On this Learesque episode of Oeuvre Busters, Liam and George welcome Jessica Chiba to discuss Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985), starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu and Mieko Harada. We recorded this episode a few months back and were going to release it a little later, but Ran is currently on Amazon Prime, so what better time to celebrate this film than now? Topics discussed: must we mean what we say?; the purpose of fools; utter hopelessness; love. Plus, we briefly imagine what an Akira Kurosawa Shakespearean comedy might look like.Topics not discussed: The films of Alexander Kluge. Sigh. Maybe one day . . .Dr. Jessica Chiba is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham's Shakespeare Institute. More about her fascinating research on Shakespeare, philosophy and translation (and untranslatability!) can be found here: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/edacs/departments/shakespeare/staff/profile.aspx?ReferenceId=179549 Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.