FULL MOON HIGH (1981) - Eureka Entertainment

Full Moon High
Eureka Entertainment

Original Release Date Oct. 9th, 1981
Written by Larry Cohen
Directed by Larry Cohen
Starring Adam Arkin, Roz Kelly, Ed McMahon, Elizabeth Hartman, Alan Arkin
Language English (subtitles available)

Purchase yours HERE from Eureka, or HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movie: Average

As a disclaimer: I received a check disc for this film, which is a review copy that doesn't have the final artwork or packaging. This may also mean some discrepancies between my copy and the finished version. This release is also Region B only, meaning this primarily applies to folks in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand OR those of us with region free players.

The 1980s was the decade of the werewolf. Stephen King's Silver Bullet (1985), two Teen Wolf films, five Howling films, Wolfen (1981), My Mom's a Werewolf (1989), An American Werewolf in London (1981), The Company of Wolves (1984), and even Monster Squad (1987) where it was determined that Wolfman has indeed got nards, all premiered in the same decade, as did writer/director Larry Cohen's Full Moon High. A comedic reimagining of I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) which starred Michael Landon in the lead role (and also inspired a rad song from The Cramps), Full Moon High finds high school football star and heartthrob Tony (Adam Arkin) traveling to Romania as a cover for his CIA agent father (Ed McMahon)'s covert agenda.

He is, of course bitten and once he returns home the film plays out as expected for a while, with a werewolf menacing the town, biting peoples' butts, before jumping via montage from the '60s to the '80s. Having wandered the globe for twenty years, the immortal Tony returns home with the idea that if he re-enrolls in high school, rejoins the football team and helps lead them to victory, he will be cured of his werewolf curse. Needless to say, Full Moon High is not your typical werewolf film, which makes sense because Larry Cohen is not your typical filmmaker.

I've been a fan of Larry Cohen's since I first saw The Stuff (1985). In addition to that film's eldritch horror-meets-consumerism plot, there is a rich vein of zaniness running through it that I just found infectious, and over the years, I've watched and enjoyed a great number of his movies, across multiple genres. We even discussed the fantastic and crazy American kaiju movie Q: the Winged Serpent (1982) on an episode of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast last year (which you can listen to HERE)! So I was very excited to check this one out.

This is Larry Cohen's first (only?) pure comedy film, and his approach to jokes is in line with Zucker Bros. films like Airplane (1980). This kind of rapid-fire structure prioritizes joker-per-minute over logic, which means, even more than with comedies in general, you mileage may vary. The upside is that when a joke fails to land, you barely have time to register it before two more have taken its place in your short-term memory, but the downside is that things like character development take a backseat to whatever is funniest in the moment. This might work for background characters; this one is "the horny one", this one is "the kleptomaniac", or whatever, but it prevents your leads from developing dimensionality.

Maybe this doesn't matter to you. Maybe it does. Regardless, while there certainly are a lot of jokes in Full Moon High, they're not all going to work. There are definite high points though! The cast which, in addition to Arkin and McMahon, features Roz Kelly, an appearance from Pat Morita, and Bob Saget in his big screen debut, are all committed to their respective bits. There are some very smart genre parodies and meta jokes, like how Tony can always hear the violin playing on the soundtrack that signals the werewolf is coming, or the repeated newspaper headline gags. My personal highlight was Alan Arkin (Adam's real life dad) as Dr. Brand, who is introduced trying to shame a man into not jumping off of a building (it doesn't work) before being brought in to negotiate the surrender of now publicly known werewolf Tony (this doesn't really work either). Papa Arkin just has what used to be called "it" and is now more commonly referred to as "rizz". I could watch that guy in anything.

The Packaging: 

As I mentioned above, the copy I received did not have packaging, so I am leaving this section blank.

The Audio + Video: Excellent

I loved everything about this transfer. The colors are vibrant but not aggressive, the blacks are deep, but never overwhelm the balance of the composition. If the original theatrical trailer, which is included among the special features, is anything to go by, this didn't seem to demand as much of a visual overhaul as some films, but it sure is clearer and crisper looking. The trailer maintains a lot of the color and light/dark balance, but was extremely grainy. In this restoration there is certainly some film grain present, but not so you'd consciously notice. Even in lower light sequences, the images are very clean.

The mix is equally good. There are instances where dialogue was clearly recorded later (automatic dialogue replacement, or ADR) but none of it is egregious. The score, especially the violin running gag, is well mixed and balanced and there was never any point where I felt the need to adjust my three-channel sound bar's volume up or down after I'd set the level.

Special Features: Good

The extras here do a very respectable job of providing what I consider to be the paramount aspect of a bonus features section: context. The information provided gives me a good idea of where Full Moon High came in Cohen's career, what some of his social concerns were at the time, why he may have decided to make an unadulterated comedy, and what films were influences on it. The Growing Pains video essay by Kaja Franck contrasts certain aspects of Full Moon High with their counterpoints from I Was a Teenage Werewolf, but I would really have liked a more in-depth comparison.

