Ran

An elderly man with a white beard and intense expression wears a white robe with gold patterns and a black hat trimmed in white. He stands before a large banner featuring a yellow and black sunburst design, evoking a theatrical or historical Japanese sett

Ran — Akira Kurosawa’s Academy Award-winning adaptation of William Shakespeare’s King Lear — considers the disastrous consequences of Lord Hidetora Ichimonji’s (Tatsuya Nakadai) decision to split his kingdom among his three sons. This 1985 masterpiece by the influential Japanese director is epic in scale and profound in its exploration of the destructive power of greed and the hubris of war.

Thirty years after its original release, Studiocanal decided to restore Ran in 4K in collaboration with the Japanese company Kadokawa. In 1985, the production of the original film was possible thanks to a French-Japanese collaboration and 30 years later, Studiocanal and Kadokawa replicated this partnership to restore the film. Ran has been restored in 4K by the French laboratory Éclair, under Studiocanal's supervision. Based on an original negative, the majority of the restoration work was done manually, image by image. Color grading was approved by Masaharu Ueda, one of Ran's three cinematographers and a close associate of Kurosawa's.

Part of our "Restorations & Rediscoveries" series. In Japanese with English subtitles. Courtesy of Rialto Pictures.