British label Eureka Entertainment will add three new titles to its Blu-ray catalog in April:
Drunken Master (1978),
Hard Times (1975), and
The Blue Lagoon (1980).
Hard Times
Synopsis: The American action auteur Walter Hill made a magnificent debut with this pulp triumph, featuring evocative period atmosphere and sterling performances from Charles Bronson and James Coburn.
Bronson plays a drifter suddenly caught up in the fight game during the Great Depression. Chaney, a down-on-his-luck loner, hops a freight train to New Orleans where, on the seedier side of town, he tries to make some quick money the only way he knows how - with his fists. Chaney approaches a hustler named Speed (James Coburn) and convinces him that he can win big money for them both.
Special Features:
- NEW 4K restoration
- Uncompressed PCM and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired
- NFT Audio Interview with director Walter Hill
- Original theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring new and archival writing and rare archival imagery
STREET DATE: APRIL 24.
Drunken Master
Synopsis: Hong Kong action pioneer Yuen Woo-ping (The Matrix; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and martial arts superstar Jackie Chan burst onto the scene in 1978 with a one-two punch of kung fu masterpieces, and it was the second of these, Drunken Master, with its Keatonesque slapstick and flawlessly choreographed fight scenes that would leave the biggest impact.
Jackie Chan plays Wong Fei-hung (a legendary Chinese folk hero who has also been portrayed on screen by Jet Li, Gordon Liu and Donnie Yen amongst many others), who is punished for his frequent troublemaking by being forced to study under the martial arts master Su Hua Chi (Yuen Siu-tien), notorious for his drinking as much as he is for leaving his students crippled. Wong proves himself an adept pupil, but his new skills are soon put to the test when his own father is targeted by a brutal assassin (Hwang Jang Lee, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow).
Special Features:
- Definitive transfer from 4K digital restoration
- The original complete Cantonese soundtrack, rarely heard on home video
- Alternate Cantonese, English and Mandarin audio options
- Newly translated English subtitles
- Audio commentary by Hong Kong film experts Ric Meyers and Jeff Yang
- New video interview with director Yuen Woo-ping
- Video interview with Jackie Chan
- New video interview with film scholar Tony Rayns
- New video appreciation by director Gareth Evans (The Raid film series)
- Deleted scene
- Original trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring new writing and archival imagery
STREET DATE: APRIL 24.
The Blue Lagoon
Synopsis: The lush beauty and splendour of a South Pacific paradise is vividly captured in this version of Henry De Vere Stacpoole's 1903 novel.
Two small children and a ship's cook survive a shipwreck and find safety on an idyllic tropical island. Soon, however, the cook dies and the young boy and girl are left on their own. Days become years and Emmeline (Brooke Shields) and Richard (Christopher Atkins) make a home for themselves surrounded by exotic creatures and nature's beauty.
They learn to cope with the bewildering variety of physical and emotional changes that come with adolescence. As they begin to mature, their childhood affections lead to a sensitive and more profound love. But will they ever see civilisation again?
Special Features:
- Stunning High-Definition presentation
- Isolated music and effects track
- Two separate audio commentary tracks, featuring director Randal Kleiser, Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins and writer Douglas Day Stewart
- An Adventure in Filmmaking – featurette on the films production
- Theatrical trailer
STREET DATE: APRIL 10.