Also, as a heads-up: I only checked out the commentary track with Larry Cohen (and Steve Mitchell, who directed and produced the 2017 documentary King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen) so I don't know if this was an issue with both commentaries or not, but the volume level of their conversation is much lower than the audio of the film, so when there is occasionally dead air, or breaks were taken, and the film's volume takes over, it's VERY loud. I don't consider this to be an issue with the film's audio overall, as it won't affect a regular degular viewing of the flick, but I felt it should be mentioned.

• Audio commentary with director Larry Cohen
• Audio commentary with Steve Mitchell
• Today's Teenage Werewolf: interview with Michael Doyle (25:00)
• Growing Pains: video essay by Kaja Franck (18:15)
• Original theatrical trailer (1:40)

In Summary: Buy it on sale

I'm a die hard Larry Cohen fan and everything, but that doesn't mean I think everything he's ever done is great. This, for me, is mid at best. Some jokes work, some don't, but they are given prominence over Cohen's usual flair for character work meaning the film comes off as a little unfocused. Still, as far as films that are heavily inspired by I Was a Teenage Werewolf go, I vastly prefer this to Halloween Ends (2022).

Full Moon High may not be my favorite of Larry Cohen's works, but it's a fun enough time and might just be worth seeing for Alan Arkin's performance alone. If you're a werewolf completist, or are looking for some horror-adjacent Halloween season viewing, Full Moon High might be exactly what you're after.

CLOUD (2024) / CHARISMA (1999) - Eureka Entertainment

Cloud / Charisma
Eureka Entertainment

Original Release Date Sept 27th, 2026 (Cloud, Japan) / February 26th, 1999 (Charisma, Japan)

Written by Kiyoshi Kurosawa 

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Starring Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa, Kōji Yakusho, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Yoriko Dôguchi

Language Japanese (English subtitles available)

Purchase yours HERE from Eureka, or HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movies: Excellent

As a disclaimer: I received check discs for these films, which are review copies that don't have the final artwork or packaging. This may also mean some discrepancies between my copies and the finished versions. This dual release is also Region B only, meaning this primarily applies to folks in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand OR those of us with region free players.

I am no expert in the films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I saw Pulse (2001) when it first came out in the U.S., but I don't remember many details; it's all just lumped in with other films of the J-Horror boom. Much more recently, I have seen Cure (1997) and Sweet Home (1989), both of which I enjoyed, but that's about it as far as my pre-existing knowledge. I wasn't even aware that Kurosawa had directed Sweet Home when I watched it. So if you had pointed all those out to me and asked me if I was "a fan" I would probably have said "Sure?"

Not now though. Having watched both Cloud (2024) and Charisma (1999), two very different films united by Kurosawa's particular vision, I can definitively say "I am now a fan of Kiyoshi Kurosawa." It's an ineffable thing, but I just enjoy the way he makes movies. Both Cloud and Charisma are written as well as directed by Kurosawa, and while there are thematic corollaries, they're really very different films. Cloud is an experience that starts as something like The Strangers (2008) and ends up somewhere akin to Mother! (2017), while Charisma is like Return to Oz (1985) with a touch of The Princess Mononoke (1997).

Cloud follows Ryôsuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda), an online reseller, purchasing items and reselling them at an inflated price, as he becomes disenfranchised with his factory day job and quits to move with his girlfriend out to a suspiciously gorgeous house on a lake. Once there the film begins a slow slide away from the somewhat familiar setting and world, transforming into a supernatural-adjacent cautionary tale so gradually that you at first feel completely buffaloed before realizing this had been inevitable the entire time.

Charisma even more quickly abandons its recognizable world, with overworked police detective Goro Yabuike (repeat Kurosawa collaborator Kōji Yakusho) heading into a forest populated with multiple groups willing to battle over their viewpoints, all centered around a rare tree, known as Charisma, and its negative effect on the forest around it. Each faction differs on what they think should be done to / with Charisma, and they're more than willing to go head-to-head over this disagreement.

Both films are allegorical and examine issues of identity and loneliness, two of Kurosawa's pet concerns, but their approach and focus vary widely. In Cloud, Yoshii has wracked up an impressive number of adversaries through his unethical business practices, yet is unaware that he has been constructing the engine of his destruction all along and that his online identity will not hide him forever. In Charisma, Yakusho wanders from one camp to another, largely unbothered by anyone, as they each try to enlist him to their respective points of view. At some point, he inevitably decides to take control of the situation and choose what happens next, but will he be prepared for the repercussions of his actions? Will any of us?

The Packaging: 

As I mentioned above, the copies I received did not have packaging, so I am leaving this section blank.

