as confirmed above, RAN is indeed a retelling of King Lear. It's a REALLY great movie and it's actually one of the first couple of DVDs I bought.

TheWay -- I didn't notice any dilution of color on my DVD... but I assume that your TV has color controls... go for it.

I have yet to see it, but Kurasawa's "Throne of Blood" is also "Samurai Shakespeare" ... it's actually Macbeth.