Eureka Entertainment Announces Septemeber Releases
Posted June 19, 2025 09:39 PM by Webmaster
Eureka Entertainment has announced its September batch of Blu-ray releases. They are: Flaming Brothers (1987),
Furious Swords and Fantastic Warriors: The Heroic Cinema of Chang Cheh (1967-1983), and Wrack and Ruin: The Rubble Film at DEFA (1946-1948).
Description: A standout Hong Kong crime thriller released amidst the wave of heroic bloodshed films that followed in the wake of John Woo's A Better Tomorrow and Ringo Lam's City on Fire, Flaming Brothers features Alan Tang and Chow Yun-fat (who was quickly rising to superstardom in the late 1980s) as triad brothers determined to protect their criminal operation – and each other – no matter what the cost.
Both orphaned at a young age, Cheung Ho-tin (Chow) and Chan Wai-lun (Tang) grew up together on the streets, forming a strong bond in their childhood that remains unbroken as they become triad brothers in adulthood. Having recently opened a nightclub together, they begin to feel that they have finally made it. That is, at least, until they become embroiled in a conflict with the ruthless gangster Ko Lo-sei (Patrick Tse) and his right-hand man (Norman Chui), who threaten to take away everything that Tin and Lun have worked for.
In equal parts an action-packed thrill-ride and a rumination on the bonds of male friendship, Flaming Brothers boasts a screenplay written by Wong Kar-wai, the celebrated auteur who would go on to write and direct Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love. Eureka Classics is proud to present the film on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK from a 2K restoration.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 2K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
Original Cantonese audio
Optional English dubbed audio
Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
New audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
Archival interview with director Joe Cheung
New video locations piece by CFK
Original theatrical trailer
Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Time Tomorrow [2000 copies]
Limited edition collector's booklet featuring new writing on Flaming Brothers by Hong Kong cinema expert Camille Zaurin [2000 copies]
U.S. AND CANADA STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 16.
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 15.
Disc 1: Men from the Monastery & Shaolin Martial Arts
Disc 2: King Eagle & Iron Bodyguard
FANTASTIC WARRIORS
Disc 3: Fantastic Magic Baby & The Weird Man
Disc 4: Trail of the Broken Blade & Wandering Swordsman
Disc 5: Trilogy of Swordsmanship & New Shaolin Boxers
Distinguished by his penchant for bloodshed and a thematic concentration on the bonds of brotherhood and masculine sacrifice, Chang Cheh is one of the most prolific and accomplished directors ever to emerge from the Hong Kong film industry. Often hailed as the "Godfather of Hong Kong cinema," he enjoyed a career spanning six decades and worked in a multitude of genres, from Chinese opera to kung fu films via wuxia pian, historical epics and tales of the supernatural.
Presented here are ten films that reveal the range and versatility of Chang's career as a filmmaker. Traditional wuxia pian is represented by King Eagle, Trail of the Broken Blade and Wandering Swordsman; choreographed by Lau Kar-leung, Men from the Monastery and Shaolin Martial Arts are both drawn from Chang's Shaolin cycle, included here alongside New Shaolin Boxers; Iron Bodyguard, released at the dawn of the kung fu era, is representative of changing trends in Hong Kong cinema; and some of Chang's more esoteric work is represented by the opera film The Fantastic Magic Baby and the supernatural fantasy The Weird Man. Also included is the anthology film Trilogy of Swordsmanship, to which Chang contributed a segment alongside his contemporaries Yueh Feng and Cheng Kang.
All produced during Chang Cheh's tenure at Shaw Brothers, these ten films are a testament to the director's distinct aesthetic style and his recurring thematic preoccupations.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
High-definition presentations of all ten films
New audio commentaries on Men from the Monastery, The Trail of the Broken Blade and The Weird Man by film critic David West
New audio commentaries on King Eagle, The Wandering Swordsman, Trilogy of Swordsmanship and The Fantastic Magic Baby by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
New audio commentaries on Shaolin Martial Arts, Iron Bodyguard and New Shaolin Boxers by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and martial artist and filmmaker Michael Worth
New audio commentary on The Fantastic Magic Baby by Frank Djeng
New interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong on the life and work of Chang Cheh
New video essay by Jonathan Clements (author of A Brief History of China) on Iron Bodyguard
New video essay by Jonathan Clements on Chang Cheh's Shaolin film
Optional English subtitles, newly revised for this release
Limited edition double-walled slipcase, with 2 amaray cases, featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling [2000 copies]
Limited edition collector's booklet featuring new writing on all films in this set by film critic and writer James Oliver [2000 copies]
U.S. AND CANADA STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 16.
