New on home video, October 4-10

CHINESE ODYSSEY 2002 (DVD – Kino International)

Jeffrey Lau directs and Wong Kar-wai produces this Lunar New Year spectacle, a romantic comedy with martial arts set in the Ming Dynasty and starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Zhao Wei as brother and sister, two commoners who independently become romantically involved with the Emperor (Chang Chen) and his sister (Faye Wong) in a series of gender mix ups and hidden identities. Action direction is by Poon Kin-kwan.

Features: Original Cantonese audio track with optional English subtitles. Original theatrical trailer. Stills gallery.

DAMAGE (Blu-ray/DVD – E1 Entertainment UK)

WWE’s “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is John Brickner, a parolee driven into the world of underground fighting. Surrounded by degenerates, criminals and killers, John struggles with the help of his promoter Reno (Walton Goggins) and cut person Frankie (Laura Vandervoot) to fashion a new life on the outside by working his way through the fighting ranks and putting everything on the line for a fight to the death. Film features bare-knuckle fist fighting action orchestrated by veteran action choreographer Steven McMichael (BLOOD TIES, KILL SWITCH).

ENTER THE DRAGON (Blu-ray – Kam & Ronson HK)

Bruce Lee’s only Hollywood film comes to Blu-ray in Hong Kong. Lee portrays a student of Shaolin recruited by authorities to investigate the operation of a reclusive crime lord by entering a martial arts contest hosted on the crime lord’s private island. Legendary Hong Kong kung fu movie heavy Shih Kien portrays the villainous Mr. Han. John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Ahna Capri, and Angela Mao co-star in this rare co-production between Warner Bros. and Golden Harvest. (Warner Bros. also has a Blu-ray version of ENTER THE DRAGON already out in the U.S.)

Features: Cantonese, Mandarin and Thai audio tracks with optional English, Chinese and Thai subtitles.

MIRAGEMAN (DVD – Magnolia)

Chilean martial arts star and action director Marko Zaror’s follow up to KILTRO sees him portraying a real-life superhero with no super powers but plenty of fighting fury and courage. While working as a nightclub security guard, Maco comes to the aid of a TV reporter during a violent robbery. When news of this act of heroism causes the mental health of Maco’s institutionalized brother to improve, he decides to become the masked superhero, Mirageman. A lot of folks are saying this one is better than KILTRO. WE’ll soon have our own review posted.

Features: Original Spanish audio track with optional English subtitles.

RED CLIFF (Blu-ray/DVD – Entertainment in Video UK)

John Woo’s two-part period war epic starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Takeshi Kaneshiro arrives in the U.K. in two versions, a 143-minute international cut on Blu-ray and DVD and a 281-minute Chinese cut labeled “The Special Edition” (pictured). The long, Chinese cut represents the complete film which Woo originally had released to theaters in two parts. The shorter, international cut is the version intended for foreign audiences and condenses both parts into a film that cuts out a lot of the story and character development and focuses more on the action. In the U.S., Magnolia Pictures is planning to release the same international cut in a limited theatrical run beginning November 13th. A home video release date in the U.S. has yet to be announced.

Features: Interview with John Woo. Behind-the-scenes featurette.

STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI (Blu-ray/DVD – Optimum UK)

Kristin Kruek stars as Chun-Li, a concert pianist who meets a stranger named Gen (Robin Shou) with knowledge pertaining to the whereabouts of her father who was kidnapped years earlier by a crime lord named Bison (Neal McDonough). Armed with wushu skills taught by her father a new fighting techniques Gen teaches her, Chun-Li begins investigating Bison’s criminal enterprise in Bangkok and runs into an assortment of fighting villains. Along the way, she is aided by two detectives who are investigating a series of murders linked to Bison. The film is based on Capcom’s popular STREET FIGHTER game franchise and features wire and CG-enhanced fight choreography from Dion Lam, Jonathan Eusebio and Jon Valera.

THE HUNTED (DVD – UCA UK)

Not to be confused with William Friedkin’s 2003 action thriller of the same name, THE HUNTED is a martial arts actioner from 1995 that stars Christopher Lambert as an American business executive visiting Japan who inadvertently stumbles upon an attempted assassination by a ninja cult. Now marked for death, he teams with descendents of samurai who were mortal enemies of the ninja cult and learns Japanese swordsmanship in time to fight the ninja. John Lone, Joan Chen and Yoshio Harada co-star. Fight choreography is by Tom Muzila. This U.K. release is a reissue on DVD.

Features: Theatrical trailer. Production notes. Cast and filmmaker biographies.

THE MECHANIK (Blu-ray – DNC Entertainment UK)

Dolph Lundgren is a former Russian Special Forces operative who sees his wife and children killed by mobsters and relocates to America to start a new life as a mechanic. When a woman comes forward requesting help in rescuing her kidnapped daughter, he discovers men responsible for his family’s deaths are involved and he goes looking for justice. This is Lundgren’s second directorial effort. It was previously released in the U.K. on DVD in 2008. It’s also available on DVD in the U.S. under the alternate title of THE RUSSIAN SPECIALIST.

THE STEVEN SEAGAL LEGACY (DVD – Warner UK)

This is a reissue of an eight-disc box set containing eight Steven Seagal films. This includes EXECUTIVE DECISION, EXIT WOUNDS, FIRE DOWN BELOW, NICO (aka ABOVE THE LAW), OUT FOR JUSTICE, UNDER SIEGE, THE GLIMMER MAN, and UNDER SIEGE 2: DARK TERRITORY. All of these films can be found individually on DVD in the U.S. and U.K.

THE ULTIMATE MATRIX COLLECTION (Blu-ray/DVD – Warner)

Already available in the U.K., this seven-disc box set is a reissue on DVD. (A Blu-ray version of this box set arrives next week.) It contains all three films in the trilogy including THE MATRIX, THE MATRIX RELOADED and THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS.

Features: THE MATRIX REVISITED. THE ANIMATRIX. Supplemental material including two audio commentaries for each film, the ENTER THE MATRIX video game footage, 106 featurettes, and more.

THE WAY OF THE DRAGON (Blu-ray – Kam & Ronson HK)

Known internationally as RETURN OF THE DRAGON. Bruce Lee battles karate champion Chuck Norris in the Roman Coliseum in this martial arts classic pitting Lee against Italian mobsters. This Blu-ray release from Hong Kong label Kam & Ronson is part of a series of Blu-ray imports of Bruce Lee’s films recently released. Others include THE BIG BOSS, FIST OF FURY and ENTER THE DRAGON.

Features: Cantonese, Mandarin and Thai audio tracks with optional English, Chinese and Thai subtitles.

TURNING POINT (Blu-ray/DVD – Hua Yu HK)

Based around a popular character named “Laughing Gor” from the popular Hong Kong TV series E.U., this crime actioner starring Anthony Wong, Francis Ng and Michael Tse also marks the return of Shaw Brothers to feature film production. However, their subsidiary TVB handled the actual production and some critics suggest it looks more like a condensed TV drama than an actual Shaw Brothers movie. Regardless, it’s a film that is meant to prop up Hong Kong’s ailing film industry and keep local talents like Wong and Ng working. It could be the start of better things to come.