Eureka Entertainment has announced that it will add two new titles to its Blu-ray catalog in September. They are: Johnny Guitar (1954) and Duel to the Death (1983).
Description: Every ten years, a duel is held between the finest Japanese and Chinese martial artists to determine whose Swordmanship is superior. During the Ming Dynasty, as the next duel approaches, the chosen candidates are caught in the middle of a battle between Ninjas and Shaolin monks. Only a Duel to the Death will settle the countries' conflicts and stop the bloodshed.
Known for his classic film, A Chinese Ghost Story, as well as for directing Tsui Hark's the Swordsman saga, this debut feature from director Ching Siu-tung is filled with dazzling visuals and astonishing martial arts choreography (also by Ching Siu-tung, who would later choreograph the action sequences for Zhang Yimou's acclaimed wuxia triptych; Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and Curse of the Golden Flower), Duel to the Death comes to Blu-Ray for the first time in the UK from a brand new 2K restoration.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 2K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
NEW feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
NEW interview with screenwriter Manfred Wong
Archival interview with Norman Chui Siu-keung
Archival interview with Flora Cheung
Alternate English credits
Audio:
Original Cantonese audio
Optional English dubbed audio
Optional English Subtitles, newly revised for this release.
A LIMITED EDITION collector's booklet featuring new writing by James Oliver; and a reprint of Frank Djeng's original liner notes from the US laserdisc release [2000 copies]
Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling [2000 copies]
Synopsis:
Joan Crawford (Mildred Pierce) plays Vienna, a saloon owner with a sordid past. Persecuted by the townspeople, Vienna must protect her life and her property when a lynch mob led by her sexually repressed rival, Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge; All The King's Men), attempts to frame her for a string of robberies she did not commit. Enter Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden; Dr. Strangelove: or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb ), a guitar-strumming ex-gunfighter who has a history with Vienna.
Mis-understood by US audiences upon release, the film was embraced by European cineastes and is now regarded as one of the greatest western pictures of all time. An intensely stylised masterpiece from director Nicholas Ray, Johnny Guitar makes its UK debut on Blu-ray as part of the Masters of Cinema series.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
PREVIOUSLY RESTORED IN 4K (1.66:1 ASPECT RATIO)
NEW audio commentary by critic Geoff Andrew, author of The Films of Nicholas Ray: The Poet of Nightfall, newly recorded for this release
NEW video piece by Tony Rayns
NEW video essay by David Cairns
NEW interview with Susan Ray
Archival introduction to Johnny Guitar by Martin Scorsese
Trailer
A LIMITED EDITION 60-page collector's book featuring new essays on the making of Johnny Guitar and on female gunslingers in the western genre, both by western expert Howard Hughes; an essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum; and archival writing and ephemera [3000 copies]