HORRIBLE HISTORY: Four Historical Epics by CHANG CHEH (Eureka Classics)

HORRIBLE HISTORY: Four Historical Epics by CHANG CHEH (Eureka Classics)

Often described as the “Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema,” Chang Cheh made nearly a hundred films during a long and storied career spent at the Shaw Brothers Studio, where he directed such landmark films as The One-Armed Swordsman, Five Deadly Venoms and The Heroic Ones. Many of his films drew upon Chinese history for inspiration – and many of them were based on real people and events. Eureka Classics presents four of his best historical epics in this limited-edition set: Marco Polo, The Pirate, Boxer Rebellionand Four Riders.

In Marco Polo, the eponymous Venetian explorer (Richard Harrison) becomes embroiled in a battle between the Mongol Empire and Chinese rebels in the thirteenth century. In The Pirate, the infamous nineteenth-century raider Cheung Po Tsai (Ti Lung) must evade agents of the Imperial Court while attempting to aid the downtrodden residents of a coastal village. In Boxer Rebellion, a group of Chinese patriots use kung fu to protect their nation against invading forces at the turn of the twentieth century. Finally, in Four Riders, a Chinese veteran of the Korean War enlists three comrades to help him escape the South Korean Military Police Command after he is falsely accused of murdering an American soldier.

Marco Polo, The Pirate, Boxer Rebellion and Four Riders are all fascinating examples of the rewriting of history common in popular genre cinema, directed with aplomb by a veteran of Shaw Brothers in Chang Cheh – one of the most celebrated and prolific filmmakers in Hong Kong. All four films are presented on Blu-ray from HD masters supplied by Celestial Pictures.

LIMITED EDITION TWO-DISC BLU-RAY FEATURES:

Limited edition of 2000 copies | Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) | 1080p HD presentations on Blu-ray from masters supplied by Celestial Pictures | Original mono audio tracks | Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release | Two new commentaries by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and martial artist and filmmaker Michael Worth | Two new commentaries by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema | National Defence – A new interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong on Boxer Rebellion | Rewriting History – A new video essay on Chang Cheh’s historical films by Jonathan Clements, author of A Brief History of China | PLUS: A Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on all four films in this set by writer and critic James Oliver