Criterion has ditched a feature previously included on the DVD:

• A 35-minute video piece reconstructing Ran through Kurosawa’s paintings and sketches, created as part of the series Image: Kurosawa’s Continuity (NOTE: not included in the Blu-ray edition)

Yeah, I noticed that last night. I hope there's a better reason for this other than "not enough space."

CC

So, you think they're omitting it just for the hell of it? Surely space is indeed the reason.

Well, it was posted over in The Auteurs' forum that the licensing was lost for the video piece that's being omitted from the "Ran" blu-ray, which is a much more viable reason for such an act.

Indeed, it would not be the issue of lack of space on a blu-ray disc that can hold 50GB worth of media that would be the cause of the feature being omitted. If that were the case, Criterion could easily keep the "Ran" packaging to two discs just as they did with the standard DVD release. The first disc with the feature would be blu-ray, and the second disc could easily just be the same standard DVD Disc #2 since most special features from DVDs are simply ported over onto a blu-ray disc in 480p anyway.

CC

Losing the rights is also a clearly more sensible reason for omission than doing it just to piss people off.

Space, even on a Blu-ray disc, is limited. With a film as long as Ran, and with an already large batch of extras, such as the 74 minute Marker doc and the 30 minute It's Wonderful to Create segment, it's not hard to imagine having to omit something if they want to keep it a single-disc release. A two-disc release probably isn't a consideration for them right now if they want to keep the price the same as the DVD set. Throwing too many things on there could absolutely compromise the quality of the film.

Those that have the SD release and using the Criterion Blu-ray upgrade program will be able to keep all the original supplements since you only have to return Disc 1 to get the Blu-ray.

I can buy into space issues keeping one supplement off of the disc, but why not include the Toru Takemitsu interview in the booklet?

Believe it or not, more space issues.

Has anyone else noticed that the "Ran" blu-ray is not up in the Coming Soon section on Criterion's site at the moment?

CC

Major bummer:


And I'd already sold my SD version in anticipation!

did they dave the reason one Ran is definitely removed from the blu-ray "coming soon" announcement ? How a Criterion was so close to be released to be removed (for lost of (c)/licence?)

Will they put an alternative title for the Blu-Ray in place of Ran ?

apparently the standard DVD is out of print. Snag it now if you haven't!

Clearly a big disappointment.
Does anyone know who is the rights-holder, and what went wrong?

This is really bad news, not just considering that CC seems to have been intent to release every Kurosawa film they could lay their hands on in top-notch editions (the Eclipse set notwithstanding). Grab it while you can, the Stephen Prince commentary alone would be worth an eventual double-dip. I'm pretty sure this soon will easily fetch the same prices on ebay that "Rebecca" and the other Hitchcocks did before the new MGM releases came out.

Whoever decided to use the rights of ownership card at this point of the release must be a real asshole. The guys at Criterion must be real pissed about this, since I remember reading somewhere that Ran was one of the films they first used to test the HD technology. Criterion must have thousands of copies of the BD and DVD in their wherehouse now waiting for this mess to be resolved.

Probably true, and probably true. This coudn't have been very much foreseen, considering the BD.

I doubt the BDs were pressed already. I would imagine they were notified of ownership issues when they announced the disc and put everything on hold hoping they could resolve the matter before pulling the disc info from the site. Although I'm sure somewhere in the Criterion offices there is a finished master of Ran in HD sitting on a hard drive. This is a big financial loss for them, both in production time/resources and revenue I'm sure they were counting on.

I'm just going to guess Toho stepped in on the BD issue, not wanting a Region A release before a Japanese release. The DVD going out of print, oh well. That's how rightsholders want to be....

Criterion's Blu-Ray releases don't appear to offer a significant improvement on the DVD version, unless you are watching on a massive 50" + screen, so I'll be keeping my Ran DVDs.

I'm sure the Ran DVD looks just fine on your tiny screen, but I just watched it last night on my massive set and it looked pretty weak. Not sure how much better the blu-ray would have been (given what the film source it was based on has to offer), but there was certainly a lot of room for improvement based on what I saw.

Maybe it's the film elements they worked with? It seems no one has made the best transfer of this film, yet it was made in 1985!

Just got this forwarded to me:


Mighty tight-lipped about this all, especially from a media relations person.

Rialto is releasing RAN in US theatres. It says on their website and I confirmed with the company's owner. What this means for the DVD/Blu-ray, I have no idea.

In which case this could just be a temporary (and somewhat logical) deck-clearing to allow Rialto to make the most of their opportunity, since Rialto customarily require their theatrical window before a DVD comes out. It would be extremely impolitic of Criterion to gazump Rialto with the Ran BluRay.

Or keep selling that pesky DVD.