Ronin (1998)
Action, Thriller, Crime • 2h 2m
Director: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård, Skipp Sudduth, Jonathan Pryce, Sean Bean, Michael Lonsdale, Féodor Atkine, Katarina Witt, Ron Perkins, Daniel Breton, Amidou, Jan Tříska, Bernard Bloch, Léopoldine Serre, Dominic Gugliametti, Alan Beckworth, Tolsty, Gérard Moulévrier, Lionel Vitrant, Vincent Schmitt, Julia Maraval, Laurent Spielvogel, Steve Suissa, Katia Tchenko, Dyna Gauzy, Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux, Dimitri Rafalsky, Gérard Touratier, Christophe Maratier, Pierre Forest, Henry Moati, Cyril Prentout, Vladimir Tchernine, Amanda Spencer, Frédéric Schmalzbauer, Lou Maraval, Nader Boussandel, Hélène Cardona, Lee Delong, Norbert Ferrer, Veronique Blanc Meyere, Christine Musset
Capelight Germany 4K Blu-ray
Best English-friendly release · updated 3 months ago
UHD tiers
German import
better compression than Kino, stronger highlights
Overview
A briefcase with undisclosed contents – sought by Irish terrorists and the Russian mob – makes its way into criminals' hands. An Irish liaison assembles a squad of mercenaries, or 'ronin', and gives them the thorny task of recovering the case.
Director: Jean Vigo
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
France Rimini 4K Blu-ray see caps vs Artificial Eye Blu-ray
Directors: Alberto Cavalcanti & Charles Crichton & Basil Dearden & Robert Hamer
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Otakar Vávra
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray see nic review
Restored: Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored: Czech PAL DVD
Preferences will vary, the restored track sounds good, but not necessarily faithful to the original elements.
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
(Indicator 4K Blu-ray, based on review)
Director: Robert Rossen
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Anthony Mann
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Basil Dearden
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Indicator 4K Blu-ray. Excellent 4K master and encode, except for opticals grain is very fine, grading is beautifully silvery and luminous, nice HDR re-grade by Fidelity in Motion
Director: John Frankenheimer
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Criterion Blu-ray Mono, both tracks on the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray are badly remixed.
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: John Frankenheimer
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has terrible encoding, "chock-full of all the usual frozen grain, mushy grain, trailing grain, missing grain,..."
Director: John Frankenheimer
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Rob Reiner
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Arrow 4K Blu-ray releasing December 14 2026
Director: Brian De Palma
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Arrow 4K Blu-ray has a better encode than the Kino Lorber and Capelight 4K Blu-rays. Capelight 4K Blu-ray looks low-passed in comparison to the Arrow but is slightly closer to the Arrow in PQ than the Kino Lorber.
Director: Bob Clark
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December
Director: David Lynch
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December
Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray - subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking
1993 MGM LaserDisc/2000 Region 1 MGM DVD
Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110
Director: John Woo
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray > US Shout! Factory, better encoding by Engine House and redone opening credits, errors present in Shout! Factory fixed
Arrow 4K Blu-ray, mono is from an alternate higher fidelity source than Shout! Factory.
Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray used what was also originally screened theatrically: The Perspecta Stereo 3.0 and a mono option. The Perspecta track sounds best with better dynamic range and was set as default with the mono as optional. The previous releases stereo were downmixes of a now lost original 4-track, and it sounds very thin as a result. See comparison
Director: Tsui Hark
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray or Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
There is a newer 4K restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata, which should be of better scan quality. The 4K restoration used on all current 4K disc releases stems from a low-quality Cintel scanner. The newer restoration has yet to be released on home video.
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray or US Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Both the US Arrow 4K Blu-ray and UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray are better than the horrible grade of the France Le Chat Qui Fume which has blacks looking greenish and milky with some yellow push. However, comparing these two, there's significant tradeoffs; Arrow has less black crush and some shots seems to be better graded but it's worse in some shots with a slight magenta grade; the UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray has a better color grading.
UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray and US Arrow 4K Blu-ray have exclusive extras
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: capelight.de (opens in a new tab)
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US, same black crush as the US disc but encoded by FiM and very good new supplements
Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray has MEL Dolby Vision
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Researched and maintained by
tyyux,DISKANBGR8,vanshady,JojoTheMovieOtter,AdamA· last reviewed 3 months ago
Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.