Non-MoC Eureka Titles

[yoloswegmaster]

Also coming in November:



SPECIAL FEATURES

Limited edition (2000 Copies)
Limited edition O-card slipcase
1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray
Optional English subtitles
Brand new audio commentary with British cinema expert Melanie Williams
All Hands on Deck – Brand new interview with film historian Neil Sinyard, author of The Films of Richard Lester
Down with the Ship – Brand new interview with film historian Sheldon Hall on Juggernaut and the disaster film
Trailer
Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on Juggernaut by British film scholar Laura Mayne

[dwk]

December release leak:
Horrible History: Four Historical Epics by Chang Cheh (1972-1976)
•Marco Polo
•The Pirate
•Boxer Rebellion
•Four Riders

Often described as the "Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema," Chang Cheh made nearly a hundred films during a long and storied career spent at the Shaw Brothers Studio, where he directed such landmark films as The One-Armed Swordsman, Five Deadly Venoms and The Heroic Ones. Many of his films drew upon Chinese history for inspiration - and many of them were based on real people and events. Eureka Classics presents four of his best historical epics in this limited-edition set: Marco Polo, The Pirate, Boxer Rebellion and Four Riders.
In Marco Polo, the eponymous Venetian explorer (Richard Harrison) becomes embroiled in a battle between the Mongol Empire and Chinese rebels in the thirteenth century. In The Pirate, the infamous nineteenth-century raider Cheung Po Tsai (Ti Lung) must evade agents of the Imperial Court while attempting to aid the downtrodden residents of a coastal village. In Boxer Rebellion, a group of Chinese patriots use kung fu to protect their nation against invading forces at the turn of the twentieth century. Finally, in Four Riders, a Chinese veteran of the Korean War enlists three comrades to help him escape the South Korean Military Police Command after he is falsely accused of murdering an American soldier.
Marco Polo, The Pirate, Boxer Rebellion and Four Riders are all fascinating examples of the rewriting of history common in popular genre cinema, directed with aplomb by a veteran of Shaw Brothers in Chang Cheh - one of the most celebrated and prolific filmmakers in Hong Kong. All four films are presented on Blu-ray from HD masters supplied by Celestial Pictures.

Special Features
1080p HD presentations on Blu-ray from masters supplied by Celestial Pictures
Original mono audio tracks
Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
Two new commentaries by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and martial artist and filmmaker Michael Worth
Two new commentaries by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
National Defence - A new interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong on Boxer Rebellion Rewriting History - A new video essay on Chang
Cheh’s historical films by Jonathan Clements, author of A Brief History of China
Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju)
PLUS: A Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on all four films in this set by writer and critic James Oliver
Limited edition of 2000 copies only

[yoloswegmaster]

Glad to see more of the lesser known Shaw Bros titles getting releases. Though I do wonder why they keep getting James Oliver to write the essays for their HK releases, since he seems to have a bit of a monopoly on the essays. He isn't a bad writer but he isn't particularly memorable.

[Orlac]

Glad to see more of the lesser known Shaw Bros titles getting releases. Though I do wonder why they keep getting James Oliver to write the essays for their HK releases, since he seems to have a bit of a monopoly on the essays. He isn't a bad writer but he isn't particularly memorable.

I never found anything particularly interesting in what he writes - much more prefer Paul Bramhall or Brandon Bentley.

Mike Leeder and Arne Venema are fun to listen to but rely too much on repeated material and make some atrocious errors at times.

[Maltic]

Are those the first Shaw Bros titles to be released on Eureka?

[sabbath]

Nope. They already announced Super Spies and Secret Lies: Three Undercover Classics from Shaw Brothers last month: https://eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/super-s ... cret-lies/

[yoloswegmaster]

I never found anything particularly interesting in what he writes - much more prefer Paul Bramhall or Brandon Bentley.

Mike Leeder and Arne Venema are fun to listen to but rely too much on repeated material and make some atrocious errors at times.

It would be cool if they got a scholar from HK to do an essay, maybe someone like Jessica Yeung. She's done some stuff for Error4444 and I think she wrote an essay for the Lee Chang Dong release, though I could be wrong about that.

