Ran

Rating:
Summary: Ran (Masterworks Edition) is also NOT A GOOD DVD TRANSFER!
Review: I can't believe it. I have been cheated twice now. The first edition of Ran was terrible. The new "Hi-Def" version is disappointingly mediocre.

It just isn't very good. Sure, now it has the right geometry on a widescreen TV and they fixed the horrible centering issue, but the quality of the video is very MEDIOCRE and sometimes POOR. For one thing, the color seems like it is overdone and unnatural. Secondly, the overall picture is often fuzzy, though sometimes acceptable. Thirdly, there are "sparklies" all over the place, where complex shapes or fine lines are PIXELLATED HORRIBLY and broken, causing vibrating movements and undulating saturation. I find this nearly intolerable.

If you have a widescreen TV, you'll surely notice this. If you have an old "standard" set that isn't too big, it might hide some of this in the "fuzziness" of the scanlines, but probably not all of it.

I am just very angry that this supposed chance at doing the film justice has been totally wasted. I saw Ran IN A THEATRE and it was FANTASTIC. Not so on the DVD. It looks like [poo].

Here is a letter I wrote to the deplorable company Wellspring, which apparently handled this ...job:To Whom it may concern:

I have a technical problem with the new edition of Ran, "The Masterworks Edition".

Basically edges and lines in the picture tend to vibrate and jitter, and are very pixellated, causing a distutrbing and distracting motion and distortion in the overall image. It actually gives me a headache to watch it.

I find it hard to believe that you would go through the trouble to produce a new "Hi-Def" transfer and basically do such a poor job with the transfering and compression of the video.

I returned the first copy I bought at Virgin Records for another one, and the same problem exists on both. I have a Toshiba widescreen HDTV television for enjoying just such movies as this, and I am shocked that the picture is so grainy and problematic.

Can you explain this? I have included some screen shots for you to look at. The first set is where the Lords are meeting for the first time. The four frames to show how the star in the crescent of the clan symbol distorts and "sparkles." See the white rectangles and compare the regions. Some are darker in spots, some are lighter. They are all "splotchy". When you put frame after frame up like this, you get a "sparkling" effect, which is very annoying.

In the second set, the white rectangles highlight the "sparkling" in the white lines in Hidetora's hat. You can clearly see that in some frames the line is "solid" and in other frames it is clearly "broken" or "perferated." Again, this creates a disturbing effect in motion.

I'm not sure what you can do about this, but I have to say I'm disappointed in your compression techniques or whatever filters you ran this through.

Any information in answer to this problem would be appreciated. At the very least, perhaps future DVD's done by your company will not have this problem.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT
Review: This is the DVD that many Kurosawa fans have been waiting years for and it doesn't disappoint. The film is beautiful. The commentaries are great. Overall, I have only one complaint about the DVD: in the trailers section, the two trailers included are the European and Home video trailers. They're good, but I would much rather have had the original Japaneese and American trailers and maybe the re-release trailer from 2000.

Overall, I highly recommend this DVD to any film buff. Excellent. I can only hope that more of Kurosawa's films are re-released in such a manner on DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular restoration
Review: Having waited for a long time for a re-issue of this classic by Kurosawa, I was lucky enough to see this digitially restored disk when Wellspring released it in their Limited Edition Kurosawa Collection in the Fall of 2002. Not only is the film everything it's known to be, but this new DVD which is a Hi Def, Digitally restored one in 16:9, is simply stunning. The visuals are all one would hope for, and the commentary tracks (2) are insighful and thoroughly enjoyable. Once you view it, you will now understand why RAN was nominated for so many Academy Awards and, more importantly, why it won for Best Costumes. This "Masterworks" edition is a Masterworks on multiple fronts... a master's work on film, by a masterful director with a DVD product that is masterful in its own right!

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, DVD a bit lacking
Review: This movie is a spectacular epic, adapting King Lear to the world of Japanese fuedal kingdoms. The battle scenes are breathtaking to behold and the adaptation is briliantly carried off by everyone involved. The only thing keeping this from 5 stars, in my mind, is the DVD. I would have appriciated some special features or commentary, but there is nothing added to the disc. That said, the movie is alone worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Movie Ever Made
Review: Think true masterpiece. And not in the way the word "masterpiece" is tossed around these days. Think Proust's "In Search of Lost Time". Think Picasso's "Guernica". This is not easy entertainment but a multi-layered epic with a tangled web of complex themes. This film is an experience - an experience rich in countless rewards. I pray that reviewer Blakes_Angel from PA is an adolescent and will one day come to appreciate the difference between soda pop and a fine bottle of aged port.

