Ran at HOME

Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
Ran Chapeltown Picture House
HOME

Ran at HOME Manchester, Manchester 11 October 2020 Tickets from £5.50 — Book now

There were queues out the door when HOME last screened Ran, director Akira Kurosawa’s singular reimagining of Shakespeare’s King Lear. As part of their reopening season audiences have another chance to catch this 1985 epic — rethought and relocated to sixteenth-century Japan — by the iconic Seven Samurai director.

Over a decade in the making, the film stars Tatsuya Nakadai as Hidetora Ichimonji, an aging Sengoku-period warlord who abdicates his position and divides his power between his three rival sons. Kurosawa never hid his admiration for western literature or Hollywood style, and he had borrowed from Shakespeare before for Throne of Blood, his 1957 reworking of Macbeth, and again in 1960 with The Bad Sleep Well, which incorporates elements of Hamlet. But there is no doubting that Ran is the most spectacular of Kurosawa’s dalliances with Shakespeare.

The late-period film takes as its subject at the futility of war and the destructive, consuming nature of the desire for power. Kurosawa constructs his film on a vast scale with ferocious action combined with a mournful tone, as dazzling battle sequences depict bodies mounting in service of family feuding. Coming from a filmmaker who had helped bring global popularity to the samurai picture, Ran feels like something of an elegiac capstone.

Ran at HOME Manchester, Manchester 11 October 2020 Tickets from £5.50 Book now

What's on at HOME Manchester

Where to go near Ran at HOME

Manchester
Restaurant
Indian Tiffin Room, Manchester

Indian Tiffin Room is a restaurant specialising in Indian street food, with branches in Cheadle and Manchester. This is the information for the Manchester venue.

The Ritz Manchester live music venue
Manchester
Music venue
The Ritz

The Ritz was originally a dance hall, built in 1928, has hosted The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and The Smiths and is still going strong as a gig venue now.

Homeground
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Homeground

Homeground is HOME’s brand new outdoor venue, providing an open-air space for theatre, food, film, music, comedy and more.

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Burgess Cafe Bar
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Rain Bar pub in Manchester
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Rain Bar

This huge three-floor pub, formerly a Victorian warehouse, then an umbrella factory (hence the name), has one of the city centre’s largest beer gardens. The two-tier terrace overlooks the Rochdale canal and what used to be the back of the Hacienda, providing an unusual, historic view of the city.

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The Briton’s Protection

Standing on the corner of a junction opposite The Bridgewater Hall, The Briton’s Protection is Manchester’s oldest pub. It has occupied the same spot since 1795, going under the equally patriotic name The Ancient Britain.

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Castlefield Gallery

The influential Castlefield Gallery sits at the edge of Manchester’s exciting Castlefield district, an ideal home for thought-provoking contemporary art.

What's on: Cinema

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Keswick Film Festival marks 25 years with a programme featuring some of the best of contemporary independent cinema, alongside select classics, and work from some choice Cumbrian talent.

from £5.00

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