[TMDaines]

December release leak:
Horrible History: Four Historical Epics by Chang Cheh (1972-1976)
•Marco Polo
•The Pirate
•Boxer Rebellion
•Four Riders

Often described as the "Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema," Chang Cheh made nearly a hundred films during a long and storied career spent at the Shaw Brothers Studio, where he directed such landmark films as The One-Armed Swordsman, Five Deadly Venoms and The Heroic Ones. Many of his films drew upon Chinese history for inspiration - and many of them were based on real people and events. Eureka Classics presents four of his best historical epics in this limited-edition set: Marco Polo, The Pirate, Boxer Rebellion and Four Riders.
In Marco Polo, the eponymous Venetian explorer (Richard Harrison) becomes embroiled in a battle between the Mongol Empire and Chinese rebels in the thirteenth century. In The Pirate, the infamous nineteenth-century raider Cheung Po Tsai (Ti Lung) must evade agents of the Imperial Court while attempting to aid the downtrodden residents of a coastal village. In Boxer Rebellion, a group of Chinese patriots use kung fu to protect their nation against invading forces at the turn of the twentieth century. Finally, in Four Riders, a Chinese veteran of the Korean War enlists three comrades to help him escape the South Korean Military Police Command after he is falsely accused of murdering an American soldier.
Marco Polo, The Pirate, Boxer Rebellion and Four Riders are all fascinating examples of the rewriting of history common in popular genre cinema, directed with aplomb by a veteran of Shaw Brothers in Chang Cheh - one of the most celebrated and prolific filmmakers in Hong Kong. All four films are presented on Blu-ray from HD masters supplied by Celestial Pictures.

Special Features
1080p HD presentations on Blu-ray from masters supplied by Celestial Pictures
Original mono audio tracks
Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
Two new commentaries by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and martial artist and filmmaker Michael Worth
Two new commentaries by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
National Defence - A new interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong on Boxer Rebellion Rewriting History - A new video essay on Chang
Cheh’s historical films by Jonathan Clements, author of A Brief History of China
Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju)
PLUS: A Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on all four films in this set by writer and critic James Oliver
Limited edition of 2000 copies only

A Guardian article predicting a lot of disappointed customers:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/o ... -histories

[Finch]

The only collaboration between action master Ringo Lam (City on Fire) and Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs), The Adventurers is an explosive story of heroic bloodshed featuring Rosamund Kwan (Once Upon a Time in China), David Chiang (Election) and Victor Wong (Big Trouble in Little China).

Wai Lok-yan (Lau) was just eight years old when his parents were killed before his eyes in Cambodia, where his father had been working for the CIA during Pol Pot’s ascent to power in the latter days of the Cambodian Civil War. Taken to Thailand by his father’s colleague Seung (Chiang), Yan grows up to join the Thai Air Force and comes to discover that his father’s murderer – Ray Liu (Paul Chun, Royal Tramp), once a double agent – has now become a wealthy arms dealer based in the United States. With the help of the CIA, Yan intends to get close to Liu and have his revenge by taking on an assumed identity and gaining the trust of Liu’s daughter, Crystal (Jacklyn Wu, A Moment of Romance) – but first he will need to go undercover in San Francisco’s criminal underworld to rescue her from the clutches of the Vietnamese Black Tiger Gang.

Made shortly before Ringo Lam departed for Hollywood to make Maximum Risk with Jean-Claude Van Damme, The Adventurers is a hidden gem amongst the many heroic bloodshed films produced in Hong Kong during the 1990s. Eureka Classics is proud to present the film on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK from a brand new 2K restoration.

