll.[55] In 2007, the film was ranked at No. 28 by The Guardian's readers' poll on its list of "40 greatest foreign films of all time".[56] The film was selected in BBC's list of 100 greatest foreign language films by 209 critics of 43 countries around the world in 2018.[57]
