The Magnificent Trio / Magnificent Wanderers (1966-1977) Blu-ray (Eureka)

[MifuneFan]

More Shaw Brothers coming from Eureka! They will be releasing a pair of Chang Cheh films, The Magnificent Trio (1966), and Magnificent Wanderers (1977) on Blu-ray on April 29th.

https://diabolikdvd.com/product/the-...-ray-preorder/

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Limited Edition [2000 copies]
• Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [2000 copies]
• 1080p HD presentations on Blu-ray from masters supplied by Celestial Pictures
• Original mono audio tracks
• Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
• New audio commentary on The Magnificent Trio by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and martial artist and filmmaker Michael Worth
• New audio commentary on Magnificent Wanderers by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
• Chang Cheh Style – new video essay by Gary Bettinson, editor-in-chief of Asian Cinema journal
• A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on Chang Cheh by writer and critic James Oliver [2000 copies]

SYNOPSIS

Titles Include : The Magnificent Trio / Magnificent Wanderers

One of the Shaw Brothers Studio’s most prolific directors, Chang Cheh – or the “Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema” – is the filmmaker behind Five Deadly Venoms, Chinatown Kid and Boxer Rebellion. Collected here are two films by this maestro of martial arts cinema that showcase his considerable talents at both ends of his career: The Magnificent Trio, produced when wuxia films ruled the Hong Kong box office in the mid-1960s, and Magnificent Wanderers, made at the height of the kung fu craze at the end of the 1970s.

In an early role that pre-dates his star-making turn in Chang’s The One-Armed Swordsman, Jimmy Wang Yu stars in The Magnificent Trio as swordsman Lu Fang, who – along with fellow warriors Yen Tzu-ching (Lo Lieh) and Huang Liang (Cheng Lui) – lends his martial arts prowess to a group of oppressed farmers when they kidnap the daughter of their local magistrate. Then, in the kung fu comedy Magnificent Wanderers, the three nomads Lin Shao You (Fu Sheng), Shi Da Yong (Chi Kuan-chun), and Guan Fei (Li Yi-min) attempt to join Chinese patriots in their struggle against invading Mongol armies with the help of the wealthy Chu Tie Xia (David Chiang).

From straight-faced wuxia pian to farcical kung fu comedy, The Magnificent Trio and Magnificent Wanderers display the full range of Chang Cheh, a filmmaker who sat in the director’s chair for over three decades.

THE MAGNIFICENT CHANG CHEH (Eureka Classics) New & Exclusive Trailer - YouTube

[fred25_Ca]

This make me so happy lol. Really impressed with Eureka releasing all of these Chang Cheh movies Shout and Arrow missed out on. We are at 8 now from Eureka. Hopefully we get The Trail of the Broken Blade and King Eagle next!

[Ky-Fi]

Nice, I'll be picking this one up.

The Magnificent Trio is a remake of the excellent Japanese film Three Outlaw Samurai, and it's a solid early Shaw wuxia.

I remember before the Celestial restorations, Magnificent Wanderers was somewhat derided by fans, as the fight scenes are a little heavy on the comedy and maybe not the most intense. But I like the film well-enough.

[WaverBoy]

Nice to see they’ve finally started putting the SB logo on the packaging. I haven’t heard of these before but I’m definitely picking this up!

[Brown Jenkin]

Awesome! Been waiting for The Magnificent Trio since they 1st started releasing all the Shaw classics.

[saltysam]

I watched the old Momentum DVD of Trio a couple of weeks ago.Horrendous release, non-anamorphic with subs that disappear off the screen when picture is zoomed up.This will be a welcome upgrade.

[Ky-Fi]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

More Shaw Brothers coming from Eureka! They will be releasing a pair of Chang Cheh films, The Magnificent Trio (1966), and The Magnificent Wanderers (1967) on Blu-ray on April 29th.

Slight correction--Magnificent Wanderers is 1977.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Ky-Fi

Slight correction--Magnificent Wanderers is 1977.

oops, sorry about that. Thought they were back to back sequels when I first posted.

