This movie is among my favorite movies ever recorded, if not the most favorite. The whole story of the movie was taken from Shakespeare's story about King Lear, even tho Kurosawa claimed that he didn't knew about the connection between the movie story and Shakespeare work.
The same as Shakespeare book, King Lear same as in the Ran movie, it's about an old warrior, the leader of the Ichimonji clan who dreams about more power even tho he is old and wasted.
He will split his kingdom into three parts and he gave leadership on those three parts to his three sons (which in Shakespeare work were three daughters instead of sons), because he thinks that they will rule the kingdom much better and that they will be stronger that way.
But after that, there will start a civil war between the sons and he soon will find himself as king without kingdom, travelling from one place to another with mental health that he is loosing from the awful situation that he will be a part of.
Ran is a movie that Kurosawa planned for years, and this is known in every scene filmed. Everything is in place. While watching films I myself wanted to copy and stage every scene. The music in the film is wonderful and totally corresponds to the chaos that persists in it.
[Source](https://theidlewoman.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/ran-03.jpg)