The big news this week is that I just discovered the director’s cut of Ronny Yu’s FEARLESS, starring Jet Li, is coming to region 1 DVD in the U.S. courtesy of someone with a functioning brain at Universal Studios. This is the same 140-minute version released earlier overseas by Edko and adds roughly 35 minutes of footage. The good news is that if you haven’t already bought FEARLESS, you have no excuse not to on July 8th.
Universal even scrapped the absolutely craptastic red poster art cover with a much more classy sepia tone cover that evokes the original Chinese promotional art. It now looks less like some cheeseball B-movie. I swear, if it were in my power I’d take the computer away from every amateur Photoshop-doodling clown working in the American home video business and run them through a remedial art workshop with nothing but butcher paper and a box of crayons. If they have ever made a DVD cover with a film star holding up a pistol to their chin then they need to be fired ASAP.
If you’ve already bought FEARLESS and it’s not the imported director’s cut then I’m sorry. Start saving your coin. The extra footage improves the film in every way that’s needed and is a must-have for Jet Li fans.
A DIRTY CARNIVAL teaser – The distinctive English-language song in this trailer is titled “Old and Wise” and was originally released by British progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project on their 1982 EYE IN THE SKY album. This song is apparently used at the end of the movie. As a longtime fan of the band, I have to give the filmmakers credit for their good taste. For those who have no point of reference for this band, their song “Sirius” became the opener for the Chicago Bulls from 1975 to 1990. They also scored LADYHAWKE.
A DIRTY CARNIVAL trailer
This week sees the domestic release of Yu Ha’s A DIRTY CARNIVAL, starring Jo In-seong in a charismatic performance as an aging junior gangster who seizes on a high-risk bid to move up in the criminal world. Twitch’s Todd Brown gave this film a glowing review after he saw it at Fantasia last year and I’m very much looking forward to reviewing myself.
The disc has been released by Genius Products, the same company that has been partnered with The Weinstein Company on all their Dragon Dynasty releases.
BOHACHI BUSHIDO: CODE OF THE FORGOTTEN EIGHT (1973) arrives by way of Discotek. This sexploitation jidai geki pairs sex with samurai swordplay, a common mix in early ’70s Japanese cinema. The film stars A-list actor Tetsuro Tamba but that doesn’t elevate this carefully crafted sleazefest at all. He plays an emotionally withdrawn ronin who tries to commit suicide. He’s rescued by members of the “Forgotten Eight,” an underground organization running Japan’s sex trade. They recruit him to do away with their rivals.
A look at Discotek’s web site reveals they specialize in Asian mondo cinema. Some of their other releases include EBOLA SYNDROME and the Hong Kong category III classic A CHINESE TORTURE CHAMBER.
A trailer containing lots of sex, nudity and bloody violence is available at Nippon Cinema. As the site rightly warns its readers, the trailer is definitely not work safe, or suitable for children.
http://www.nipponcinema.com/trailers/bohachi_bushido_code_of_the_forgotten_eight/
CIRCADIAN RHYTHM trailer
Budget distrib York Home Video releases CIRCADIAN RHYTHM (2005), a low-budget actioner with a high concept. It stars Rachel Miner, looking good in a power business suit and haircut, who is trying to figure out who she really is and why people want her dead. It’s a sci-fi-themed thriller with martial arts action, as can be seen from the trailer. All I can say about director René Besson is that he was a second unit producer on Jean-Claude Van Damme’s UNTIL DEATH and IMDb lists him as having the distinction of having a film distributed that only cost $285 to make. I’m not sure if that’s something to boast about or not. He had about $3 million more to work with for CIRCADIAN RHYTHM.
Tokyo Shock has been re-releasing the original ZATOICHI TV series on DVD that sees Shintaro Katsu reprise the role he previously made famous in 26 feature films. ZATOICHI: COLLECTION 2 [TV] boxes together Vol. 4-6 and contains 650 minutes of entertainment.
Production-wise, the TV series closely matches the films and the formula of a blind swordsman wandering the countryside to aid common folk caught under heel of yakuza and corrupt officials stays basically unchanged. The major difference is that each plot is shortened to fit in approximately 45 minute chunks as opposed to 80 minutes.
Over in Hong Kong, Joy Sales’ latest DVD offerings from the now defunct Golden Harvest studios include a couple films of interest.
THE LOOT – Dragon DVD trailer
THE LOOT is old school kung fu action from director and future film star Eric Tsang. It stars genre greats David Chiang, Norman Chu and Philip Ko.
POINT OF NO RETURN preview – Sammo Hung vs. Billy Chow
POINT OF NO RETURN (aka TOUCH AND GO) is a Ringo Lam production starring Sammo Hung, Teresa Mo and Tommy Wong. Yuen Tak is action director.
Next Week:
• Come Drink With Me (DVD – Dragon Dynasty)
• Dragon Tiger Gate (Blu-ray – Tai Seng)
• An Empress and the Warriors (DVD – Mei Ah)
• Heroes of the East (DVD – Dragon Dynasty)
• Kung Fu Dunk (Blu-ray – Deltamac)
• Millennium Dragon (DVD – Vanguard Cinema)
• Serenity (DVD – Universal Studios)
• The Tiger Blade (DVD – Navarre Corp.)
• Van Damme Action Quadruple Feature (Universal Studios)
Videos
- http://www.floridadefectiveproductlawyer.net/ defective_product_lawyer
