Archive for the 'Eureka Classics' Category
October 30th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
Charisma follows Goro Yabuike (Koji Yakusho, Cure), an overworked police officer who leaves his job behind after he fails to resolve a hostage situation, resulting in the deaths of both a high-profile politician and his captor. Reeling from this incident, he seeks solitude in a mountain forest, where he finds himself at the centre of a conflict over an enigmatic tree that the locals have named “Charisma.” In Cloud, factory worker Ryosuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda, Wilderness) quits his job to pursue a new career as an unscrupulous online reseller, becoming increasingly ruthless as he turns a profit from desperate customers. Eventually, though, those customers have had enough of being ripped off by Yoshii – and go looking for him to exact their revenge. Made 25 years apart, Charisma and Cloud illustrate the singular vision of one of Japan’s most talented working filmmakers. Following previous releases of Tokyo Sonata, Journey to the Shore, Cure and Creepy, the Masters of Cinema series is proud to present two more of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s films on Blu-ray, both making their debuts on UK home video. Continue reading ‘Cloud / Charisma: Two films by Kiyoshi Kurosawa on Blu-ray January 26!’
October 9th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
Just as the kung fu film seemed to be losing steam as the 1970s came to a close, a new generation of martial arts stars rose to the top of Hong Kong cinema. Amongst them were Yuen Biao, Jackie Chan and the irrepressible Sammo Hung, who found fame as the director and star of The Iron Fisted Monk, The Magnificent Butcher and Encounter of the Spooky Kind. Presented here are three films spanning Hung’s career, from a supporting role in The Manchu Boxer to stardom in Paper Marriage and Shanghai, Shanghai. From traditional kung fu to romantic comedy to a tale of cops and crooks with shades of the “heroic bloodshed” films so popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, The Manchu Boxer, Paper Marriage and Shanghai, Shanghai exhibit Sammo Hung’s enormous range and chart his rise from supporting player to top-billed star. Eureka Classics is proud to present all three films for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK. Continue reading ‘‘Triple Threat: Three Films with Sammo Hung’ on Blu-ray December 8!’
October 7th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
Perhaps best known for his iconic film noir effort Kiss Me Deadly, his unsettling psychological horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and his action-packed war movie The Dirty Dozen, the celebrated American auteur Robert Aldrich was also an accomplished director of Westerns. Amongst his best are Vera Cruz, The Last Sunset and his very first foray into the genre: the Burt Lancaster vehicle Apache. One of the earliest Westerns to feature a sympathetic Native American protagonist fighting back against the white settlers who swept across the United States throughout the nineteenth century, Aldrich’s first Western is a landmark film in the history of the genre. The Masters of Cinema series is proud to present Apache for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK. Continue reading ‘‘Apache’ on Blu-ray December 8!’
September 16th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
One of the masterworks of 1960s cinema, La Notte (The Night) marked yet another development in the continuous stylistic evolution of its director, Michelangelo Antonioni — even as it solidified his reputation as one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. La Notte is Antonioni’s Twilight of the Gods, but composed in cinematic terms. Observed from a crane-shot, it’s a sprawling study of Italy’s upper middle-class; seen in close-up, it’s an x-ray of a relationship on the brink of collapse. Photographed in rapturous black-and-white by the great Gianni di Venanzo (8 1/2, Giulietta degli spiriti), La Notte is a film about the yawning caverns that can open up between people who were once in love, and the difficulty of trying to fix something that may be irrevocably broken. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Michelangelo Antonioni’s haunted odyssey for the first time anywhere in the world on 4K UHD. Continue reading ‘La Notte on 4K UHD Blu-ray November 24!’