SPECIAL FEATURES
Limited Edition [2000 copies]
Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Time Tomorrow [2000 copies]
1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a brand new 2K restoration
Original Cantonese mono and DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio options
Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
New audio commentary by film critic David West
Two Adventurers – new interview with Gary Bettinson, editor of Asian Cinema journal
Previously unseen archival interview with writer and producer Sandy Shaw
Theatrical trailer
A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring a new essay by Hong Kong cinema scholar Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park [2000 copies]



Titles Include : The Magnificent Trio / Magnificent Wanderers

One of the Shaw Brothers Studio’s most prolific directors, Chang Cheh – or the “Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema” – is the filmmaker behind Five Deadly Venoms, Chinatown Kid and Boxer Rebellion. Collected here are two films by this maestro of martial arts cinema that showcase his considerable talents at both ends of his career: The Magnificent Trio, produced when wuxia films ruled the Hong Kong box office in the mid-1960s, and Magnificent Wanderers, made at the height of the kung fu craze at the end of the 1970s.

In an early role that pre-dates his star-making turn in Chang’s The One-Armed Swordsman, Jimmy Wang Yu stars in The Magnificent Trio as swordsman Lu Fang, who – along with fellow warriors Yen Tzu-ching (Lo Lieh) and Huang Liang (Cheng Lui) – lends his martial arts prowess to a group of oppressed farmers when they kidnap the daughter of their local magistrate. Then, in the kung fu comedy Magnificent Wanderers, the three nomads Lin Shao You (Fu Sheng), Shi Da Yong (Chi Kuan-chun), and Guan Fei (Li Yi-min) attempt to join Chinese patriots in their struggle against invading Mongol armies with the help of the wealthy Chu Tie Xia (David Chiang).

From straight-faced wuxia pian to farcical kung fu comedy, The Magnificent Trio and Magnificent Warriors display the full range of Chang Cheh, a filmmaker who sat in the director’s chair for over three decades. Eureka Classics is proud to present both films on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

SPECIAL FEATURES
Limited Edition [2000 copies]
Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [2000 copies]
1080p HD presentations on Blu-ray from masters supplied by Celestial Pictures
Original mono audio tracks
Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
New audio commentary on The Magnificent Trio by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and martial artist and filmmaker Michael Worth
New audio commentary on Magnificent Wanderers by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
Chang Cheh Style – new video essay by Gary Bettinson, editor-in-chief of Asian Cinema journal
A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on Chang Cheh by writer and critic James Oliver [2000 copies]

[Finch]

SYNOPSIS
A standout wuxia film heavily influenced by both the longstanding Japanese samurai tradition and the emergent Spaghetti Western, The Bells of Death is a fantastical tale of revenge produced by Shaw Brothers Studio, directed by the prolific Yueh Feng (Madam White Snake) and starring Chang Yi (Lady Whirlwind) in one of his earliest roles.

Wu Fei (Chang) is a simple woodcutter – that is, at least, until he gives directions to a group of bandits he encounters on a lonely road, sending them in the direction of his family home. He returns to find the criminals have murdered his parents and younger brother – while his sister has been kidnapped, claimed by chief bandit Tao Ching Lung (Lam Kau, Drunken Master) as his new bride. Desperate for vengeance, Wu Fei finds a way forward when he encounters a master swordsman (Yang Chi-ching, Come Drink with Me), who takes the woodcutter under his wing and prepares him to take his bloody revenge.

A markedly dark and gruesome wuxia film featuring a cadre of truly despicable villains, The Bells of Death boasts breathtaking cinematography by Pao Hsueh Li – who would go on to direct several wuxia films of his own – and features Hong Kong superstars Wu Ma and Sammo Hung in supporting roles. Eureka Classics is proud to present the film on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

SPECIAL FEATURES
Limited Edition [2000 copies]
Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [2000 copies]
Optional English subtitles, newly revised for this release
Original Mandarin mono audio
Optional English dub
New audio commentary by East Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
New audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
For Whom the Bell Tolls – a new interview with Wayne Wong, editor of Martial Arts Studies
A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on The Bells of Death by East Asian cinema expert Camille Zaurin [2000 copies]

[What A Disgrace]

If I am not mistaken, this is the first film from the Shout! Factory boxed sets of Shaw Brothers films to be released by Eureka?

