As great as King Lear

That, at any rate, is the title of the article in which Philip French writes that Tokyo Story can be mentioned in the same breath as King Lear.

At least there's this theme in common: King Lear is precisely the history of the definition of a soul by circumstance. — Lionel Trilling, The Poet as Hero: Keats in His Letters, The Opposing Self, Uniform Edition, p. 41.

Trilling also writes: [Keats] stands as the last image of health at the very moment when the sickness of Europe began to be apparent. — Ibid., p. 43.

Not the last, though not in Europe.

So what Peter Bradshaw wrote of you only sounds absurd: I defy anyone to watch [Tokyo Story] and not feel simply overwhelmed with a kind of love for Hara – however absurd that may sound.