The Valiant Ones | 4K UHD (Eureka)
Today’s Deal on Fire is the 4K Ultra HD for Eureka’s The Valiant Ones, a 1975 film by celebrated Taiwanese filmmaker King Hu, an undisputed master of the genre!
Shot back-to-back with The Fate of Lee Khan (but not released until two years later), it stands as a worthy follow-up to his earlier works Come Drink with Me, Dragon Inn and A Touch of Zen.
During the reign of the Jiajing Emperor (Chao Lei), China’s coastal regions have come under attack by wokou – Japanese pirates under the leadership of the infamous Hakatatsu (Sammo Hung). To combat this threat, the Emperor tasks a trusted general, Zhu Wan (Tu Kuang-chi), with assembling a group of skilled warriors to find and eliminate the pirates. Under the command of General Yu Dayou (Roy Chiao), the band of soldiers – including husband-and-wife sword-fighters Wu Ji-yuan (Wing Bai) and Wu Ruo-shi (Feng Hsu) – set out to draw Hakatatsu, his ally Xu Dong (Han Ying-chieh) and their pirate clan into a series of spectacular showdowns.
Inspired by historical events and featuring several storied figures drawn from Chinese history, The Valiant Ones is a standout wuxia film produced during the dying days of the genre, as audience tastes were shifting towards more grounded kung fu cinema. The Masters of Cinema series is proud to present the film on Ultra HD Blu-ray from a 4K restoration.
Features:
- Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [2000 copies]
- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation, presented in Dolby Vision HDR from a 4K digital restoration of the original negatives gifted by director King Hu to the Hong Kong Film Archive
- Uncompressed original Mandarin mono restored from the original soundtrack negative
- Optional English subtitles newly translated for this release
- Brand new audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
- Tony Rayns on The Valiant Ones – Brand new interview with critic and Asian film expert Tony Rayns
- Tsar of all the Wuxia – a new video essay by David Cairns
- The Life of a Lucky Stuntman – Brand new interview with stuntman Billy Chan
- My Father and I – Brand new interview with actor Ng Ming-choi
- Archival 2003 interview with actress Hsu Feng by Frédéric Ambroisine
- Archival 2003 interview with Roger Garcia (Hong Kong International Film Festival Society) by Frédéric Ambroisine
- Archival 2016 interview with actor Ng Ming-choi by Frédéric Ambroisine
- A collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jonathan Clements
Order today from The Goodie Emporium!
Kinda sad and a depressing state of affairs in cinema generally when a King Hu article gets zero comments but a sequel to a Van Damme movie that most people forgot about gets 2 comments
There’s much more sad things about cinema than that. Especially when those 2 comments are just a pingback and a non-compliment from nearly a year ago. I do need to get re-acquainted with King Hu’s filmography. Most of our favorite Asian films wouldn’t exist without him.
Absolutely right man. King hu should be up there with Kurosawa, Orson Welles, Goddard, Fellini and all those other directors that film school students study. At least all of his 70’s work is now all available in pristine bluray now. A Touch of zen is still in a league of its own 50 years+ later and even lesser works like The Valiant Ones have so much to offer for fans of wuxia and beautiful cinematography