RAN and King Lear

For an audience of today's college students, the Japanese movie Ran takes patience and an open mind to watch. I found it difficult to relate to the characters and the hostile nature of the storyline. It was so different from any film, foreign or American that I have ever seen (and I've watched more recent Japanese films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which I enjoyed). I was not used to the choreographed moments that realistically would not be choreographed-like the men falling off the horses exactly the same way. However, the movie featured amazing scenery, costumes, and stunts and successfully attributed eastern religion and culture to a western play. The tragedy here, rather than death itself, is the foolishness of a "wise" man which occurs in the beginning, resulting in separation and destruction. Unlike other Shakespearan plays where I enjoyed the movie adaptation more, reading King Lear was easier to do than watching Ran was.