By the early 17th century, Shakespeare had already written Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and many others of his greatest plays. And he was approaching the end of his career when he started work on King Lear, his study on the waning of power and interfamilial strife. In 1985, Akira Kurosawa was already lauded as one of Japan’s greatest filmmakers, with films to his name such as Rashomon, Throne of Blood and Seven Samurai, when he made his film adaptation of King Lear.

Shakespeare’s play is set in a mythic ancient Britain; Kurosawa chose as his setting the similarly contested and mythologised Sengoku period of Japanese history, a period of near constant civil war dominated by warring Samurai clans. Kurosawa called his adaptation Ran - literally 'chaos' or 'turmoil' in Japanese.

But what can Ran tell us about adapting Shakespeare to screen? Joining us to answer this question is special guest Nick Pearce.