Movies that need a special edition Blu-Ray!

"Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Akira Kurosawa's Ran arrives on Blu- ray courtesy of StudioCanal.



The release is sourced from a new 4K restoration of the film carried out by French laboratory Éclair, under StudioCanal's supervision. The majority of the restoration work was done manually, frame by frame, with the film's Director of Photography, Mr. Shoji Ueda, approving the color grading.



Density is dramatically improved and as a result fluidity is much better. The harshness and artificial sharpness that plague StudioCanal's previous release of Ran have been eliminated as well. The high-quality scan has also ensured that the grain is evenly distributed and appears much better resolved. Unfortunately, the new color grading has produced various anomalies. For example, there are many sequences where the blacks appear unnaturally elevated and actually introduce very awkward flatness that creates the impression that some sort of a filter has been applied. (Exactly the same anomalies are present on the equally underwhelming 4K restoration of King Hu's Dragon Inn). Shadow definition, in particular, can be quite problematic, and in some cases background depth is completely eliminated (see the effect in screencaptures #16, 17, and 20). The same anomalies can be observed even during the daylight footage (see screencaptures #7 and 18). There is an obvious shift towards warmer primary colors, with light blues, greens, and grays basically overwhelming entire ranges of nuances. As a result, even though there are some improvements in terms of color saturation and vividness, balance is quite unconvincing and parts of the film that used to look cold and gloomy now appear suspiciously warm and desaturated. (See the comparisons provided by StudioCanal in the restoration featurette in screencaotures #24, 25, 26, 27, and 28). Overall image stability is outstanding. Debris, damage marks, scratches, and other age-related imperfections have been removed as best as possible.



The disc's main menu can be set in English, French, or German. Therefore, I assume that StudioCanal's British and German releases of Ran are identical.  

3.5/5