[Finch]

SPECIAL FEATURES
Limited Edition [2000 copies]
Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju)
1080p HD presentations of both films
Original Mandarin audio tracks
Optional English dub for The Deadly Knives | Optional English subtitles, newly revised for this release
New audio commentary on The Eunuch by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
New audio commentary on The Deadly Knives by Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
PLUS: Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on both films in this set by writer and film critic James Oliver

SYNOPSIS: Revenge is and has always been one of the most popular and prolific themes in Hong Kong cinema, from classic wuxia epics to kung fu movies and heroic bloodshed films. During the 1970s, Shaw Brothers Studio was the largest production company operating in Hong Kong and the king of the vengeance tale. Presented here are two of the studio’s most interesting and underrated takes on the revenge story: “The Eunuch” and “The Deadly Knives” (aka ‘Fists of Vengeance’).

A wuxia pian written by the legendary Lo Wei (‘Fist of Fury’) and directed by Teddy Yip (‘The Black Tavern’), “The Eunuch” begins as the eponymous eunuch Gui De-hai (Pai Ying, ‘The Valiant Ones’) survives an attempt on his life ordered by the Emperor (Lo Wei himself). After killing the Emperor and his family in cold blood, Gui notices that the Prince is missing – and sets out to complete his revenge mission. Then, Ching Li (‘Four Riders’) and Ling Yun (‘Killer Clans’) star in the kung fu film “The Deadly Knives” as young lovers Guan Yue-hua and Yan Zi-fei, whose relationship is tested when Yan’s family comes under threat by Japanese thugs led by Ogawa (Ching Miao, ‘The Shadow Boxer’). He becomes determined to avenge their honor – even if that means taking on Guan’s corrupt father.

“The Eunuch” and “The Deadly Knives” were made just as the wuxia film was giving way to the kung fu movie in the wake of Bruce Lee’s international success and provide a fascinating insight into how the theme of revenge was retooled as one genre superseded another. Eureka Classics presents both films on Blu-ray for the first time anywhere in the world.

[Orlac]

Eureka has goofed on THE DAREDEVILS by releasing it in Cantonese instead of the advertised, and more correct, Mandarin.

[Finch]

Amazon leak for Eureka's non-MoC announcement is The Tattooed Dragon, directed by Lo Wei, with Jimmy Wang Yu.

[What A Disgrace]

They're also releasing The Sons of Great Bear, an East German western.

[Finch]

A prolific writer and director, Lo Wei found fame in the 1970s following the enormous international success of The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, his collaborations with the inimitable Bruce Lee. In the years before he kickstarted a kung fu revolution, though, he had been working on an accomplished series of wuxia pian for Shaw Brothers. Presented here are three standout films drawn from Lo Wei’s wuxia world: The Black Butterfly, Death Valley and Vengeance of a Snow Girl.

In The Black Butterfly, a good-hearted thief acts as the Robin Hood of the martial world, robbing from the rich to give to the poor – and they begin by stealing a fortune in gold from a group of five ruthless bandits holed up at Five Devils Rock. Then, in Death Valley, the Lord of Chao Manor (Lo Wei) is murdered by his niece (Angela Yu Chien), leading to a bitter fight to claim his land and a clash between a hired swordsman (Chen Hung-lieh) and the Lord’s heir apparent (Yueh Hua). Finally, in Vengeance of a Snow Girl, a young woman (Li Ching) takes revenge for her murdered parents, who were killed in a dispute over the legendary Tsui Feng sword – leading to a final showdown on frozen ground.

Lo Wei’s The Black Butterfly, Death Valley and Vengeance of a Snow Girl are three of the finest wuxia films produced in the years before Bruce Lee’s meteoric rise to fame would cause a tectonic shift in the Hong Kong film industry, as the era of kung fu loomed on the horizon. Eureka Classics is proud to present all three films on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

SPECIAL FEATURES
Limited Edition [2000 copies]
Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju)
Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on all three films in this set by Hong Kong cinema expert Camille Zaurin
1080p HD presentations of all three films on Blu-ray
Optional English subtitles, newly revised for this release
New audio commentaries on all three features by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
Hong Kong Hustle – new interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong on the life and work of Lo Wei

[Orlac]

Mike Leeder is a predictable but terrible choice for commentator, given he constantly mispronounces the director's name as Lo REI.

