King Hu's The Valiant Ones (1975) 4K UHD (Eureka Entertainment)

[MifuneFan]

Eureka will be releasing King Hu's The Valiant Ones (1975) on 4K UHD on May 28th!

https://diabolikdvd.com/product/uhd-...-uhd-preorder/

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [2000 copies]
• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation, presented in Dolby Vision HDR from a 4K digital restoration of the original negatives gifted by director King Hu to the Hong Kong Film Archive
• Uncompressed original Mandarin mono restored from the original soundtrack negative
• Optional English subtitles newly translated for this release
• Brand new audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
• Tony Rayns on The Valiant Ones – Brand new interview with critic and Asian film expert Tony Rayns
• Tsar of all the Wuxia - a new video essay by David Cairns
• The Life of a Lucky Stuntman – Brand new interview with stuntman Billy Chan
• My Father and I – Brand new interview with actor Ng Ming-choi
• Archival 2003 interview with actress Hsu Feng by Frédéric Ambroisine
• Archival 2003 interview with Roger Garcia (Hong Kong International Film Festival Society) by Frédéric Ambroisine
• Archival 2016 interview with actor Ng Ming-choi by Frédéric Ambroisine
• A collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jonathan Clements

THE VALIANT ONES (Masters of Cinema) New & Exclusive Trailer - YouTube

[cooey]

Credit to Rapta for finding the leak

[Rizor]

Yay! Been curious about this one after all those King Hu restorations we had a few years ago. Was thinking about importing the BD from the Hong Kong Film Archive but glad I didn't.

[AnimalCMan]

LOL, I saw this announcement and somehow completely missed it was a 4k release!

Is this is the first King Hu film in 4k? This is a blind buy for me, but I've loved his other films. Just wish those were also in 4k now...

[Dragun]

Originally Posted by AnimalCMan

Is this is the first King Hu film in 4k?

Disk Kino has released A Touch of Zen and Dragon Inn on UHD:



Maybe Eureka and/or Criterion will release those on UHD for the UK and US.

[AnimalCMan]

Originally Posted by Dragun

Disk Kino has released A Touch of Zen and Dragon Inn on UHD:



Maybe Eureka and/or Criterion will release those on UHD for the UK and US.

Ooh nice, was unaware of those. But yeah, it seems likely Criterion or Eureka will get to them eventually, though it probably depends on how well their blu-rays sold. For now, I’ll patiently wait.

[cheez avenger]

Day 1.

[Thomas Veil]

I've tried multiple times to get into King Hu movies and they just don't click with me, even when it has actors I like. The only one I've enjoyed is The Fate of Lee Khan.

[reason108]

Nice! Just now finding out about this release. Awesome that it'll be in 4k. Used to have this on VHS so it'll be a nice upgrade. For King Hu I have on blu-ray, CDWM (88 and Arrow), DI, ATOZ, TFOLK, RITM and LOTM.

[fred25_Ca]

Originally Posted by Thomas Veil

I've tried multiple times to get into King Hu movies and they just don't click with me, even when it has actors I like. The only one I've enjoyed is The Fate of Lee Khan.

Dragon inn is pretty much the same movie as Lee Khan, have you seen that one?

[Labor_Unit001]

Originally Posted by animalcman

lol, i saw this announcement and somehow completely missed it was a 4k release!

Is this is the first king hu film in 4k? This is a blind buy for me, but i've loved his other films. Just wish those were also in 4k now...

Come Drink With Me came out in 4k as part of this boxset in France as well.



I'm super excited for Valiant Ones. I'll buy any and all King Hu/Martial Arts films in 4k that these boutiques will put out.

Touch of Zen and Dragon Inn can't be too far behind now.

[P.A.C.O.]

Originally Posted by Labor_Unit001

Come Drink With Me came out in 4k as part of this boxset in France as well.

How does this compare to Arrow's release if you don't mind me asking?

[Labor_Unit001]

Originally Posted by P.A.C.O.

How does this compare to Arrow's release if you don't mind me asking?

I'm not sure, actually. It probably looks significantly better considering Arrow use a very old HD master, but I have yet to see any impressions or screencaps of it show up online.

