Preview

King Lear Comparison

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
693 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
King Lear Comparison
“Ran” Film Review
Akira Kurosawa’s film “Ran” tells a story of Lord Hidetora divides his kingdom among his three sons Taro, the eldest son, will rule this kingdom. Jiro, Lord Hidetora’s second son is expected to help Taro. Saburo, the youngest son, will get the third castle but the only rule is for him to obey his elder brother. Saburo refuses and is banished. This movie can be seen as a transformation of William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear”, and it greatly resembles “King Lear”. Both tell a story of betrayal which a king distributed his wealth to his offspring. Two of the offspring turned against their father, while the third supports the father even though the father did no good thing to him. Since “Ran” is a movie derived from William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear”, they are connected to each other but not exactly the same. …show more content…
For example, visually, they both reveal the feeling of betrayal. The king in both plays distributes his kingdom based on the flattery his sons give. It is because of the unnatural way of distributing his kingdom that leads to the ultimate tragedy. When we read the play and watch the movie, it is not hard to find that the character in “King Lear”—the Fool also exists in the movie. This shows the importance of this character. Just as in the play, the Fool’s words compare to Lear’s adds the element of irony to both the stories. A truth that even the Fool knows, the king seems to know nothing about it, which makes the audience wonder why Lear and Hidetora are qualified to be the king. In a way, we can see this movie as a mirror of the play King Lear. This movie visually shows the madness of the king and the way his two children treated him, which allows the audience to better understand the original play. Although, the screenplay of “Ran” has similarities with “King Lear”, Kurosawa did not want the movie to be exactly a duplication of the original
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    King Lear - Analytical Monologue Act 1, Scene 4, Lines 268-284
    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages

    King Lear - Analytical Monologue Act 1, Scene 4, Lines 268-284

    Shakespeare's King Lear is a play revolving around the themes of human nature, madness and childishness.…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Separation Of Power: Checks And Balances
    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Separation Of Power: Checks And Balances

    The separation of powers is a system of joint power also known as Checks and Balances. This lead to creating three branches to our constitution, which are The Legislative branch made up of the House and Senate, the Executive branch made up of the President and vice president and the judicial branch, which is made up of the federal and the supreme courts. Separation of powers therefore, refers to the division of government responsibilities into individual branches to limit any one branch from taking the primary roles of another . Each of these branches has certain powers they are able to convey but each of these powers are restricted, or checked by another branch. For example, the President chooses judges and secretaries in different departments,…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Lady Kade and the Noh Performance in Kurosawa's Ran
    • 1303 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Lady Kade and the Noh Performance in Kurosawa's Ran

    Kurosawa’s Ran is a ‘glocal’ film which retells the Western King Lear story in an Eastern way; it localized the story by adding personal history to the characters and applying Japanese Noh elements to the way of acting. Ran has a similar plot design to King Lear but is not a straight adaptation of it. The parallel plot based on coincidence and theme in Shakespeare becomes a revenge plot related as cause and effect in Kurosawa. Kurosawa transfers the historical setting of the film from pre-Roman Britain to Medieval Japan. He enriches the Shakespeare play by adding a reason to King Lear’s suffering and Taro, Jiro and Lady Kaede’s evil; he also splits and combines some Shakespearean characters to create new ones; the Shakespearean language was also replaced by rewritten dialogues. In addition, the Noh influenced way of acting, which is featured by silence, emptiness and stillness has been crucial to the carving of characters. This essay will take Lady Kaede, the evil character as example, to analyze the change of plot and the influence of Noh in creating characters and acting styles.…

    • 1303 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    King Lear essay, exploring the notion of hope.
    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages

    King Lear essay, exploring the notion of hope.

    In the world of King Lear, being a shakespearean tragedy, suffering, loss, and injustice are all factors often expected before an audience enters the bottomless pit of complicated characters, varying agendas, and Shakespearean english these productions usually employed. However, despite its melancholy undertone and lack of warmer lighting gels on stage, King Lear is not without hope.…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Comparing Loyalty In King Lear And Kurosawa's Ran
    • 1339 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Comparing Loyalty In King Lear And Kurosawa's Ran

    Loyalty is a strong feeling of support and allegiance in which it is reflected upon two proclaimed movies with different setting and subplots, but possesses a similar understanding to what the writer was trying to convey. By watching Olivier’s “King Lear”, and Kurosawa’s "Ran”, the audience finds there are many themes that are portrayed throughout each movie, but the one that provides the largest impact within the plot has to be loyalty. King Lear displays the meaning of loyalty in a western approach with high class Elizabethan characters as its main cast. The second movie, Ran, is based on an eastern society with conflicting warlords who rule during a particular era. With their differences, also come their similarities. Many characters within their respective movies all share one common analogy, that one should be loyal and faithful to their master.…

    • 1339 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Shakespeare vs Ran Comparison
    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Shakespeare vs Ran Comparison

