Eureka Entertainment is bringing The Valiant Ones, filmmaker King Hu’s last great masterpiece, to Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on May 27th. The release marks the film’s home video debut in the UK.
The film is being presented from a digital restoration of the original negatives gifted by Hu to the Hong Kong Film Archive. In addition, the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release is presented in Dolby Vision HDR.
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Synopsis:
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.
Extras include:
- 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 – Brand 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