BEST BETS Friday 8/18

all day Movies

“Ran,” Akira Kurosawa’s transposition of Shakespeare’s “King Lear” to 16th century Japan, is being re-released with a new print to commemorate the film’s 15th anniversary. The Times called the film “a vision of a world in chaos, on the brink of fiery apocalypse and seen from a vantage point distant, eerily serene: perhaps the eye of a detached, jaded deity.”

* “Ran,” exclusively at the Cecchi Gori Fine Arts, 8556 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 652-1330.

7:30pm

Pop Music

So far, the Wu-Tang Clan’s most memorable trip to L.A. has been the time it played its glowering self on HBO’s “The Larry Sanders Show.” That figures to change when the dust has settled on the hard-core rap collective’s three shows at the House of Blues. ODB won’t be along, but RZA, Method Man, Raekwon and the rest will set the stage for the release of anew album in November.

* Wu-Tang Clan, House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 7:30 p.m. Also Saturday at 7:30 and 11:30 p.m. $35. (323) 848-5100.

8pm

Theater

“The Darker Face of the Earth” is a retelling of the Oedipus myth, set on a plantation in the pre-Civil War South. The play by Pulitzer Prize winner and U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove is a California premiere, presented by the Fountain Theatre and Black Artists Network Development.

* “The Darker Face of the Earth,” American Renegade Theatre, 11136 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m.; Aug. 27, Sept. 10, 3 p.m. only. Ends Sept. 17. $18 to $22. (323) 663-1525.

10pm

Pop Music

In the 1950s and ‘60s, a wave of Cuban musicians moved to Mexico and spiced up that nation’s music scene with an injection of their native sounds. One of them, El Gran Fellove, is still at it a half-century later, as he’ll demonstrate when he teams with Joey Altruda’s Mambo Noir Orchestra.

* El Gran Fellove with Joey Altruda’s Mambo Noir Orchestra, Conga Room, 5364 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 10 p.m. $15 and $35. (323) 938-1696.

8:30pm

Music

Composer-conductor John Williams returns to the Hollywood Bowl for his annual weekend with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The “John Williams’ Movie Memories” program includes music from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Empire of the Sun,” “Angela’s Ashes,” “Far and Away,” “Sabrina,” “The Patriot,” “Sugarland Express,” “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial” and others.

* “John Williams’ Movie Memories,” Hollywood Bowl, 2701 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. 8:30 p.m. $3 to $75. Also Saturday, 8:30 p.m. (323) 850-2000.

7:30pm

Movies

“My Car Is Your Car!” is Friday’s theme in the ongoing Cars ‘n’ Stars film series. Alex Cox’s 1984 comedy “Repo Man” stars Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton in a bizarre comedy about repossession specialists that mixes a punk ethos with elements of sci-fi and subtle social commentary. It’s paired with “Used Cars,” Robert Zemeckis’ underrated 1980 comedy (written with Bob Gale) that sends up the resale auto industry and stars Kurt Russell and Jack Warden. Saturday’s “Both Sides of the Law” double bill is “Bullitt” and “Thunder Road.”

* “My Car Is Your Car!” double bill, Bing Theater, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 7:30 p.m. Series continues through Sept. 2. $5 to $7. (323) 857-6010.

8 & 10pm

Jazz

Now that the Knitting Factory finally has opened after a long construction delay, it’s nice to see they’re serious about tapping into the local talent pool. Keyboardist David Ornette Cherry helps break in the smaller space at the Hollywood venue.

* David Ornette Cherry, Alterknit Lounge, Knitting Factory Hollywood, 7021 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. 8 and 10 p.m. $10. (323) 463-0204.

FREEBIE:

Frank Fetta conducts the Redlands Bowl Summer Festival Opera Ensemble in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” in English. In the cast are Lori Stinson, B.J. Ward, Stephen Plummer and Michael Paul Smith. Christopher Harlan is stage director. 8:15 p.m. Redlands Bowl, 25 Grant St., Redlands. (909) 793-7316.