Akira Kurosawa's "Ran" going into Criterion Collection limbo?

by Chris MaGee

Well, here's a story that won't make many of you happy. In February we told you about how Akira Kurosawa's late 1985 masterpiece "Ran" was going to be released by the Criterion Collection on Blu-ray. Great news, right?

Now our own Marc Saint-Cyr sent me a link to a story posted over at Rope of Silicon that says that the Blu-ray of "Ran" originally due out on May 12th has been delayed due to "a rights issue". The original post on the Criterion Collection's website has been yanked and no alternate release date has been announced. What makes this even more disturbing is that the standard Criterion 2-disc DVD set of "Ran" has gone out of print, so currently this amazing film has gone into limbo.

Let's hope this "rights issue" gets cleared up sooner than later and Kurosawa fans can breath a sigh of relief.