The Audio + Video: Excellent

Both these transfers look tremendous. It's a little more impressive for Charisma, which comes to us from over a quarter century ago, but I was repeatedly shocked with the visual sharpness and clarity in Cloud as well. There's one brief shot in Cloud, of Yoshii's girlfriend Akiko (Kotone Furukawa) walking by a car and her reflection across its roof is as clear as the rest of her. It's not an especially impressive shot (or, I should say not deliberately impressive) but it was just gorgeous. This is indicative of Kurosawa's eye. He also favors silhouette, negative space, and strong backlighting and I was enraptured by the soft halos of light coming into the dark spaces throughout Charisma.

That's another aspect of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's filmmaking that really appeals to me: his visual aesthetic is so all-encompassing. It permeates every shot, all locations, thoroughly. There's a stateliness to his shot composition that often feels grander than the subject matter. It's a similar feeling to viewing art in a gallery: these objects and images, though often outwardly mundane, are presented as though they have a greater weight than you may at first realize. It's, if not meditative, then certainly contemplative.

Kurosawa utilizes music with specificity and deliberation. Off the top of my head, I can't remember much about the score of Cloud (by Takuma Watanabe), but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It means it coalesced perfectly with what I was feeling throughout. I can, however, summon up a particular bouncy bit of percussion and wind from the Charisma score (by Gary Ashiya, also the composer for Cure) not only because it's used repeatedly, but is in such seeming juxtaposition to the events of the film that every time I noticed it, I spent time considering what it was conveying. In the end it lends the whole film the feeling of a fable, something of importance, with a lesson and consequences, but with a sense of gleeful adventure beneath or behind it all.

On a more technical level, the quality of the audio mix for both films was impeccable. I utilize a three-channel sound bar and I never had to adjust the volume, though I will mention that the commentary tracks for each film, from Dr. Jonathan Wroot, world cinema teacher and Japanese cinema researcher from the University of Greenwich, are slightly louder. So if you're back-to-backing any of these films with a commentary watch, you might want to bump it down a notch or two, lest you get spooked.

Special Features: Excellent

Between these two discs, I believe Eureka has put together a perfect release as far as context goes. As I said above, this release has cemented me as a Kiyoshi Kurosawa fan and that is due as much to the quality and style of the work as it does to the context provided in the bonus features. The two aforementioned commentary tracks from Dr. Jonathan Wroot did a lot to help me organize my thoughts on Kurosawa by answering many questions I had about the works, but those combined with the video essay A Cerebral Cinema by Joe Hickinbottom is what really catalyzed everything. 

As a heads-up, the disc for Cloud only features the trailer, while the disc for Charisma has two featurettes in addition to the trailer for that film (which actually gives away some big concepts, but I digress). Personally, I love the inclusion of the trailers for the simple fact that it gives me something substantial to compare the video transfer against, as trailers are typically unrestored.

• Cloud commentary track with Dr. Jonathan Wroot
• Cloud trailer (1:02)
• Charisma commentary track with Dr. Jonathan Wroot
• A Cerebral Cinema: the works of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, video essay by Joe Hickinbottom (28:15)
• Making of Charisma (30:00)
• Charisma trailer (0:34)

In Summary: Must Own

Y'all. I am deep in the pocket for Kiyoshi Kurosawa now! I really loved Cure when I watched it, and Sweet Home is cool (and the main inspiration for the Resident Evil games, fun fact), but it wasn't until unpacking the two featurettes here that I began to have an understanding of Kurosawa's interests. To me, his films feel like they don't just ask questions, they feel like they ARE questions, and they don't have an answer. Even now, with this revelation freshly in mind, thinking back on my experience watching Cure, I believe I'm onto something.

Kurosawa isn't concerned with telling you what he thinks. More than any filmmaker I can think of off the top of my head, he's interested in allowing you all the information you need to make your own decisions and then sit in that interpretation. It comes back to what I said about standing in a gallery, considering the art; there is no right or wrong way to appreciate it. What's important is that you appreciate it at all and consider what you believe it is saying.

FLAMING BROTHERS (1987) - Eureka Entertainment

Flaming Brothers
Eureka Entertainment

July 30th, 1987 (Hong Kong)
Written by Wong Kar-Wai, Jeffrey Lau
Directed by Tung Cho 'Joe' Cheung
Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Alan Tang, Patricia Ha, Jenny Tseng, Yin Tse
Language Cantonese w/English subtitles

Buy it HERE from MVD

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movie: Good

As a film, Flaming Brothers is perfectly serviceable and extremely well-made, even if on paper it seems unremarkable. Orphans Chan Wai-lun (Alan Tang) and Cheung Ho-tin (Chow Yun-Fat) came up together from hustling on the streets as children to running their own Triad-adjacent hostess club, but now local boss Kao (Yin Tse) wants them to start taking on more dangerous duties. When they refuse, they find themselves marked for death and end up teaming with other gangsters on Kao’s hit list in an attempt to take control of the territory. The whole thing begins and ends with incredibly violent confrontations. It’s what happens in between that truly sets Flaming Brothers apart.

