Ran (#316, DVD)

Kurosawa fans rejoice! After suffering through two flawed releases of Ran on DVD, the Criterion Collection's glorious two-disc set does full justice to Kurosawa's final epic masterpiece. The film itself is absolutely stunning, presented in a new high-definition digital transfer that renders the previous DVDs obsolete. The full-length audio commentary consists of highly informative cultural, historical, literary, and critical analysis by Stephen Prince (author of The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa), combining material from Prince's 2003 commentary (on the Wellspring Masterworks DVD of Ran) with all-new commentary recorded exclusively for this Criterion release. Along with theatrical trailers, disc 1 also includes a splendid July 2005 interview with American director Sidney Lumet, who articulately praises Kurosawa as "the Beethoven of movie directors," and appreciatively likens the father-and-sons relationships in Ran to a Beethoven string quartet.