



Ran 4K Restoration Trailer Posted January 5, 2016 05:55 PM by



Rialto Pictures has sent us a brand new trailer for the recent 4K restoration of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's classic film Ran (1985), starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, and Mieko Harada. Ran opens Friday February 26 at New York's Film Forum.



The restoration: The film has been restored based on a 4K scan by the French laboratory Éclair, under StudioCanal's supervision. Based on an original negative, the majority of the restoration work was done manually, frame by frame, with the film's Director of Photography, Mr. Ueda, approving the color grading. (Technical information courtesy of StudioCanal).



Also included with this article is StudioCanal's official poster for the recent 4K restoration of the film.



Synopsis: With Ran, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reimagines Shakespeare's King Lear as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan. Majestic in scope, the film is Kurosawa's late-life masterpiece, a profound examination of the folly of war and the crumbling of one family under the weight of betrayal, greed, and the insatiable thirst for power.











Source: Blu-ray.com | Permalink | [Country settings]



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Ben-hur Jan 05, 2016 Could Ran be coming back to Criterion? Say it could be

Alex DeLarge Jan 05, 2016 Goodbye awful Studio Canal Blu-ray and hello....Criterion?

A Prosthetic Prophet Jan 05, 2016 While a Criterion release would be preferable, I'm fine with Studio Canal re-releasing this if the quality is as good as their 4k restored release of The Third Man.

dannalexcon Jan 05, 2016 Great news! Kurosawa's best IMO.

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Top contributor mrjohnnyb Jan 05, 2016 Wow! Awesome! dkelly26666 Jan 05, 2016 I saw this in a theater in 1986. I'd LOVE to see it in a theater, again.... 30 years later...

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Top contributor RBBrittain Jan 05, 2016 If the icon with this article is correct (not sure if it is), we should expect a Criterion since Janus Films is affiliated with Criterion. (Not sure about Rialto Pictures.)

bingtau Jan 05, 2016 Seeing how it was the first ever title Criterion was gonna release on blu it would be a nice long awaited treat!

tama Jan 05, 2016 It'll be interesting to see if they release this in N. America. Luckily the Third Man was region free since it has yet to be re-released in the states.

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Top contributor rapta Jan 05, 2016 Pretty sure it's already been confirmed that StudioCanal will be releasing this restoration on Blu-ray sometime in 2016. I think it was MichaelB who said he had contributed for it.



I will be ditching the old Optimum disc and saving up to get this. Hopefully it will be a special set like The Third Man, but I'm happy with whatever, as long as it seems worth the money (i.e. not £15.99 for one disc and a scarce amount of extras, in the case of Hiroshima Mon Amour to give one example).

Koroshiya Ichi Jan 05, 2016 Saw the 4K restoration last November in The Netherlands.

It looked miles better than the Studio Canal Blu-ray, so people who haven't seen it yet will be in for a treat.

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Top reviewer Cremildo Jan 05, 2016 Can't wait for the new Blu-ray to come out, whether by Criterion or StudioCanal. uther Jan 05, 2016 Where are posters Criterion getting from? It says 'under StudioCanal's supervision' so unless SC loses the rights they will release it which hopefully be a lot better then it's last BD which was dvd quality as is The Lady Killers.



Dont expect Criterion to release Spartacus either. JohnnyFontane Jan 05, 2016 The StudioCanal blu-ray's problem wasn't just the picture quality, but... correct me if I'm wrong, there were some subtitle spelling/grammatical errors. Showed me just how much the people in charge of it didn't seem to give a crap.

hedliniv Jan 05, 2016 Will this be a 4k (format) release or a 4k scan (1080p) blu-ray release?

TheNakedGenius Jan 05, 2016 Back in the early blu-ray days when it was Optimum they did release a bunch of sub par (Léon) and downright terrible (Escape From New York) quality discs. Since then, and becoming Studio Canal I find them to be a continuously fantastic distributor, so I'd be very happy for a release of this from them. People with region A players are lucky they can watch Kurosawa's other films from Criterion though, being in the UK BFI's releases really don't look anywhere as good as Criterion's.

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Top contributor Dubstar Jan 05, 2016 oh just release this on bluray AND UHD and I'll be happy.

fdm Jan 05, 2016 I'll take a better blu-ray. My favorite Kurosawa, though I still have a few to get to yet. (It was pretty sweet in the theater when it first came out.)

broganreynik Jan 06, 2016 Whoa, where can I get my hands on that poster?!?



Also, Ran restoration?!? Very excite!

Dr_Bedlo Jan 06, 2016 I agree with "A Prosthetic Prophet". "The Third Man" box set is amazing! If SC can do that with "Ran", I'm all in...take my money!

acua Jan 06, 2016 Need to watch this again. First time I saw it ages ago I found it pretty boring... ZoetMB Jan 06, 2016 Loved this film when I saw it theatrically, although my companion did say, "why did it have to be so long?" I replied, "because it's based on Shakespeare", but I didn't find it too long at all. GoBlu08 Jan 06, 2016 I need this. Also Criterion should release a comprehensive Kurosawa collection on bluray

JediFonger Jan 06, 2016 i've got almost all the copies of ran. i've read that the blurriness is inherent to the original master/footage shot on film... so curious to see how much better this restoration will be.

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Top contributor Grethiwha Jan 06, 2016 Wow!!! I didn't know this was coming! I'll be the first to defend the old Studio Canal blu-ray as a solid little package  special-feature-rich and better-than-DVD quality, representing perhaps the best they could do at the time  certainly the best way to own the film for the last 6 years. But it did leave quite a lot to be desired, PQ-wise, and I'll be first in line when this new restoration hits blu-ray! A no-brainer double-dip; one of my 5 favourite movies of all-time, an incredibly beautiful film, and the idea of this possibly getting a new release with 5-star video!!!



A quote from Dustin Somner's original review on this site of the old release:

"I wish I could say the new Blu-ray edition of Ran is the definitive version of an iconic masterpiece, but I'm afraid I was left slightly underwhelmed. I wholeheartedly believe it surpasses prior editions in every way, and might go so far as to conclude this is the best the film will ever look, but I can't shake the nagging hope that someday we'll witness the results of a dramatic restoration effort. After all, if Paramount could rescue The Godfather films, there's reason to believe the same effort might eventually land on this classic. Having said that, I doubt a restoration is anywhere on the foreseeable horizon, and Ran deserves a spot on the shelf of any serious film fan." inderweltsein Jan 06, 2016 @uther

This poster was the one from the Lumiere Festival in Lyon in October.



And StudioCanal can not lose the rights.

They are the worldwide rightholder as the inheritor of the rights of the producing company of the great Serge Silberman

(with the exception of Japan where Kadokawa is the rightholder, as they acquired the japanese producing company) Phonecia Taylor Jan 07, 2016 Next to Casablanca this is probably the most overrated movie of all time. I couldn't even get thru one viewing of it. Compared to Rashomon or Seven Samurai this movie is a dog. The original bluray was garbage so for those of you who want this I hope they make a better transfer for you.

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