The Maridon Museum will show the 1985 Akira Kurosawa film Ran (乱) on March 20 as part of its 2014 Spring Film Series. From a contemporaneous Gene Siskel review:
"Ran," however, is the real stuff of empires and power. Its battle scenes, with literally "a cast of thousands," make the wedding shootout in "Dynasty" look like the end of "Ring-around-the-Rosie."The show begins at 5:30 and is presented by Dr. William Covey of Slippery Rock University. The Maridon Museum of Asian Art is located at 322 N. McKean St. in downtown Butler, some 40 miles north of Pittsburgh (map).
Kurosawa`s story alters the "[King] Lear" story in terms of gender, with sons competing for their inheritance of their father`s empire, which he is attempting to dismantle in an orderly fashion without really giving up complete power.
But as so many scions have learned over so many centuries, you can`t retire and run the business at the same time. A power vacuum results, and son battles son, egged on by power-hungry wives.