What is Ran about?
Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.
Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)
No. Brace yourself.
Ran (1985)
An aging warlord's decision to divide his kingdom unleashes a bleak, gritty, and epic family conflict.
A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is devastating.
Streaming on Kanopy (free), Plex (free) and Tubi (free).
Ran parents guide
Some innuendo or implied sex and brutal violence, about what an R should carry.
- Scare
- Not scary
- Jump scares
- None noted
- Gore
- Graphic gore
- Blood and wounds shown clearly.
- Violence
- Brutal violence
- Our top level for violence.
- Sex and nudity
- Mild
- Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.
- Language
- Mild
- Mild words like damn, hell or crap.
How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Three questions
- How gory is Ran?
- Graphic gore and brutal violence. If graphic gore is a dealbreaker, skip it.
- What is Ran rated, and is it OK for kids?
- Brutal violence and graphic gore. The R is earned, so not for kids.
Cast and crew
Directed byAkira Kurosawa
StarringTatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryū, Mieko Harada, Yoshiko Miyazaki
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Ran is on our Revenge, Japanese, 1980s, Tubi and Drama on Tubi lists.
More like this feeling
Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.
- “a movie that will make me cry”
- “funny but not stupid, under two hours”
- “a thriller with a twist, no spoilers”
Lists with the same feel: Tearjerkers and Epics.
Five more like Ran
Say the mood. Five picks with where they stream, right here.
Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.