Rating:
Summary: Leave the Classics Alone!
Review: "Ran," based on Shakespeare's "King Lear" is an excellent movie...a classic film directed by Kurosawa. To think that someone would suggest remaking this movie for a more "modern" audience is a disgrace. This movie is by far more superior than a lot of epic movies that were made recently (and this was made in 1985). It was excellent when it first came out, it is excellent now, and it will be excellent for future generations. There are things that are meant to be left alone, and "Ran" is one of those examples.

Rating:
Summary: Dark Masterpiece
Review: This movie is a masterpiece. But it's not for people who are looking for light entertainment. Based on Shakespeare's King Lear, the film may leave you with a feeling that there's no hope left in the world. The battle and massacre scenes at one of the castles are stunning. It's what I imagine Dante's Inferno would look like. And the images of the old lord leaving the burning castle are truly unforgettable.

Tatsuya Nakadai plays the lead character, Lord Hidetora. He starred in dozens of movies, many of them classics. But he gives perhaps his finest performance in Ran. It's also worth seeing this movie just to watch Lady Kaede, played by actress Mieko Harada. She is the one person everyone will remember. Kurosawa has a knack for creating female characters who can make their macho samurai husbands look like wimps. If you've ever seen Throne of Blood, then you'll know what I'm talking about. The scene where Kaede finds a bug on the floor is not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest movies of all time
Review: If Mr. Blakes_Angel from PA (review) thinks Fellowship of the Ring is more exciting or emotional than a movie like "RAN", then God save us.
RAN and Kurosawa's other epics are way above the rest. His movies leave a lasting impression that one carries for a long time.
But I guess nowadays the mentality of movie watching has dropped down to 12 -14 year olds, and indeed epics like RAN would appear boring to those people.

A thousand times recommended for those who like movies with depth and are interested in fundamental human psyche.

Rating:
Summary: Technically Brilliant, BUT
Review: tedious and rather academic. The battle scenes are the stand out in this beautiful but flawed film. It's said that Kurosawa worked on this film for 10 years. Maybe he tried too hard! Perhaps that is why it is over blown and tired at the same time. Lacking the rich characterizations and humanism of Kurosawa's earlier works it entertains but in the end leaves you cold. It could have used a big dose of Toshiro Mifune!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent film, mediocre DVD package
Review: While i don't necessarily agree that this is Kurosawa's best film (for me that would be either "Seven Samurai" or "Kagemusha"), it is huge, brilliant and gripping.

As with "King's Ransome", the the American "police procedural novel by Ed McBain that he adapted to modern-day Japan, Kurosawa finds themes in Shakespeare's "King Lear" which, while arguably universal, resonate particularly well with Japanese ideas and ways.

Tragedy is set in motion when Lord Hidetori, who has spent much of his life in the saddle, amassing a large fiefdom by conquest, decides that he is too old to rule properly and steps aside in favour of his eldest son, planning to settle lands and castles on his other sons, as well.

And thus into the familiar story from Shakespeare.

The sheer size and scope of this film are amazing; the design is incredible and the battle scenes are overwhelming.

And Kurosawa's directorial bravura is always amazing -- in his next previous film, "Kagemusha", he had staged the battle that destroys a powerful clan almost totally with sound effects and reaction shots of officers and others watching from the hills above. In, on the other hand, "Ran", the battle for a castle is filmed in horrifying detail of gushing blood, dismembered wounded, fire and terror, but staged in complete silence... Until the shot from ambush that kills a Lord rings out, and then the full sound suddenly batters the viewer until the battle ends.

Brilliant, beautiful, huge and moving, this is a film for the ages.

Unfortunately, the DVD package doesn't live up to the film -- aside from a theatrical trailer, the only "extras" on the disc are text-only partial flimographiesof Kurosawa and star Tatsuya Nakadai. Such a huge and special film deserves a special package, but it fails to get it here.

If the film were any lesser in stature, the sparse DVD extras might lose one star for the package as a whole; but this one gets five stars in spite of its lacks.

((Luckily, i understand that a much-more-extensive package, including another feature film and extensive other material, will be out in the near future.))