[Maltic]

So what?

[Orlac]

So what?

Imagine someone constantly saying Orson Relles or Ed Rood.

[Maltic]

A minor inconvenience, but imo it wouldn't make the person a terrible choice in and of itself.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Mike Leeder is a predictable but terrible choice for commentator, given he constantly mispronounces the director's name as Lo REI.

I must plead ignorance to his skills as a commentator, but my introduction to Leeder was in the opening of Severin's Bruceploitation doc a couple of years back, which didn't fill me with confidence since he immediately repeated the hoary myth that The Green Hornet was retitled "The Kato Show" in Hong Kong.

[Orlac]

Mike Leeder is a predictable but terrible choice for commentator, given he constantly mispronounces the director's name as Lo REI.

I must plead ignorance to his skills as a commentator, but my introduction to Leeder was in the opening of Severin's Bruceploitation doc a couple of years back, which didn't fill me with confidence since he immediately repeated the hoary myth that The Green Hornet was retitled "The Kato Show" in Hong Kong.

Wait, that was a myth?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

When it aired on TVB it was under the title 青蜂雙俠 ("green hornet hero duo"), which at some point became 青蜂俠 (dropping the "duo"). I've never seen a shred of evidence it aired as "The Kato Show" in Hong Kong or anywhere else, and the only sources I've found that give the supposed Chinese title are from mainland China or Taiwan and cite it as "加藤秀," which is dead giveaway since 秀 is a Mandarin transcription of "show" popularized in 1970s Taiwan with specific reference to variety shows (which is still the primary meaning today). It's also worth noting that Lee was so little remembered in Hong Kong when the show first aired that he wasn't even credited by his actual Chinese name but as 寶士・李, a derivation of his English name. The more plausible variant of the tale is that the series was informally called "The Kato Show" after it aired and reintroduced Lee to Hong Kong audiences, but this has the same sourcing issues. I'll admit I haven't spent any time in Hong Kong newspaper morgues digging for contemporary references to the 1960s Green Hornet series, so I'm fully prepared to be proven wrong, but my overwhelming impression from the info at hand is that Leeder and others aren't going off actual research but repeating an urban legend.

[Orlac]

When it aired on TVB it was under the title 青蜂雙俠 ("green hornet hero duo"), which at some point became 青蜂俠 (dropping the "duo"). I've never seen a shred of evidence it aired as "The Kato Show" in Hong Kong or anywhere else, and the only sources I've found that give the supposed Chinese title are from mainland China or Taiwan and cite it as "加藤秀," which is dead giveaway since 秀 is a Mandarin transcription of "show" popularized in 1970s Taiwan with specific reference to variety shows (which is still the primary meaning today). It's also worth noting that Lee was so little remembered in Hong Kong when the show first aired that he wasn't even credited by his actual Chinese name but as 寶士・李, a derivation of his English name. The more plausible variant of the tale is that the series was informally called "The Kato Show" after it aired and reintroduced Lee to Hong Kong audiences, but this has the same sourcing issues. I'll admit I haven't spent any time in Hong Kong newspaper morgues digging for contemporary references to the 1960s Green Hornet series, so I'm fully prepared to be proven wrong, but my overwhelming impression from the info at hand is that Leeder and others aren't going off actual research but repeating an urban legend.

Amazing!

I recall Bey Logan on his commentary for THE BIG BOSS stating that Lee returning to HK for that film would be like Macauley Culkin returning to acting to star in RAMBO 4.

[Finch]

Flaming Brothers (1987) with Chow Yun-Fat and FURIOUS SWORDS AND FANTASTIC WARRIORS: The Heroic Cinema of Chang Cheh (5 BD set) also coming. The Cheh titles are:

FURIOUS SWORDS

Disc 1: Men from the Monastery & Shaolin Martial Arts
Disc 2: King Eagle & Iron Bodyguard

FANTASTIC WARRIORS

Disc 3: Fantastic Magic Baby & The Weird Man
Disc 4: Trail of the Broken Blade & Wandering Swordsman
Disc 5: Trilogy of Swordsmanship & New Shaolin Boxers