Akira Kurosawa's RAN - Masterworks Edition (street date: September 9th, 2002) (1 Viewer)

[Ted Todorov]

Have you seen Ozon's Under the Sand? I doubt it, if you had then you would know what I'm talking about.
Look, they'll never be as good as Criterion or Anchor Bay.

Why not? What's stopping them? They have the rights to a better bunch of movies than Anchor Bay by a long shot. I mean Paul Verhoven's Dutch films are pretty good, but they can't touch F-L's Rohmer, Truffaut, etc. etc. If F-L could afford the rights to all those movies, it clearly has more resources than Criterion or Anchor Bay -- so why can't they spend some of them on doing decent transfers?
So far as Under the Sand I'm planning to get the French R2 Film Office edition, because their DVDs include Ozon shorts which the F-Ls do not. A Rose Between Us which was on the R2 Water Drops on Burning Rocks DVD was totally great, better than the feature, IMHO. So, sorry, I will not be blessed with the height in F-L DVD transfers, but that's OK, 'cause those R2 DVDs are reference quality.
Ted

 

[Rich Malloy]

I actually think the Madadayo disc is fine, not a great transfer, but I've seen far worse from them.

Unfortunately, I have too, Brook! But still, my memory of MADADAYO ('twas a Netflix rental) was that the transfer was soft and bleached out with alot of color smearing and even several instances of a very strange fuzziness/out-of-focusness that plagued only parts of the image (this latter might have been a defect in the original film - I've never seen anything quite like it). Also, I didn't view it on an anamorphically-capable monitor, so that may have reduced the image quality somewhat. Then again, is this even an anamorphic disc to begin with? I'm not so sure it is...

 

[Mark Lee]

Why not? What's stopping them? They have the rights to a better bunch of movies than Anchor Bay by a long shot. I mean Paul Verhoven's Dutch films are pretty good, but they can't touch F-L's Rohmer, Truffaut, etc. etc. If F-L could afford the rights to all those movies, it clearly has more resources than Criterion or Anchor Bay -- so why can't they spend some of them on doing decent transfers?

Amen to that! It may very well be true that their more recent efforts show some improvement over their earlier releases, but a good chunk of that may be attributable to the fact that their earlier releases were just so damn bad to begin with, that anything would look better. Carrol, I haven't seen the Breathless disc, so I can't see for myself the apparent improvement in quality that the Fox-Lorber release represents over its predecessors. I only wish the same could be said of the vast majority of their other releases. Perhaps, if as Ted suggested, they spent a bit more effort on quality rather than quantity of their film catalogue, we all wouldn't have such an instinctive suspicion for anything with a Fox-Lorber label on it.
And as much as I'd like to believe that they'll finally do Ran justice (one of my top 5 films of all time, BTW), their "past criminal record," so to speak, doesn't bode very well, even for an alleged remastered Special Edition. I fear I'll have to let more trusting souls be the guinea pigs and buy the new release first.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Then again, is this even an anamorphic disc to begin with? I'm not so sure it is...

Rich,
From what I can tell, Madadayo is NOT anamorphic (sources include dvdpricesearch & dvdplanet).
Ted

 

[DaViD Boulet]

It just makes me sick. I really wish that other studio (new line?) had fought a little harder for this title. Even if it ends up being 16x9, I just can't imagine their transfer doing any justice to this film.

 

[Kevin Leonard]

The Kurosawa documentary is coming out on its own on April 23rd. According to DVD Empire, it will contain nearly 2 hours worth of bonus footage...will the box set contain this? Because if not, I'll just hold off and buy Ran, Kurosawa and Madadayo individually.

 

[Carrol M]

So, sorry, I will not be blessed with the height in F-L DVD transfers, but that's OK, 'cause those R2 DVDs are reference quality.

I hear ya, that's cool. But, some of us don't have a R0 dvd player. Besides, I dunno if I would want want one. I've heard that even the best PAL to NTSC conversion still has problemo's.

More power to ya'!

 

[Carrol M]

Carrol, I haven't seen the Breathless disc, so I can't see for myself the apparent improvement in quality that the Fox-Lorber release represents over its predecessors. I only wish the same could be said of the vast majority of their other releases. Perhaps, if as Ted suggested, they spent a bit more effort on quality rather than quantity of their film catalogue, we all wouldn't have such an instinctive suspicion for anything with a Fox-Lorber label on it.

Great points made by all... but I guess it just comes down to this. There are films that I would like to expose myself too, right? There are two formats with which they are available, VHS and DVD.
Films like Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad and another like Godard's My Life to Live; I mean, I'm happy with my dvd's of both. Maybe I'm a simp, but I just consider it a pleasure to own them, period.
Would I buy updated "nice" versions from any company of those films, OF COURSE.
The best example I can think of of a Fox Lorber edition being equal to a Criterion is The 400 Blows. I've heard people do side by side comparisons of both and their practically the same (granted this is directly from the Janus library which has at some point been owned by both companies, so it would look similar).
My point is that at some time or another they have both released similar products (quality wise).
At any rate, I want better editions of the films I have grown, in 26 years, to love and if this Ran - Masterworks Edtion version is an improvement over my old disc...then, maybe I'm a simpleton for saying this but, HALLELUJAH!
newecho

 

[Carrol M]

And as much as I'd like to believe that they'll finally do Ran justice (one of my top 5 films of all time, BTW), their "past criminal record," so to speak, doesn't bode very well, even for an alleged remastered Special Edition. I fear I'll have to let more trusting souls be the guinea pigs and buy the new release first.