[reason108]

I watched this today on 4k. PQ was pretty good; as good as the other King Hu films that Eureka have released on blu-ray. I wouldn't mind upgrading the other titles to 4k if/when they become available; from Eureka. The only glitch I found was a subtitle issue. It probably lasted less than 5 or 10 seconds but it happened in two spots. The subs were still readable but it was certainly a glitch. Not sure if it was my player cause it only happened twice; once at the beginning and once near the end. Not sure if that issue factored into the recent delay of the 4k release. If anyone has the blu-ray and find the issue then that's certainly something wrong there in the file. I have no idea what experience Eureka have with the 4k format so no idea if this is a 4k newb issue or not. Does a 3rd party press their 4k releases or in house? Not a deal breaker for me but I could see some complaints regarding the issue.

[Sommerswerd]

DVDBeaver review: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film12/4K_U...nes_4K_UHD.htm

[Mr. Chaverria]

Originally Posted by Thomas Veil

I've tried multiple times to get into King Hu movies and they just don't click with me, even when it has actors I like. The only one I've enjoyed is The Fate of Lee Khan.

"Come Drink With Me" too?

[Kedrix]

This one must not have sold very well over here, I got a copy from Hamilton last night and the spine was numbered #288. It's a nice looking package though, King Hu movies can be hit or miss for me, but I'm more than willing to give any of them a try.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Kedrix

This one must not have sold very well over here, I got a copy from Hamilton last night and the spine was numbered #288. It's a nice looking package though, King Hu movies can be hit or miss for me, but I'm more than willing to give any of them a try.

All of Eureka's Masters of Cinema line have edition numbers, so the spine number simply means that The Valiant Ones is #288 in the series.

[JackyJacquard]

Fwiw the 2000 copies with a booklet haven’t sold out at Eureka UK either. I even recall it being on sale last year which is when I picked it up.

Idk if people just aren’t big King Hu fans or its maybe seen as ‘lesser’ among his efforts? Anyway I really enjoyed it - some of the sword fights in the trees are gorgeous (plus other gorgeous scenery like when they go to the sea there’s basalt columns), you’ve got very early Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao appearances (plus apparently Jackie Chan is like half the faceless guys killed in this lol), multiple completely different and stylish action sequences, and a completely unexpected connection to X-Men: First Class of all things. This is only my second of his films after Come Drink With Me and although that one I feel has better characterisation, and a much larger female role, I kinda bored at the end whereas this one only got more engaging as it went on.

I did find it quite amusing that wherever they were filming in Taiwan appeared to be a reservoir during a drought (or perhaps one still filling that they’d cleared the trees from), as you could see the scarred Earth going up from the water to the tree line though!

Also I’m realising just how insane the number of movies I watch is as I could have sworn I watched this 6 months ago…but nope, 6th April!

I’m sure at this point ‘Seven Samurai vs Wokou’ must just be a common concept for a movie but having both this and Beach of the War Gods from Eureka is brilliant.

[Rizor]

Originally Posted by JackyJacquard

Fwiw the 2000 copies with a booklet haven’t sold out at Eureka UK either. I even recall it being on sale last year which is when I picked it up.

Idk if people just aren’t big King Hu fans or its maybe seen as ‘lesser’ among his efforts? Anyway I really enjoyed it - some of the sword fights in the trees are gorgeous (plus other gorgeous scenery like when they go to the sea there’s basalt columns), you’ve got very early Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao appearances (plus apparently Jackie Chan is like half the faceless guys killed in this lol), multiple completely different and stylish action sequences, and a completely unexpected connection to X-Men: First Class of all things. This is only my second of his films after Come Drink With Me and although that one I feel has better characterisation, and a much larger female role, I kinda bored at the end whereas this one only got more engaging as it went on.

I think The Valiant Ones suffers a bit from being less widely available until now. Over on Letterboxd, it's only been rated 1,200 times vs A Touch of Zen which has been rated 16,000 times. I think some who liked A Touch of Zen, Dragon Inn or Come Drink With Me, may have tried watching something like Raining in the Mountain and thought "I think I'm good on King Hu".