[MifuneFan]

Speaking of mistakes, I noticed Eureka made one too

From straight-faced wuxia pian to farcical kung fu comedy, The Magnificent Trio and Magnificent Warriors display the full range of Chang Cheh, a filmmaker who sat in the director’s chair for over three decades. Eureka Classics is proud to present both films on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

I'll contact them and see if I can get that corrected.

[OStebbins]

Eureka’s been killing it with these Shaw Brothers releases! The Magnificent Trio is classic Cheng Cheh, and Magnificent Wanderers looks like a fun Liu Chia-Liang flick. Curious to see the remaster quality—Eureka usually does a solid job. Does anyone know if these have new subtitles or just the old ones?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by OStebbins

Eureka’s been killing it with these Shaw Brothers releases! The Magnificent Trio is classic Cheng Cheh, and Magnificent Wanderers looks like a fun Liu Chia-Liang flick. Curious to see the remaster quality—Eureka usually does a solid job. Does anyone know if these have new subtitles or just the old ones?

Extras listed in the first post say the subs are newly translated. Their trailers are based off the same masters used for their discs I believe so it may give you an indication of the quality of the films too.

Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release

[fred25_Ca]

Originally Posted by OStebbins

Eureka’s been killing it with these Shaw Brothers releases! The Magnificent Trio is classic Cheng Cheh, and Magnificent Wanderers looks like a fun Liu Chia-Liang flick. Curious to see the remaster quality—Eureka usually does a solid job. Does anyone know if these have new subtitles or just the old ones?

I totally agree, Eureka have been doing an incredible job so far. It's funny, after the onslaught of Shout factory releases (vol. 1-4 and their Ti Lung set) and the 3 Arrow Shawscope, there were only a few Chang Cheh movies left. I figured Shout would be putting them in their next volumes (5-8) but so far they've choosen more obscure stuff. Thank God for Eureka, we are at 9 Chang Cheh from them so far, there are so few left now (King Eagle, Wandering Swordsman, The Trail of the Broken Blade, I think 2 or 3 Shaolin Temple movies like Men from the Monastery and Shaolin Martial Arts?, The Naval Commandos and that's pretty much it when it comes to his action movies?). So, only 6 movies left, Eureka, you can do it! :P

I'm hoping next they can tackle Chor Yuen, especially since Arrow doesn't seem interested in releasing more of his movies in their fourth Shawscope.

[MrGarmonbozia]

They couldn't have popped these two in with the Chang Cheh they are releasing in March and made a bigger box set, huh?

Awww, well, it's only money.

Bring on more Kung Fu!

As a side note, if you'd have told me two years ago I'd more films by one director that wasn't named Hitchcock in my collection I wouldn't have believed you.

Cheh will probably never be surpassed with all of his films I now own.

I was just watching the Swordsmen flicks on the latest Arrow flicks and one of the commentary tracks say people really need to start talking about him in the same breath as other great directors and I totally agree.

Dude was a machine churning our multiple releases a year and they were mainly quality stuff and you can't argue he doesn't have a style.

[fred25_Ca]

Originally Posted by MrGarmonbozia

They couldn't have popped these two in with the Chang Cheh they are releasing in March and made a bigger box set, huh?

Awww, well, it's only money.

Bring on more Kung Fu!

As a side note, if you'd have told me two years ago I'd more films by one director that wasn't named Hitchcock in my collection I wouldn't have believed you.

Cheh will probably never be surpassed with all of his films I now own.

I was just watching the Swordsmen flicks on the latest Arrow flicks and one of the commentary tracks say people really need to start talking about him in the same breath as other great directors and I totally agree.

Dude was a machine churning our multiple releases a year and they were mainly quality stuff and you can't argue he doesn't have a style.

I totally agree, he was definately one of the greats! I like to compare him to Terence Fisher (Hammer studios). Both were great directors who knew how to make movies in their respective studio system. They also had their limits (Fisher could have never made something quite as good as Rosemary's Baby or The Exorcist, for example nor could Cheh ever make something quite as strong as the better King Hu movies, imo). But goddamn was Cheh consistent. He might have never made a masterpiece but he made at least 40 good to GREAT movies. Few directors can say the same.