September 12th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
Rio Lobo is the last film by Howard Hawks, a titan of American cinema and the director of a litany of undisputed classics, including Scarface, Only Angels Have Wings, The Big Sleep and Monkey Business. Like his previous films Red River, The Big Sky and Rio Bravo, it is an ode to the Old West – a staunchly traditionalist tale of the frontier led by the genre’s biggest star, John Wayne. By 1970, the Western genre was rapidly changing. In America, Revisionist Westerns – typified by the likes of The Wild Bunch, Little Big Man and Soldier Blue – were questioning the established mythology of the West, while Italy’s morally grey Spaghetti Westerns were at the height of their international popularity. Meanwhile, Rio Lobo stood firm in tradition as Hawks’ final Western – and now joins the Masters of Cinema series. Continue reading ‘Rio Lobo on Blu-ray November 17!’
September 12th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
Shogun’s Samurai – also known as The Yagyu Clan Conspiracy – is one of Kinji Fukasaku’s most revered forays into the chanbara or samurai genre: a twisting tale of political intrigue and bloody betrayal starring Kinnosuke Yorozuya (The Fall of Ako Castle), Hiroki Matsukata (Battles Without Honor and Humanity) and the incomparable Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba (The Street Fighter) in its lead roles. Featuring Chiba’s first portrayal of the legendary samurai Jubei Mitsuyoshi Yagyu (a character he would later return to in Fukasaku’s Samurai Reincarnation), Shogun’s Samurai stands with The Fall of Ako Castle as one of its director’s finest and most accomplished samurai epics. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this landmark chanbara film on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. Continue reading ‘Shogun’s Samurai on Blu-ray November 17!’
September 12th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
Created by crime writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, the criminal mastermind Fantômas is best known outside of France as the antagonist of the silent serial that bears his name, directed by early cinematic pioneer Louis Feuillade. Within France, though, he is most famously associated with André Hunebelle’s beloved Fantômas trilogy. Released between 1964 and 1967, Hunebelle’s films revived the character with a comedic twist in the era of four-colour comic books, Bondmania and a boom in French popular cinema. Continue reading ‘Fantomas Returns!: The Fantomas Trilogy, 1964-67 on Blu-ray November 24!’
August 9th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day arrives on 4K UHD with a reputation that has only grown in the two decades since its release. This atmospheric, unsettling work blends romance, horror, and psychological drama into something hard to categorize yet impossible to forget. Shot with an eye for beauty in the midst of brutality, the film stands as one of the defining titles linked to the New French Extremity movement. Now restored in Ultra High Definition, it offers a fresh chance for both longtime admirers and first-time viewers to experience Denis’ hypnotic style in its most vivid form. Continue reading ‘Trouble Every Day (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)’
July 30th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
A maverick of independent cinema, Larry Cohen made a habit of transforming the seemingly benevolent into the malevolent: infants in It’s Alive, ice cream in The Stuff, police officers in Maniac Cop and the personification of the United States in Uncle Sam. In The Ambulance, it is the very thing that should save our lives that might transport us to our deaths. When comic book artist Josh (Eric Roberts) meets Cheryl (Janine Turner) in New York City, he believes he might have run into the woman of his dreams. But just as they are getting to know each other, Cheryl begins to feel ill. She is picked up by an ambulance – and then disappears into thin air. Unable to track her to any of the city’s hospitals, Josh learns that Cheryl is not the only missing person connected to the mysterious ambulance and takes it upon himself to investigate an apparent conspiracy to kidnap people from the streets of New York. But Josh’s interference isn’t welcomed – either by Lieutenant Frank Spencer of the NYPD (James Earl Jones) or the sinister forces behind the ambulance itself… One of Larry Cohen’s most underrated and underseen films (featuring an unlikely cameo by Marvel legend Stan Lee), The Ambulance deserves to reach the same cult status as his earlier horror movies It’s Alive, God Told Me To, Q – The Winged Serpent and The Stuff. Eureka Classics is proud to present the film on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. Continue reading ‘The Ambulance (1990) on Blu-ray October 13!’
