 A film in three minutes ran. If you were going to compose a list of, say, the top five film directors of all time, then you would need to have your head examined if one Akira Kurosawa wasn't included in such a pantheon. Widely accepted as the grand master of Asian cinema, Kurosawa's uva would be the envy of any director's career, and it is impossible to even begin to describe the sheer scale of influence his legacy has had on film as an art form for the last 70 years. To try and deliver a three-minute monologue wouldn't come close to doing justice to the level of craftsmanship and artistic power his many epics contain, but for me, out of all of his sword-buckling samurai classics we've been blessed with, my all-time favourite is his final masterpiece, 1985's Ran. Ran takes inspiration from both Shakespeare's King Lear as well as a 16th century fable about a Japanese feudal chief, with its story revolving around the ageing warlord of the Ishimonji clan, who decides to divide up his vast kingdom equally to his three sons. In a poignant scene that addresses one of the film's tragic themes, Hidetora asks his three sons to each break a single arrow, which they do with ease, but when ordered to break three arrows together, each son fails, demonstrating that their mutual cooperation and most importantly their unity acts as the source of the clan's strength. However, the eldest son Taro and his scheming wife Lady Kaide begin to hatch a plan to seize the entire kingdom for themselves, and what follows could only be described as utterly Shakespearean. The film's title roughly translates to chaos or turmoil, and the many sequences of castle sieges and open ground battles live up to the use of this word, but it's the internal chaos of Hidetora's journey that is the centrepiece of the narrative, showing us a once formidable warrior gradually descend into madness and despair after realising his own children have betrayed him for power. The political intrigue that Lady Kaide spins between the eldest son Taro and his younger brother is a perfect homage to the infamous Lady Macbeth, replacing the reinsodden castles of Scotland for the grandiose minimalism of feudal Japan. The before mentioned castle sieges, particularly the film's most iconic set piece, are awe-inspiring to witness. With composer Toru Takamitsu's beautiful score enhancing the visuals of thousands of extras, practical effects and stylish cinematography, making it one of the most stunning battle scenes ever filmed. The fact that Kurosawa was 75 years old and suffering from near-blindness, as well as the tragic death of his wife of 35 years taking place during production, an incident where the director only took one day off to mourn his loss, all adds to the magnificent achievement that Ran is, a film that inspires as much as it haunts and proves that when it comes to cinema, Kurosawa has no equal.