Going Medieval: 25 films to watch while waiting for Game of Thrones season 8

1) Ran (1985)

Master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa‘s Ran is a brilliant adaptation of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, and has more than stood the test of time. Hailed as a masterpiece, Ran employs fabulous cinematography, imagery and color; it also won that year’s Academy Award for Costume Design.

The story, as mentioned, is taken straight from King Lear, but transplanted to medieval Japan: An aging Japanese warlord decides to divide his kingdom among his three sons. Two of the sons are treacherous, maneuvering to gain their father’s favor with falsehoods and flattery, while the youngest son honors his father by speaking the harsh truth to him. The egotistic old man falls for the lies of the two unworthy sons and banishes the unfortunate third. The elderly warlord’s pride and the underhanded power grabs by the two corrupt sons causes the kingdom to split apart and fall into bloody internecine warfare.

Ran has continually amazed both critics and audiences alike. Roger Ebert, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that “Ran is a great, glorious achievement. Kurosawa often must have associated himself with the old lord as he tried to put this film together, but in the end he has triumphed …” The New York Times’ Vincent Canby also raved about it: “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.”

If you’re looking for an epic medieval movie experience with immense emotional power, sweeping battles and elaborate costumes and armor of the kind you can find on Game of Thrones, look no further than Kurosawa’s Ran. And if this film makes you want to see more of Kurosawa’s work, you’ve got a lot of great films waiting for you, including Rashomon,The Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood.