Akira Kurosawa's wife of 39 years, Yôko Yaguchi, died during the production of this film. Kurosawa halted filming for just one day to mourn before resuming work on the picture.
Several hundred costumes were all created by hand, a process taking two years to complete.
Akira Kurosawa referred to his previous film, Kagemusha, la sombra del guerrero (1980), as a "dress rehearsal" for this film. He spent ten years storyboarding every shot in the film as paintings. The resulting collection of images was published with the screenplay.
"Ran," generally translated from the Japanese, means "chaos" or "revolt."
Akira Kurosawa's eyesight had deteriorated almost completely by the time principal photography began. He could only frame shots with the help of assistants, who used his storyboard paintings as guidelines.
Akira Kurosawa: [weather] The sky gradually becomes more and more cloudy as the plot progresses. It finally culminates after the first half, when heavy gusts of wind appear.