Well, I'll definately be the first to weigh in on the quality of the disc in this forum and dvd talk. I'll probably check it out the second it gets here in the mail, in September.
I mean, to me, reference quality for NTSC would by my dvd of Malick's The Thin Red Line, which displays beautifully (when squeezed with the V-compression on my set) in anamorphic widescreen.
Almost every dvd I own I go back to that as being the perfect or the ideal. I'll definately be fair in my comparisons and thoughts on the Ran disc. I mean, I'm a stickler for quality...but I know some people go that extra step and are REALLY stickler's for quality, so I'll be honest.
Carrol

 

[Rich Malloy]

The Kurosawa documentary is coming out on its own on April 23rd. According to DVD Empire, it will contain nearly 2 hours worth of bonus footage...

!!!
That was an excellent documentary and it looked great on my broadband cable service in - I think - a 16x9 letterbox. It should look great on DVD, too... but what is this about 2 hours of bonus footage? Could it be more from the interviews used in the doc?

 

[Philip Verdieck]

For those who haven't bothered with the link:

Release Information:

Studio: Fox Lorber

Theatrical Release Date: March 20, 1998

DVD Release Date: September 9, 2002

Production Company: Fox Lorber

Package Type: Custom

Aspect Ratio(s):

Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1

Full Screen (Standard) - 1.33:1

Discographic Information:

DVD Encoding: Region 1

Layers: Dual

Available Audio Tracks: Japanese

Available subtitles: English

Edition Details:

• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)

• Amazon.com exclusive limited edition box set (only 5,000 individually numbered units to be produced) containing one each of the following:

• Ran - Masterworks Edition DVD

• Madadayo - DVD

• Kurosawa - DVD

• Ran mini-poster

• 4 5x7 photographs

• Multi-page booklet

• Japanese-style miniature shoji screen and certificate of authenticity

• Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats

• Number of discs: 3

As much as I love Kurosawa, I'll be picking up Ran and the Kurosawa disc individually.

I WANT KAGEMUSHA!!!!!!!!

 

[Jeff Wilson]

Agreed, I'd like Kagemusha also, and I'll pass on the set Amazon is offering. I've skipped Fox Lorber's dud release so far, and I'm not going to fork over $100 for it. For those who want another view of the documentary, the link below is to a negative review by Stuart Galbraith, whose recent book on Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, The Emperor and the Wolf, is excellent:
Kurosawa docu review

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Kagemusha is a Fox title

All that waiting, and not one extra?

Oh, and I have to ask: WHAT PERSON WHO WATCHES KUROSAWA MOVIES WANTS P&S?????

 

[Brian E]

I assume the Kurosawa disc is the same as the documentary being released at the end of the month?

 

[Brook K]

The aspect ratios listed are for the box, not just Ran. Madadayo is 1.33:1, that's why it's not an anamorphic disc.

Yes it is soft Rich, but I chalked that up to source material, most Asian stuff from any company not shot in the last couple of years comes out soft, like the Woo and Kitano DVD's.

I would think that since they are already putting out the individual Kurosawa disc, the same disc will appear in the box set.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I'll wait too. With the doc availble seperately I just don't feel the pressing need.
What I have done is pick up some HK imports (look to be LD rehashes) of Ikiru and Throne of Blood instead for $14 each. Probably better AK films (at least Ikiru for sure) and they look as good as my old copy of Ran.
The point is that I love AK but there are other options for my money at this point with better payoff to me.
I mean a Ran SE I could see for $35, the other 2 for, say, $20...that's a $75 total. So the other stuff is another $25 to me and I don't find that worth it. Plus I have no guarantee of the quality of the set.

 

[Lone Wolf]

What's disappointing for me is the missed opportunity to include Chris Marker's 70 minute "A.K." documentary shot at the time of RAN. I thought this would have been a natural to be included with a "Masterworks Edition", which you would expect by the name alone to include something substantially extra than a pan 'n' scan version! Get rid of that and substitute "A.K." instead!

Also, hopefully when Fox gets around to KAGEMUSHA they get a hold of the Japanese edit which runs another 20 minutes. I've never seen this cut but I'd be happy to pay extra to do so.

Johnny B.

 

[Rich Malloy]

What's disappointing for me is the missed opportunity to include Chris Marker's 70 minute "A.K." documentary shot at the time of RAN.

Wh-wh-what?

I've never heard about this! Marker is a great filmmaker ("La Jetee", "Sans soleil"), and he did an outstanding documentary on Andrei Tarkovsky, "One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich", that was recently shown on TCM as part of their Tarkovsky retrospective. I would love to see his film on Kurosawa.

 

[Jay E]

Wellspring posted a comment at dvdtalk.com:http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=196907
It definitely makes me more excited about the DVD releases of Z & Merchant...

 

[KevA]

Quick note to Seth Paxton (and everyone else who doesn't know this and is a fan of Kurosawa's work):

According to a newspaper article from a few weeks ago, Ikiru, Throne of Blood and Red Beard are going to be released by Criterion at some point (in addition to the already announced Dodeskadan).

kfa