Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		5.0

Ran 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 29, 2023

There's an old saw that says it's good to be king, but the old saw perhaps fails to mention that assuming power also evidently seriously increases chances of going crazy. Just think about all the mad kings who have populated history in either lore and legend or actual historical fact, many of whom went on to infamy on either stage or film, or both. King Lear, Richard III, Ludwig and The Madness of King George are just a few titles that may spring instantly to mind, but in the annals of Eastern monarchs with roiling psyches, nothing quite comes close to Akira Kurosawa's 1985 masterpiece Ran, a film which in fact owes more than a tip of the jingasa to the very first property named above, Shakespeare's immortal tale of a ruler who in attempting to go gentle into that good night ends up mucking everything up, including his own sanity.

There's a bit of a gender bender aspect to Kurosawa's reimagining of the venerable tale, with Ran portraying the travails of warlord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) showing clear signs of the ravages of age as the story opens, with a boar hunt ending in what is revealed to be a gathering supposedly to announce which of two potential families will marry into Hidetora's family. Hidetora is, unlike Lear and three female offspring, the father to a trio of sons, Taro (Akira Terao), Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu) and Saburo (Daisuke Ryu), who are more or less analogs to Goneril, Regan and Cordelia from Shakespeare's version. Before any impending nuptials can be announced, however, the gathering descends into near chaos when seemingly on the spur of the moment, even if he claims to have been ruminating about it for a good, long while, Hidetora hands over the keys of his kingdom (so to speak) to eldest son Taro. Jiro seems to want to curry favor with his father and agrees to the decision, but Saburo is having none of it, with this opening vignette ending with the banishment of both Saburo and Hidetora's right hand man Tango (Masayuki Yui), the latter of whom makes the perhaps unwise decision to back Saburo in some of Saburo's qualms about Hidetora's divvying up of his assets.

That sets up an intricate series of betrayals and ultimate madness for Hidetora, but for those wanting a detailed description of some of the ensuing plot dynamics, I recommend reading Dustin Somner's Ran Blu-ray review of the now long ago Lionsgate Blu-ray release. I will say I would depart from one tiny bit of Dustin's comments in that there is some occasional goofy humor offered here, at least as interstitial sidebars, courtesy of the character of Kyoami (Peter), who is basically The Court Jester (again, so to speak) of the piece and who kind of relentlessly skewers the goings on, though who also shows undeniable fealty to the increasingly unstable Hidetora.

The way Kurosawa and his team adapted this basic story to a feudal Japanese environment is completely remarkable, and the epic sweep of both the underlying story and especially the way Kurosawa stages things gives this rather long film (close to three hours) a briskness and visceral energy that is frequently thrilling.

Ran 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ran is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Lionsgate Films with a 2160p transfer in 1.85:1. The 1080 presentation on this disc is also culled from the restoration, and so offers some significant differences from the pretty lackluster previous Blu-ray from Lionsgate, so I'll address both resolutions in my following comments. The film begins with a brief set of text cards proclaiming:

This film has been restored by StudioCanal and Kadokawa. The color correction was approved by Shōji Ueda. In cooperation with Eclair Group. Financed by J-LOP.

The restoration featurette included on this disc as the sole supplement shows some side by side examples of the negative and the restored version and without doubt the single biggest change is in the color timing, even if a litany of other improvements have been achieved. I've tried to match some of Dustin's screenshots from the original Lionsgate Blu-ray to give those interested a bit of an idea of the rather massive changes in store, but aside from being kind of weirdly windowboxed and having what to my eyes is a pretty ugly digital appearance, the first release also had a somewhat blue tint running through it which admittedly could make the expansive skies pop really nicely, but which did odd things to other elements in the palette, perhaps most noticeably the lush green grasses. And in fact if I were to point eyes to one range of hues that show clear changes in both the 1080 and 4K UHD versions offered in this package it would be greens in particular. Reds can still skew just slightly orange in both of these versions, though Dolby Vision and/or HDR does add some definite crimson highlights to the mix, and some of the yellows, like Hidetora's outfit, pop brilliantly as well. Suffusion is excellent in both versions, but the intensity of the hues is definitely more noticeable on the 4K UHD disc. The overall look in this version is noticeably darker than the old Lionsgate release, and the change in color timing means skies no longer have the vividly suffused blues they did in that version. There are passing moments where despite an absence of opticals grain can spike to pretty chunky levels and clarity decrease. The opening optically printed credits sequence also shows some grain that almost approaches macroblocking, but that's a short-lived phenomenon, and grain resolves nicely for the majority of the presentation.

Ran 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ran offers a number of different audio options, with Japanese tracks in both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, English in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and German in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. While it's actually kind of a fun parlor game to toggle between all of these choices (and in a kind of quasi-joking way, the German track really gives an added gruffness to some of the voices), I spent most of my time on the two Japanese tracks and the English track. Neither of the surround tracks has the spaciousness that regularly accompany contemporary epics of this ilk, and a lot of information is pretty resolutely bound front and center. That said, you can still clearly catch moments of side and rear channel engagement both courtesy of ambient environmental sounds but perhaps especially courtesy of Toru Takemitsu's propulsive score, which features a battery of percussion instruments and various ethnic touches like what sounds to me like a shakuhachi. Battle scenes also offer a rabble of noise that can waft noticeably through the surround channels. The Japanese stereo track pushes the entire mix forward a bit, as should perhaps be expected, and may suffice perfectly well for many listeners. I noticed none of the momentary crackling that Dustin mentioned in his review. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French and German subtitles are available.

Ran 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Ran: The Restoration (HD; 9:26) is a really interesting piece featuring interviews with a number of people involved in the restoration, including Charlotte Quemy and Ronald Boullet from Laboratoire Eclair. In French with English subtitles.

Additionally, the SteelBook houses a digital copy and 1080 disc. The SteelBook is rather elegantly designed, with a flowing and fiery depiction of Hidetora on the front and soldiers on horseback on the back. The basic color scheme emphasizes reds and silvers. A mylar O-Ring offers a kind of cool "negative" version of the depiction of Hidetora in golds and whites against a black background.

Ran 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ran is an inarguable masterpiece, and it's kind of amazing how Kurosawa is able to blend some blatantly theatrical elements into a riveting example of epic filmmaking. It's probably understandably disappointing that this release didn't port over the supplements from the now ancient Lionsgate Blu-ray, but otherwise this is a really stunning release with solid technical merits in both 4K UHD and 1080, and some very handsome SteelBook packaging. Highly recommended.