July 29th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
A Spanish-French co-production directed by the inimitable Jesús “Jess” Franco (Count Dracula) from a screenplay by Jean-Claude Carrière (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), The Diabolical Dr Z – also known by its original Spanish title Miss Meurte – was released at the height of the gothic horror boom that swept Europe during the 1960s and followed Franco’s earlier gothic chillers The Awful Dr Orloff, The Sadistic Baron von Klaus and Dr Orloff’s Monster. An early film by a titan of cult cinema who would continue making films until his death in 2013, The Diabolical Dr Z is both an atmospheric and accomplished contribution to the European gothic horror cycle of the 1960s and a forerunner to the more outrageous exploitation films that would later catapult Franco to infamy. Eureka Classics is proud to present the film for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK. Continue reading ‘The Diabolical Dr. Z on Blu-ray October 20!’
July 23rd, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
The rare film with a reputation that speaks for itself, Martyrs is perhaps the defining film of the New French Extremity movement and director Pascal Laugier’s masterpiece. Horrifying and thought-provoking in equal measure, it is a deeply philosophical and challenging work of extreme cinema – and undoubtedly one of the finest horror films produced in the twenty-first century. Featuring heartbreaking performances by its two female leads and truly shocking imagery that lingers long in the mind courtesy of special effects designer Benoît Lestang, Martyrs has risen above debates surrounding “torture porn” to emerge as one of the truly great works of extreme cinema. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Martyrs on 4K UHD Blu-ray for the first time anywhere in the world from a stunning brand new 4K restoration, accompanied by a wealth of new and archival extras. Continue reading ‘Martyrs on 4K UHD Blu-ray October 27!’
June 4th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
One of the most important filmmakers France has ever produced, Jean Epstein was a film theorist, critic and a leading figure in the French Impressionist movement. Perhaps best known today for directing the first adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher from a screenplay co-written with Luis Buñuel, Epstein produced several masterpieces during the silent period, including Faithful Heart (Coeur fidèle), The Three-Sided Mirror (La glace à trois faces) and Finis Terrae, the story of a group of fishermen stranded off the cost of Brittany. An atmospheric maritime tale and a forerunner to such films as Robert Eggers‘ The Lighthouse and Mark Jenkin’s Bait, Finis Terrae is one of Jean Epstein’s finest achievements and an aesthetic triumph, particularly in its early and deeply effective use of slow-motion cinematography. The Masters of Cinema series is honored to present ‘Finis Terrae’ from an astounding 4K restoration by Gaumont Film Company. Continue reading ‘Finis Terrae is released on Blu-ray August 12!’
May 27th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
The first excursion into genre cinema by the celebrated French auteur Claire Denis, who had made her name with her previous features Chocolat and Beau Travail, Trouble Every Day is an erotically charged exploration of our darkest human desires and a key film in the development of what later came to be known as the New French Extremity movement. A dark and lyrical rumination on the pleasures of the flesh, Trouble Every Day is a remarkable work of extreme cinema that challenged critics and audiences upon its release before it came to be lauded as a modern classic. The Masters of Cinema series is honoured to present the film on 4K UHD for the first time anywhere in the world from a brand new restoration. * Both editions are strictly limited to single pressings which will not be reissued once sold out.
Continue reading ‘Trouble Every Day is released on 4K UHD Blu-ray August 18!’
May 8th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
Written and directed by Lo Wei, the man behind the Bruce Lee’s international hits The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, The Tattooed Dragon was designed to bring martial arts superstar Jimmy Wang Yu (The One-Armed Swordsman) to a global audience still hungry for kung fu cinema in the aftermath of Lee’s death. Featuring Sylvia Chang (Slaughter in San Francisco) and James Tien (Shaolin Boxer) in a villainous role, it follows The Big Boss in pitting a legendary fighter against organised crime. The Tattooed Dragon is a showcase for Jimmy Wang Yu following his move from Shaw Brothers to Golden Harvest in the early 1970s, boasting cinematography by Cheung Yiu-tsou (Police Story) and stunts coordinated by Simon Hsu (The Flying Guillotine). Eureka Classics is proud to present The Tattooed Dragon for the first time on Blu-ray anywhere in the world from a new 2K restoration. Continue reading ‘The Tattooed Dragon is released on Blu-ray July 22!’
