New on home video, August 16-22

BRAVE ARCHER AND HIS MATE (DVD – Well Go USA)

Chang Cheh’s fourth and final entry in the BRAVE ARCHER film series caps a colorful adaptation of Jin Yong’s “Condor Trilogy,” a popular series of wuxia novels from one of the genre’s most celebrated authors. The cast features members of Chang’s Venoms Mob, as well as other leading stars from Shaw Brothers including Alexander Fu Sheng, Kara Hui, Danny Lee, and Lily Li. Well Go USA’s licensed DVD release features Celestial Picture’s digitally re-mastered print, Mandarin and English dub tracks, optional English and Chinese subtitles, and a new Celestial Pictures trailer.

DOLPH LUNDGREN DOUBLE PACK (DVD – Anchor Bay UK)

Martial arts-trained action star Dolph Lundgren has been languishing in DTV land since the early ’90s but is now experiencing a career revival with starring roles in Jean-Claude Van Damme’s UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: A NEW BEGINNING and Sylvester Stallone’s THE EXPENDABLES. No doubt in response to this, Anchor Bay has re-released two of Lundgren’s B-movies in this British two-pack. In MEN OF WAR (1994), Lundgren heads a team of mercenaries to acquire treasure on an island in the South China Sea. In THE LAST PATROL (aka THE LAST WARRIOR), a new social order arise from the destruction of Los Angeles after a devastating earthquake. War and chaos threatens to take over and its up to The Last Patrol” to restore order.

KAGEMUSHA (Blu-ray – Criterion)

An absolute masterpiece from celebrated Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa comes to Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. Backed by Hollywood filmmakers George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, Kurosawa’s meticulously constructed period epic is set in Japan’s feudal era and concerns efforts by members of a warring faction, the Takeda Clan, to replace their mortally wounded leader with a look-alike narrowly saved from execution for petty thievery and taught to play the part of a warlord. Both the Blu-ray and previously released DVD editions include a restored digital transfer, audio commentary by Stephen Prince, interviews with Lucas and Coppola, a Making Of featurette, a look at Kurosawa’s related paintings and sketches, storyboards, trailers, and a booklet with essay by Peter Grilli and an interview with Kurosawa.

THE 5 DEADLY VENOMS (DVD – Dragon Dynasty)

Chang Cheh’s kung fu classic THE FIVE VENOMS is one of the most popular Chinese martial arts movies ever made. It features the director’s famous cast of kung fu stars who would collectively be known as the Venoms Mob hereafter, who would go on to star in a string of kung fu movies that maintained the campy, blood-soaked violence that made this film such a hit internationally. Taiwanese opera-trained actor Chiang Sheng is the youngest member of the Poison Clan who is charged by his dying master to investigate the status of his five elder pupils, some of whom he fears are engaged in evil deeds. Dragon Dynasty’s release features Celestial Pictures re-mastered print, original Mandarin and English dub tracks, and an audio commentary from resident Hong Kong film expert Bey Logan.

THE FIGHTER (DVD/Blu-ray – Laguna Productions)

Produced by Laguna Productions, a film company that targets the Latino community, this urban brawler follows Leone (Rafael Anaya), a retired street fighter forced to return to the world of underground fighting after an accident that causes the death of his wife and puts his son in the hospital. His mission is to help capture “El Chapo,” the head of a criminal organization. The DVD release feature English audio and optional Spanish subtitles.