Although most commonly associated with the Wuxia genre, in 1979 King Hu directed the epic fantasy-horror, Legend of the Mountain. Heavily influenced by traditional Chinese aesthetics and Zen Buddhist philosophy, it has come to be regarded as one of his greatest filmmaking achievements. A young scholar, Ho Yunqing (Shih Jun, A Touch of Zen, Dragon Inn), is tasked by an eminent monk to transcribe a Buddhist sutra said to have immense power over the spirits of the afterlife. To execute his work in peace, he travels to an isolated monastery deep in the mountains, where he encounters a number of strange people, including the mysterious and beautiful Melody (Hsu Feng, A Touch of Zen, Dragon Inn). As malicious spirits attempt to steal the sutra, Ho becomes entangled in a conflict between duelling forces of good and evil. Will he leave the mountain alive? Adapted from a Song Dynasty folk tale, Legend of the Mountain exemplifies King Hu's masterful command of spectacular visuals and philosophical insights into life and existence. Heavily edited upon release, the film has now been fully restored to its original length in stunning 4K, and The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present the film for the first time ever on home video in the UK, in a special Dual Format edition. BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES: Limited Edition O-Card (2000 units) first print run only 1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray, with a progressive encode on the DVD Uncompressed LPCM mono audio Newly translated English subtitles A new video essay by critic and filmmaker David Cairns A new interview with Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns Trailer A collector's booklet featuring an abundance of archival writing and imagery
A story of lost lives and lost souls, writer/director Yonfan delivers one of his strongest studies of human fragility. The movie focuses on the relationship between a chanteuse and her Japanese lover from the time they first meet to the present day where she is now at rock bottom and he's a washed-up drug addict. With incredible performances from Sylvia Chang and Shingo Tsurumi, we act as a voyeur, dipping into their bleak, fragmented existences where others control their choices and the only the only light in their lives is their unbroken love.
Don Wong and Chuck Norris star in this 1973 martial arts action movie. The film follows Don (Wong), a Chinese American cop, as he tracks down Chuck Slaughter (Norris), the leader of the San Francisco gang responsible for his partner's death.
Oozing atmosphere with its noirish neon glow, the film chronicles the return of Luo Hongwu to Kaili, the hometown from which he fled many years before. Back for his father's funeral, Luo recalls the death of an old friend, Wildcat, and searches for lost love Wan Qiwen, who continues to haunt him. Sculpting time and space through virtuosic technical feats, Bi's film yields successive visual and aural delights. With talismanic cues and motifs of uncanny doubling, the film is bisected its first half recast in the second through a vertiginous, trance-inducing, hour-long single take in 3D. A hushed, hypnotic study of hazy memory, lost time, and flight and featuring the formidable Sylvia Chang as Wildcat's mother Long Day's Journey Into Night leads the viewer on a nocturnal, labyrinthine voyage, one that both reveals and conceals a world of passion and intrigue.
François Girard's The Red Violin (1998) is a good-looking but ultimately insubstantial piece from a director who seems more concerned with tone, colour and style than narrative coherence. The film traces the story of a violin originally made in 17th-century Italy, which is taken to an 18th-century monastery to be played by a child prodigy. The violin later comes into the hand of a virtuoso in 19th-century Oxford, from there to China in the Cultural Revolution and on to Montreal, where--before it can be auctioned--it is "acquired"' by Samuel L Jackson. Unfortunately, none of these stories make much of an impression: the episode in Oxford is particularly weak, with Greta Scacchi wasted, and the film is even less than the sum of its parts. Jackson is completely miscast as an expert on musical instruments, even if a criminal one. To be frank, this is a poor effort, though well photographed and with a pleasing score by composer John Corigliano performed by violinist Joshua Bell. On the DVD:The disc contains a theatrical trailer but no other features. The soundtrack is excellent, in Dolby Surround. The image is equally good, in a 1.78:1 anamorphic print. --Ed Buscombe
For 1992's Twin Dragons Jackie Chan resurrects the old Corsican Brothers chestnut of identical twin brothers separated at birth who meet up as adults and discover that they share more than blood ties. Poor boy Chan is a mechanic and race-car driver whose black-market activities have made him the target of some nasty mobsters, while jet-setting Chan is a world-famous conductor back in Hong Kong for a concert. In the same vicinity for the first time in years, they can suddenly feel each other's pain, and more. As one Chan jumps a jet boat for a wild escape, the other becomes a victim of the furious ride, thrown around a posh restaurant while drenching his date with drinking water. The whole thing is overloaded with silly slapstick, Chan's incessant mugging and cartoonish mistaken-identity gags as the boys swap girlfriends and dance. But wade through the crude comedy and you're rewarded with a gymnastic free-for-all climax in a car-testing workshop, where Chan leaps over, under and through cars while taking on an army of gangsters before split-screen brothers team up for a bit of marionette martial arts. Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam co-direct, Tsui taking the comedy and Lam handling the action, and John Woo makes a cameo as a priest in the wedding finale. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
A Chinese man becomes an expert player of the traditional game of Go.
Mel Gibson co-stars with Sam Neill in this action-packed World War II adventure story. An elite Australian military team is dispatched to rescue survivors of a shot-down plane stranded on a South Pacific island occupied by the Japanese. One of the castaways may hold the secret to ending the war and must be saved at all costs...
Lily and Chen move from Hong Kong to London to make their fortune. Enterprising Lily runs her own restaurant but she fails to persuade Chen who prefers the security of a job as a waiter in London's Chinatown. Soho which forms the backdrop of much of the action is Britain's nerve centre for the Chinese Mafia - the Triads. In the back streets and illicit gambling dens the film gives a rare insight to the Machiavellian exchanges between rival Triad gangs. Trying to pay off his father's gambling debts; the innocent Chen accepts money from a Triad member only to find that he is expected to pay for it by doing a heroin run. Terrified he falls in with Lily's plan to move away and start up a business. However back in Soho a high ranking Triad member is planning to overthrow his leader and Chen's unpaid debt could turn him into a pawn in a horrifying violent power struggle.
A romantic drama about the universal complexity of modern relationships and follows three women aged 20 (Lee); 30 (Liu); and 40 (Chang) at different stages of life and love. Set in Taipei Taiwan against the background of minor earthquakes that the city is experiencing the women's love lives are as unpredictable and turbulent as the tremors they endure. Xiao Jie (Lee) innocent and impressionable escapes her overbearing parents for the first time to leave home and follow her dream o
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