May 1st, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
One of the most influential and iconic Westerns ever made, High Noon is a powerful film about the individual drive to do good in the face of a society that would rather turn a blind eye to evil. Directed by Fred Zinnemann (From Here to Eternity) and produced by Stanley Kramer (The Defiant Ones), it remains just as riveting, nail-bitingly tense and fiercely political as it was in the 1950s. While High Noon is now an acknowledged American masterpiece, its release was controversial. Both John Wayne (who turned down its central role) and Howard Hawks (who made Rio Bravo in response) hated the film for its thinly veiled critical commentary on McCarthyism and the persecution of those accused of having “communist” beliefs. The film has lost none of its political power – or its irrefutable entertainment value. Having brought the film to Blu-ray in 2019, the Masters of Cinema series is now proud to present High Noon in its UK debut on 4K UHD Blu-ray. Continue reading ‘High Noon is released on 4K UHD Blu-ray July 28!’
May 1st, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
By the mid-1960s, Westerns had become extremely popular in West Germany due to a series of films adapted from the novels of Karl May. In response, DEFA – the state-operated studio of East Germany or the GDR – made its own film set in the Old West. But The Sons of Great Bear wasn’t just designed to compete with West German genre films – it was also intended as a pointed corrective to the American frontier myth, pitting its Native American protagonists against violent white settlers in a battle for survival. Followed by the likes of Trail of the Falcon, Ulzana, Blood Brothers and Severino, The Sons of Great Bear made a star of Gojko Mitić and launched an entire series of Westerns at DEFA, known in East Germany as Indianerfilme and historically nicknamed “Red Westerns” due to their socialist politics. The Masters of Cinema series is proud to present The Sons of Great Bear on Blu-ray for the first time ever in the UK from an astonishing 2K restoration by the DEFA Foundation. Continue reading ‘The Sons of Great Bear is released on Blu-ray July 21!’
April 29th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
A group of weary travellers, a spooky mansion – and a madman upstairs! The Old Dark House– directed by James Whale, the writer-director of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man – is one of the finest and most entertaining horror films of the 1930s. Dripping with atmosphere and packed to the brim with thrills, chills and gallows humour, it was considered lost for many years before its rediscovery and restoration. One of the last and best films to be produced by the original cycle of “old dark house” films that began in the 1920s (typified by The Cat and the Canary), The Old Dark House boats an incredible cast featuring Melvyn Douglas (Twilight’s Last Gleaming), Gloria Stuart (Titanic) and Charles Laughton (Witness for the Prosecution). Having released the film on Blu-ray in 2018, the Masters of Cinema series is now honoured to present The Old Dark House on 4K UHD. Continue reading ‘The Old Dark House 4K UHD Blu-ray is released July 28!’
April 16th, 2025 by Gerard Iribe
Wai Lok-yan (Lau) was just eight years old when his parents were killed before his eyes in Cambodia, where his father had been working for the CIA during Pol Pot’s ascent to power in the latter days of the Cambodian Civil War. Taken to Thailand by his father’s colleague Seung (Chiang), Yan grows up to join the Thai Air Force and comes to discover that his father’s murderer – Ray Liu (Paul Chun, Royal Tramp), once a double agent – has now become a wealthy arms dealer based in the United States. With the help of the CIA, Yan intends to get close to Liu and have his revenge by taking on an assumed identity and gaining the trust of Liu’s daughter, Crystal (Jacklyn Wu, A Moment of Romance) – but first he will need to go undercover in San Francisco’s criminal underworld to rescue her from the clutches of the Vietnamese Black Tiger Gang. The Adventurers is a hidden gem amongst the many heroic bloodshed films produced in Hong Kong during the 1990s. Eureka Classics is proud to present the film on Blu-ray for the first time in North America from a brand new 2K restoration. The Adventurers is released on Blu-ray April 29th,2025! Continue reading ‘The Adventurers (Blu-ray Review)’
