MoC Forthcoming, Wishlist, and Random Speculation

[What A Disgrace]

Someone saying the most recent teaser was for Hideo Gosha's Violent Streets, which is exciting!

Maybe it and Bullet Train are part of a Toei action film boxed set?

[ChunkyLover]

I would think Bullet Train is “big enough” for it’s own standalone release.

[rapta]

Someone saying the most recent teaser was for Hideo Gosha's Violent Streets, which is exciting!

Maybe it and Bullet Train are part of a Toei action film boxed set?

Of course that’d be great, but does seem Eureka are slightly averse to doing box sets of Asian titles these days, unless it makes sense to (and indeed even Arrow have been, choosing to do all their Masamura and Uchida titles separately).

They’ve done the Michelle Yeoh titles as separate editions and probably regret doing so now that 88 Films have announced their US set of In the Line of Duty 1-4.

More likely they’d do a Sonny Chiba box set, but if Arrow aren’t doing just that (other than The Executioner 1&2), I’d be surprised if Eureka did go along that route. More likely they’ll do a few Chiba titles and maybe some yakuza titles (perhaps for MoC in fact), and see what sticks and what doesn’t. After all, the HK stuff seems to have done very well for them, so much so that they’re looking for more and more to license every year. Hoping this might happen for Japanese genre films next (and Spaghetti Westerns)!

EDIT: the listing for Violent Streets is up on Amazon, and it's MoC too...

[yoloswegmaster]

Eureka are teasing March announcements that will be announced on Tuesday. So far they have hinted at In the Line of Duty 3 and 4.

[yoloswegmaster]

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling [2000 copies]
1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a brand new 2K restoration
Cantonese and English audio options (both in their original mono presentations)
Optional English Subtitles, newly translated for this release
Brand new feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
Brand new feature length audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder & Arne Venema
New interview with Cynthia Khan
New interview with Michiko Nichiwaki
Trailers
Reversible sleeve design
A Limited Edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by James Oliver [2000 copies]

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling [2000 copies]
1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the original theatrical cut from a brand new 2K restoration
1080p HD presentation of the original export version from a brand new 2K restoration
Cantonese and English audio options (both in their original mono presentations)
Optional English Subtitles, newly translated for this release
Brand new feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
Brand new feature length audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder & Arne Venema
Archival commentary by Hong Kong expert Stefan Hammond and lead actor Michael Wong
Archival interview with Donnie Yen
New interviews with cast and crew
Archival “Donnie Yen Action” featurette
Trailers
Reversible sleeve design
A Limited Edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by James Oliver [2000 copies]

[Orlac]

Confusingly, Yes Madam, the first in the series, is the SECOND In the Line of Duty movie! And Part IV was released on DVD in the UK by Hong Kong Legends as just In the Line of Duty!

[ryannichols7]

I hope we're not going back to having multiple MOC-less months in 2023 like we did earlier this year. 2022 ended up being a really good year for MOC once everything got going again, hoping for the same in 2023

[Finch]

The first of several Eureka teases to come over the holidays: 1964's REVENGE (Tadashi Imai)

"An illegal duel leads to tragic results for an impoverished samurai..."

[rapta]

Very happy about that one, was high on my wants from their Toei deal. Hopefully they can also do Bushido (1963).

I also wondered if they could do Eiichi Kudo's Samurai Revolution Trilogy - 13 Assassins (1963), The Great Killing (1964), and 11 Samurai (1967). And of course it's likely they'll soon announce Gosha's Samurai Wolf 1&2 (and potentially his later work, Onimasa).

[Michael Kerpan]

I like Imai's Revenge, but I have to say I prefer his pre-1960 films (which mostly dealt with contemporary stories). Sadly, I don't think any of these have ever gotten subbed releases.

[rapta]

I like Imai's Revenge, but I have to say I prefer his pre-1960 films (which mostly dealt with contemporary stories). Sadly, I don't think any of these have ever gotten subbed releases.

Tower of Lilies (1953), Rice (1957) and The Story of Pure Love (1957) are with Toei, so maybe Eureka or Radiance will be interested. He also did The Harbour Lights (1961) and A Story from Echigo (1964) with Toei but those were both ‘60s.

[Michael Kerpan]

Never even heard of Harbour Lights. Story from Echigo was pretty good, however.

