

The new 4K restoration of Akira Kurosawa’s Ran that is shown in Cannes this month will also be heading to theatres. According to StudioCanal’s press release, the film will first be released theatrically in Japan this autumn, followed by releases in the the US and France. 2015 marks the 30th anniversary of the film’s original release.

Those in the UK will be able to see the film in theatres in 2016, coinciding with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. The press release does not mention other countries, but it may be a good idea to keep an eye on your local Japanese film festivals.

Undoubtedly, these will be fairly limited theatrical runs.

The new 4K restoration of Ran is scanned from original negatives and restored frame by frame by the French film processing company Éclair. The work has been carried under the supervision of the film’s original distributor StudioCanal and the Japanese Kadokawa Pictures.

Furthermore, the new transfer’s colour grading has been approved by Masaharu Ueda, one of the three cinematographers who worked on Ran and were nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA and other awards for their work. As there has previously been some disagreement about the considerably varying colour palettes of the film’s various DVD and Blu-ray releases, it can be hoped that with Ueda’s involvement in the restoration process, a definitive digital transfer has been created which closely matches the original intentions of Kurosawa and his cinematographers.

It also seems safe to assume that this new transfer will sooner or later find its way onto a home video release, possibly first on Blu-ray.