StudioCanal’s new 4K restoration of Akira Kurosawa’s Shakespearean epic Ran will be shown in UK cinemas starting this April. The cinematic release coincides with the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, as well as 30 years since the film’s original UK theatrical release in 1986.
Information about the dates and venues can be found at the Independent Cinema Office website, which also includes contact details for venues interested in booking the new print. The British release will also find its way to Ireland, as the Irish Film Institute in Dublin is among the first venues to screen the new copy.
The new restoration was first screened in Cannes last year and has since been shown at film festivals in Tokyo, New York and Toronto. It is currently also being shown in selected cinemas around the US.
The new print was scanned from the film’s original negatives and restored frame by frame by the French film processing company Éclair under the supervision of the film’s original distributors StudioCanal and the Japanese Kadokawa Pictures. The film’s colour grading has been approved by Masaharu Ueda, one of the three cinematographers who worked on Ran.
A blu-ray edition of the new 4K restoration will be released in France on April 12 and in the UK on May 2nd. For pre-orders, see for instance Amazon.fr and Amazon.co.uk.
It looks like New Zealand will also be getting the restored Ran this April as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival.