20 Foreign Language Movies You Must See Before You Die

7. Ran

Country: Japan.

Plot: A retelling of King Lear set in medieval Japan.

Akira Kurosawa is easily the finest foreign film-maker of them all and his filmography is full of classics, so it's a testament to Ran's quality that it stands out so much among such a crowded field.

A visually flawless, superbly acted, beautifully told and hauntingly powerful epic, Ran is a true masterwork that makes its near-three hour run-time fly past and delivers some absolutely awe-inspiring battle sequences along the way. In particular, a certain set-piece set around a castle is perfect cinema.

It deviates from the play of King Lear a lot but it's still brilliant as an adaptation and brings out the heart-breaking drama and complexity of the play, making this a film that would definitely have done Shakespeare proud. More than anything else this proves that Akira Kurosawa never lost any of his skill with age.

Fun fact: Kurosawa was close to blindness when he made this... yet it's still his most visually stunning film.