[yoloswegmaster]

Three films by Zulawski coming next year:

[Glowingwabbit]

Three films by Zulawski coming next year:

What is the title on the left? I recognize the middle one as ON THE SILVER GLOBE and the right is DIABEL.

edit: looking through screenshots I think the left title is THE THIRD PART OF THE NIGHT

[beamish14]

Three films by Zulawski coming next year:

What is the title on the left? I recognize the middle one as ON THE SILVER GLOBE and the right is DIABEL.

edit: looking through screenshots I think the left title is THE THIRD PART OF THE NIGHT

Amazing news and a long, LONG overdue set

[ryannichols7]

I think this is the biggest "how did this not go to Second Run?" that Eureka has done since The White Reindeer, very big surprise. nice to see them doing a boxset too

[rapta]

I think this is the biggest "how did this not go to Second Run?" that Eureka has done since The White Reindeer, very big surprise. nice to see them doing a boxset too

I was kinda surprised Viy didn't also go to Second Run, but yes this was still a similar surprise to The White Reindeer (which I think I had mentioned on the Second Run suggestions thread on this very forum).

Weirdly enough, I and a couple of others were discussing Zulawski on Twitter just yesterday and reminding each other what the last rumours about who tried to get what were (probably spurred on by Radiance's post including The Third Part of the Night, and Paul Duane posting about On the SIlver Globe). The consensus was still that they were unavailable because Second Run had been trying, but obviously the reason turns out to be because Eureka got them instead!

Big surprise, and a pleasant one. Very happy about these MoC teases in fact, even more thrilled to be getting some Imai (I had been requesting Revenge as soon as we caught wind of this Toei deal...I also suggested some Kudo, Uchida, Ito, and of course Fukasaku (and more Gosha of course). Let's see what else we get!

[yoloswegmaster]

I think this is for Burning Paradise (tho it apparently should have come out 20 years ago):

[rapta]

Burning Paradise, another title I really was considering importing from Vinegar Syndrome, but realised it would likely show up here soon (similar to Righting Wrongs, Iceman Cometh etc). I had assumed 88 Films would get it but happy to see Eureka are handling it (I generally prefer the way they handle these kinds of films). I got the other two Ringo Lam titles they did pretty quickly, so will likely do the same for this. Looks great fun from the trailer I've seen, so sure to be another hit Eureka Classics release!

Curious if any of these titles might be UHD. I'm guessing the Zulawski titles have potential to be? A bit of a risk, for obvious reasons, but with enough hype they might actually do well. Certainly the kind of title Arrow would option for UHD, for example (if they were doing them).

PS: Just had a thought...was hoping someone might release Brocka's Cain and Abel over here (obviously in the US from Kani, a VS sublabel, and region-free so I am tempted to import). Maybe Eureka will do it, if Radiance aren't going to team up with Kani like they did with Fun City Editions?

[Finch]

Kinji Fukasaku's Samurai Reincarnation teased in latest tweet



One of two titles I was interested in from Shout's Sonny Chiba set.

[yoloswegmaster]

This is for Jimmy Wang Yu's 'Beach of the War Gods":

[yoloswegmaster]

This clue is for 'Rich and Famous' (with Frank Djeng confirming that the sequel 'Tragic Hero 'will also be added to the release):

[Finch]

They teased Blonde Fury (Female Reporter) (1989) with Cynthia Rothrock today. That and Rich & Famous are the more underwhelming announcements.

[rapta]

It's funny, some of their audience seem more excited by the HK titles whereas others seem far more interested in the earlier announcements (Zulawski, Imai etc). Truly polarising announcements, these!

Tragic Hero confirmed in today's tease, by the way. I am fairly looking forward to both that and Rich and Famous, even if they're not the John Woo or Ringo Lam films some have been waiting for (whenever I've asked Eureka about Woo, they've sounded pretty doubtful they'll ever get there...but perhaps these will lay the groundwork for those eventually).

Samurai Reincarnation and Beach of the War Gods seem a little more 'out there' for Eureka, and Burning Paradise will be a crowd-pleaser, so I'm certainly not complaining about these acquisitions! I think there will be more to come too, so there could be even more surprises from Eureka on the horizon.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

It's funny, some of their audience seem more excited by the HK titles whereas others seem far more interested in the earlier announcements (Zulawski, Imai etc). Truly polarising announcements, these!

Funny you mention this. I saw Blonde Fury about three years ago and remember nothing about it except the bamboo scaffolding fight. I last saw those three Zulawskis back in 2012 and remember them exceptionally well. I’m tremendously excited about as I think those first two features of his are among the best of his career.

I’m excited about the Imai and Gosha too. Arrow had so many Japanese releases in 2021, but slowed down considerably last year. Glad Eureka will be releasing Japanese films too. Gosha is still tremendously under-represented too and it makes me sad that Criterion will probably never release the films they own of his outside of streaming.