Horrible History: Four Historical Epics by Chang Cheh (1972-1976) | Blu-ray (Eureka)
Now shipping is Eureka’s Blu-ray (Region A/B) collection for Horrible History: Four Historical Epics by Chang Cheh (1972-1976), which will include 1972’s Four Riders, 1973’s The Pirate, 1975’s Marco Polo and 1976’s Boxer Rebellion.
Often described as the “Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema,”Chang Cheh made nearly a hundred films during a long and storied career spent at the Shaw Brothers Studio, where he directed such landmark films as The One-Armed Swordsman, Five Deadly Venoms and The Heroic Ones.
Many of his films drew upon Chinese history for inspiration – and many of them were based on real people and events. Eureka Classics presents four of his best historical epics in this limited-edition set: Marco Polo, The Pirate, Boxer Rebellion and Four Riders.
In Marco Polo, the eponymous Venetian explorer (Richard Harrison) becomes embroiled in a battle between the Mongol Empire and Chinese rebels in the thirteenth century. In The Pirate, the infamous nineteenth-century raider Cheung Po Tsai (Ti Lung) must evade agents of the Imperial Court while attempting to aid the downtrodden residents of a coastal village. In Boxer Rebellion, a group of Chinese patriots use kung fu to protect their nation against invading forces at the turn of the twentieth century. Finally, in Four Riders, a Chinese veteran of the Korean War enlists three comrades to help him escape the South Korean Military Police Command after he is falsely accused of murdering an American soldier.
Marco Polo, The Pirate, Boxer Rebellion and Four Riders are all fascinating examples of the rewriting of history common in popular genre cinema, directed with aplomb by a veteran of Shaw Brothers in Chang Cheh – one of the most celebrated and prolific filmmakers in Hong Kong. All four films are presented on Blu-ray from HD masters supplied by Celestial Pictures.
Collectively, these Shaw Brothers films star David Chiang (Lost Kung Fu Secrets), Ti Lung (Shatter), Chen Kuan Tai (Death Ring), Wang Chung (The Delinquent), Cheng Li (The Magic Blade), Lily Li (Daggers 8), Yasuaki Kurata (Empty Hands), Fan Mei Sheng (Jade Raksha), Bruce Tong (Heaven and Hell), Dean Shek (Dance of Death), Gordon Liu Chia-Hui (Shaolin Martial Arts), Alexander Fu Sheng (My Rebellious Son), Chi Kuan-Chun (Shanghai 13), Phillip Kwok Chun-Fung (Masked Avengers), Richard Harrison (Challenge of the Tiger), Shih Szu (Thunderbolt Fist), Leung Kar-Yan (Master and the Kid), Johnny Wang Lung-Wei (Twin Dragons) and Carter Huang Chia-Ta (When Taekwondo Strikes).
Features:
- Limited Edition [2000 copies]
- Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [2000 copies]
- 1080p HD presentations on Blu-ray from masters supplied by Celestial Pictures
- Original mono audio tracks
- Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
- Two brand new commentaries by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and martial artist / filmmaker Michael Worth
- Two brand new commentaries by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
- National Defence – A new interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong on Boxer Rebellion
- Rewriting History – A new video essay on Chang Cheh’s historical films by Jonathan Clements, author of A Brief History of China
- A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on all four films in this set by writer and critic James Oliver [2000 copies]
This title is available at The Goodie Emporium, a U.S.-based online store that currently has many Import Shaw Brothers/Golden Harvest/martial arts DVD/Blu-ray movies in-stock – with New titles being added regularly!
Watch the Trailers for the films below:
Yes!!!!! Hell Yes!!!!! I have been waiting for this forever
I just emailed them and a sales rep told me no English dubs for any of the films even though I know they exist at least for Four Riders and Marco Polo. This sucks and is such a disappointment! I know on this site I’m in the minority but I simply hate watching a film in subtitles. Instead of enjoying the acting and story I’m focused entirely on reading subtitles. How do you guys evenly divide your time while watching films that way?
Even more upsetting is that they told me they found the dubs and have them but the set was already manufactured before getting them so now they won’t be included. Is it too much to ask for both so that all fans can enjoy it?
They should give customers the option of sub or dub. Back in the day, we only got dubs which pissed a lot of people off, so now fans are experiencing the opposite problem.
Some people like the campiness of terrible voice acting, but I can’t tolerate it even if the movie itself isn’t serious. Reading subtitles while paying attention to everything else is just something a lot of people trained themselves to do, and on repeat viewings, I don’t always have to read them anymore.
I come from the Celestial/IVL DVD days. None of those had English dubs. It’s a little tricky at first, but I got used to reading subtitles, while enjoying the visuals, thanks to the Celestials. In many instances, English subtitles gave you a better understanding of the story, since they were so boxed-in with English dubbing.
But don’t get me wrong, if English is available for an old school kung fu flick, I’ll always choose it!
Just because the Celestial/IVL DVDs don’t have them doesn’t mean that the English dubs don’t exist. I’ve watched Four Riders and Marco Polo several times over the past 10 years on El Rey Network which featured English dubbing. This was lazy on Eureka’s behalf. It’s even more frustrating that the sales rep told me they rushed this set into production before they found the English dubs.
On a different note, can you tell me why all these different companies (Arrow, 88 films, etc.) don’t include scene selections as a feature on the dvd releases? So many times I simply want to just watch the fight scenes and it’s a hassle having to select the chapters manually. Something my old Shaw dvd releases always had which is nice.
Everything else aside, if the English dubs were available, then there’s no excuse to not have had them on this release. The sad part is this Eureka release was a Region A and Region B release, so we’re not going to see a better versions of these films on Blu-ray anytime soon, unless a company sneaks in a 4K Ultra HD release (with English subs).
You see my take on this is that I am not bothered by there being no English Dub and the reason I don’t like English Dub is because the language is inaccurate to the story line. Also it looks terrible when the lips don’t sync with the language. I am very confused as to why people miss the good old dub days when we now have a chance to see the proper versions. I really makes me sad and this is the reason why we can’t have nice things because people always complain. If you watch foreign movies on Netflix, guess what?…. The are subtitled
I think it’s a nostalgia thing. Bad English dubbing was how we first watched most of these films. B
Me too but I prefer the Mandarin language with English Subtitles. It gets goofy after awhile with the dubbing
You mean to tell me that with all the special features and the 2 K transfers the no English dub… Is…a… Deal…breaker lol. It has subtitles. Has no one ever watched foreign films before
We’re all different. I prefer the original language of films, but lots of people don’t want to read subtitles. It would be nice if more people were into them, buts it’s better if everyone is given a choice between sub or dub.