    One of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies ever written, King Lear, is one that deals with many aspects of human condition. It is recognized as a difficult and complex play, but Kurosawa’s Japanese interpretation, Ran, allows the audience to come to a better and more obvious understanding of the events and emotions that are portrayed in King Lear. Both the play and movie portray themes and issues that deal with foolishness, revenge and selfishness. These factors brought upon the catastrophes for both King Lear and Lord Hidetora. A very vital symbol of each representation of Shakespeare’s play is through the power of nature with the storm. With the extensive use of the storm creating the main source of imagery and symbolism, it becomes possible for the audience to comprehend just how strongly the emotions effected the tragic heroes, allowing them to see the change that each character undergoes from their poor judgment and stubbornness. As King Lear and Lord Hidetora give away their power, based on the satisfaction to their ego, they are eventually driven to madness and the storms intensify the natural order of things as they are thrown into havoc. King Lear and Hidetora struggle for deliverance once pathetic fallacy comes into play in determining the transformation of each protagonist through cultural influence, relationship with offspring and self-recognition after destruction.…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Hamlet in Comparison to the Lion King
    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Hamlet in Comparison to the Lion King

    Many literary works can be compared due to vast amounts of similarities between theme and characters; Hamlet and the Lion King are two literary works in which character and theme are surprisingly similar throughout each work. The Lion King is thought to be just an animated children’s film, however, it is in fact a modern translation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The main characters in the Lion King are definite parallels to those in Hamlet. Along with the main characters and plot details, the stories were similar in the representation of the secondary characters. "Here's my little secret, I killed Mufasa.” The theme in Hamlet can be compared to the Walt Disney movie The Lion King. Hamlet and Simba are betrayed by their uncles whom murder their fathers in order to fulfill their own ambitions.…

    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    “King Lear Is a Play Whose Full Meaning Cannot Be Comprehended Because Different Directors Bring Such Different Perspectives to the Text”
    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages

    “King Lear Is a Play Whose Full Meaning Cannot Be Comprehended Because Different Directors Bring Such Different Perspectives to the Text”

    All texts can be read and understood, interpreted and represented in many different ways according to the views of the responder and their context. Many different interpretations of “King Lear” have been made, each valuing and highlighting different aspects and themes of the play. It is necessary for these interpretations to be made and adapted in order for “King Lear” to have relevance within the context of the society. Each interpretation of the text extracts and concentrates on certain ideas, issues, themes, values of the play, altering the way the play is received amongst audiences and critics.…

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    King Lear
    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages

    King Lear

    ‘King Lear’ follows two parallel plot lines, the first is that of Lear himself, with his three…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    King Lear vs. Ran
    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages

    King Lear vs. Ran

    Today I will speak about the transformation of King Lear, a Shakespearian play written in the Elizabethan era to the 1980’s version Ran. I will be using six items to represent the shift in context, values and techniques; this will demonstrate how the composers of both the original text, King Lear and the transformed text Ran are able to reflect the differing values and context within them.…

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    King Lear
    • 1931 Words
    • 8 Pages

    King Lear

    While both writing King Lear and Candide show a strong connection between the main characters in love and hardship that both characters suffers , The meaning of love was address different in both writing. The hardship that was endured by both main characters one was self-inflicted in the case of King Lear. The other was misfortune in his life in Candide. The road to recovery or redemption was similar and different in both main characters.…

    • 1931 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    King Lear Research Paper
    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages

    King Lear Research Paper

    In the play King Lear by William Shakespeare, King Lear is an old foolish man who suffers several flaws in the same way, he is blind to the truth, and his inability to see the truth impacts his decisions making and his poor judgment. Throughout act one and two, King Lear decisions lead to several consequences, which alter his life and the lives of those around him. A few of King Lear’s flaws which demonstrates the great deed of one man’s consequences are, his actions due to his blindness, rash decision making and exhibits a great deed of pride and arrogance.…

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Deception in Shakespeare's King Lear
    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Deception in Shakespeare's King Lear

    William Shakespeare's 'King Lear' is a tragic play of filial conflict, deception and loss. Characters Lear and Gloucester…

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare's Context
    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Shakespeare's Context

    William Shakespeare is one of the most successful and well-known playwrights in the world. His plays even though from a way back in the past have still survived today and are still held in very high esteem. The context of William Shakespeare’s King Lear proposes many differences from our world today.…

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    King Lear Play vs. Movie
    • 1862 Words
    • 8 Pages

    King Lear Play vs. Movie

    King Lear by William Shakespeare tells the tragedy of Lear, King of England, who slowly, throughout the course of the play becomes mad and eventually dies. There have been many film adaptations of the play all of which try and remain as close to the original play; however, none appear to keep the same meaning of Shakespeare’s text more than director Richard Eyre’s film version of King Lear (1997). Shakespeare focuses in on each character’s flaws and their contributions to the consequences at the end of the play and although Eyre does the same in his film, he adds minor actions and scenes to the play to give characters of the play a light that emphasizes their nature.…

    • 1862 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics