"Actor: Cheung KWOK KEUNG"

• THE CHAMPIONS | Blu Ray | (23/09/2024) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Eureka Entertainment to release THE CHAMPIONS, the kung-fu soccer comedy starring Yuen Biao. Presented in its worldwide debut on Blu-ray from a brand new 2K restoration. Available from 23 September 2024 as part of the Eureka Classics range, the first print run of 2000 copies only will exclusively feature a limited edition O-card slipcase, and a collector's booklet.Sports, action, and comedy collide in Golden Harvest's The Champions, the precursor to Shaolin Soccer from the first family of Hong Kong martial arts cinema: the inimitable Yuen Clan!Lee Tong (Yuen Biao, Dreadnaught) is a young farmer who has grown up in an isolated rural community. When an indiscretion lands him in hot water, he leaves his home in the countryside and heads for the big city - where he meets Suen (Cheung Kwok-keung, Eastern Condors), a street footballer who recognises Tong's talent for the beautiful game and encourages him to try out for a pro team. But Tong's first chance at footballing glory is scuppered by a rivalry with the narcissistic King (Dick Wei, Project A), who relegates the newcomer to cleaning up after his teammates. Having discovered a love for football, Tong soon accepts an offer to join a rival team - and the stage is set for a final confrontation with King on the pitch.Written and directed by Brandy Yuen (In the Line of Duty III) and featuring action choreography by Yuen Shun-yi (The Miracle Fighters) and Yuen Chun Yeung (Armour of God), The Champions is a sporting underdog story filtered through some of the greatest minds in the history of Hong Kong action cinema. Eureka Classics is proud to present the film on Blu-ray for the first time ever from a brand new 2K restoration!SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES*:Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling | 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a brand new 2K restoration | Original Cantonese audio and optional English dub tracks (original mono presentations) | Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release | Brand new audio commentary by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) | Brand new audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema | Brand new featurette by CFK looking at the 1987 Hong Kong celebrity football team that featured a number of Hong Kong legends including Jackie Chan and Andy Lau | Andrew Heskins on The Champions - brand new interview with film critic Andrew Heskins (easternKicks) | Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork | Trailer | PLUS: A limited edition collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic James Oliver* All extras subject to change

• Police Story 2 | DVD | (25/03/2002) from £16.02   |  Saving you £6.96 (53.42%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Police Story 2 (1989) is one of those rare sequels that's more fun than its predecessor. Jackie Chan plays his usual rule-breaking cop, loyal to superiors that carp at the destruction he leaves in his wake but are prepared to take credit for every success he has. Here he finds himself up against vengeful gangsters whose plans he frustrated in the first of the series; but he also has to combat a ruthless team of extortionists with a taste for explosions both large and small--blowing up large buildings, turning people into human bombs and torturing people with firecrackers are all part of their repertoire. He has girlfriend trouble, too, since his fiancée is worried that he always puts the job first. Like its predecessor and the quasi-sequel First Strike (1996), Police Story 2 is transitional between Chan's early more fight-orientated Hong Kong movies and his later, blander Hollywood films. The fights and stunts here are most of the point of what is essentially a very good generic Jackie Chan vehicle; he takes on progressively larger groups of opponents, coping, for example, with a dozen gangsters armed with swords in a terraced garden by leaping from level to level and paying each opponent individual attention. The final fight in a fireworks factory is a Chan classic, depending as it does as much on the comedy of frustrating repetition as on daring stunts. --Roz Kaveney