Ran Trivia Questions

The score was actually composed by Toru Takemitsu, a renowned Japanese composer. John Williams had no involvement with this film.

Kurosawa used about 200 horses, many borrowed from the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. No horses were trained to fall on cue; the film used careful editing and stunts.

Kurosawa had a massive, real castle constructed on Mount Fuji's slopes. It was deliberately set on fire during filming to achieve the climactic destruction.

It was nominated but did not win. The first Japanese film to win that Oscar was 'Departures' in 2009. 'Ran' did win for Best Costume Design.

Kurosawa explicitly based 'Ran' on Shakespeare's King Lear, adapting it to feudal Japan. The title means 'chaos' or 'rebellion' in Japanese.

This is a myth. Kaede does not use a severed head in any scene. The film has violence, but that specific image is invented for shock value.

Kurosawa suffered from severe vision problems during post-production and had assistants describe scenes so he could direct the edit by ear.

Nakadai was 52 during filming and underwent extensive makeup and prosthetics to portray the aging, mad Hidetora convincingly.