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 15.
1. The Murderers Are Among Us (1946)
2. Somewhere in Berlin (1946)
3. Police Raid (1947)
4. Marriage in the Shadows (1947)
5. The Blum Affair (1948)
The first film studio to begin operating in post-war Germany, DEFA was officially authorized to begin making films in the Soviet occupation zone in 1946. Overseen by the Soviet Military Administration, one of its primary mandates was to aid in the denazification of Germany by focusing on anti-fascist themes in films that would ruminate on the literal and figurative wreckage left behind by the Third Reich. Often shot on location in the ruins of Berlin, these early DEFA productions have come to be called Trümmerfilme or "rubble films," and remain some of the most important pictures the studio ever made.
The first film produced in post-war Germany, The Murderers Are Among Us sees a concentration camp survivor return home to Berlin only to find a stranger living in her apartment: an ex-soldier who harbors a terrible secret. Somewhere in Berlin follows a group of children who spend their days playing in bombed-out buildings and a returning prisoner-of-war seeking a new sense of purpose. In Police Raid, a determined detective leads a crackdown on black marketeers who aim to exploit the chaos of the post-war period to their own advantage. Set during the Nazi era, Marriage in the Shadows charts the tragic life of an actor and his Jewish wife as they attempt to survive the Third Reich. Finally, The Blum Affair recounts the true case of a Jewish industrialist who was tried for murder in the 1920s.
Encompassing a range of genres – including the thriller, the police procedural and the courtroom drama – and ranging in visual style from expressionism to stark realism, DEFA's rubble films are bound together by a concern with the physical and psychological damage wrought by Nazism, World War II and the Holocaust. The Masters of Cinema series is honored to present all five films for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK, accompanied by a wealth of new and archival extras.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
2K RESTORATIONS OF ALL FIVE FILMS BY THE DEFA FOUNDATION
New commentary on The Murderers Are Among Us by crime cinema expert Sergio Angelini
New commentary on Somewhere in Berlin by East German cinema scholar Elizabeth Ward
New commentary on Police Raid by crime cinema expert Sergio Angelini
New commentary on Marriage in the Shadows by DEFA historian Seán Allan
New commentary on The Blum Affair written by Rolland Man and presented by David Melville Wingrove
From the Rubble – new interview with socialist cinema expert Claire Knight on the founding of DEFA and its early productions
Confronting the Past – new interview with Jewish studies scholar Sue Vice on Marriage in the Shadows and The Blum Affair
Crimewave – new video essay by DEFA historian Sebastian Heiduschke on DEFA's crime cinema
Rebuilding Berlin (1946) – DEFA documentary on the post-war rebuilding of Berlin
Rebuilding Potsdam (1946) – DEFA documentary on the post-war rebuilding of Potsdam
Death Camp Sachsenhausen (1946) - DEFA documentary on the Holocaust and Sachsenhausen concentration camp
The Eyewitness 1946/01 – archival newsreel featuring DEFA's first animation, Underground Scare
The Eyewitness 1946/08 – archival newsreel featuring a report on the premiere of The Murderers Are Among Us
The Eyewitness 1947/53 – archival newsreel featuring a report on the making of Marriage in the Shadows
Limited Collector's Edition Box Set [2000 copies]
Limited edition hardcase featuring new art by Carly A-F [2000 copies]
Limited edition collector's book featuring new writing on the films in this set by German film historians Tim Bergfelder, Daniel Jonah Wolpert, Brad Prager and Mariana Ivanova [2000 copies]
Reversible inner sleeve artwork featuring new designs for each film by Scott Saslow