Whereas previously the operatic and supernatural Wuxia genre had ruled the cinematic roost, then-recent political and social changes in China had led to an interest in crime films. The genre would eventually become known as Heroic Bloodshed, and have its style largely solidified by John Woo through films like A Better Tomorrow 1 (1986) & 2 (1987), The Killer (1989), and Hard Boiled (1992), and Ringo Lam through his City on Fire (1987), Prison on Fire (1987), and School on Fire (1988) films. But while it was still finding its footing, many films emerged attempting to capitalize on the crime craze.

Flaming Brothers is most certainly one of those films, but with the benefit of hindsight, it’s a unique specimen. The middle section of Flaming Brothers sees Ho-tin reconnect with Ka-Hsi (Patricia Ha), an acquaintance from childhood, and they fall in love. When it becomes apparent that things are serious, Wai-lun encourages them to leave the city and start new lives together while he enters into a tumultuous relationship with Jenny (Jenny Tseng), a singer with whom he has previously been involved. 

This focus on the emotional cores of its two leads makes Flaming Brothers noteworthy at the very least. My biggest complaint with the film is that it’s right on the edge of being Too Much Movie. The crime storyline is complex enough, and the romance has enough points of dramatic tension to each have been their own film. This leaves Flaming Brothers charging breathlessly from important moment to important moment. On the plus side, you’re never bored. On the other hand, it feels like very few things apart from the indulgent violence have time to land. Ho-tin and Ka-Hsi feel like they get married on their third date for instance. This is the danger of making what is effectively a crime epic, and bringing it in at comfortably under two hours.

Co-written by Jeffrey Lam and future Criterion Collection auteur Wong Kar-Wai, Flaming Brothers' attempt to split its focus between two fully loaded storylines leads to a somewhat uneven viewing experience: A tragic melodrama sandwiched between two thick-cut slices of gleeful, bloody violence. But by taking these chances, it solidifies its place as an outlier in a somewhat overcrowded subgenre.

The Packaging: Excellent

This release includes a booklet with an essay from filmmaker, writer, and film historian Camille Zaurin that does an excellent job at giving this a cultural context. He lays out the hallmarks of the Heroic Bloodshed genre, its evolution from earlier Wuxia films, and Flaming Brothers' place within that larger tapestry quite well.

As is typical of Eureka Entertainment's Blu-rays, this comes in one of the sturdier, wider cases, which is always nice. In addition to that, the cover art is a recreation of the original poster art, depicting Ho-tin holding a gun and screaming with a dramatic pillar of fire in the background. There's also a slipcover featuring art from Time Tomorrow showcasing both brothers preparing for violence. It all makes for a very handsome addition to your collection.

The Audio + Video: Good

Flaming Brothers falls right into the sweet spot for me where both the audio and video have been, I believe, very lovingly restored, but they haven't been sterilized. There are still sonic and visual hallmarks of the era this movie comes to us from: minor film grain adds texture, not distraction, and the audio just plain sounds different. There is a roundness to the dialogue recordings, and even though they're effectively cleaned up, you can still get a sense of the noise in the original audio tracks, mostly present on some harsh 's' sounds.

Special Features: Average

What I look for in my special features, for the most part, is context. I like to learn about the environment the film grew from, and what its cultural footprint may be. To that end, the interview with director Joe Cheung was the most impactful for me. I've been a fan of Wong Kar-Wai (In the Mood For Love (2000), Chungking Express (1994), others) for years and finding out that he came up working for Cheung is fascinating. As were, honestly all of Cheung's insights into the filmmaking process.

Beyond that, the locations feature and the alternate credits were fine. The trailer, unsurprisingly, showcases a lot of the action and, as a bonus, since it has not been restored, it showcases the extent to which the video and audio have been cleaned up.

• CFK on Flaming Brothers' locations (31:36)
• The Ambassador: an interview with Joe Cheung (45:04)
• Alternate Credits (3:13)
• Trailer (2:18)

In Summary: Buy it on sale

Flaming Brothers is a fascinating outlier to the more well-known aspects of the wave of crime cinema coming out of Hong Kong through the '80s. Elements of comedy, and obviously romance, as well as a very profound bromance, are all eclipsed by the sheer madness of the shootouts. Blood and bullets fly, friends and foes alike die by the dozens, and in the end, no one truly wins. It's borderline nihilistic. As such, it might not be for everyone, even for fans of Asian genre cinema, but I think it definitely has more working for it than against it.

HONG KONG 1941 (Eureka)

Hong Kong 1941
(Eureka)
Originally Released Nov. 1st, 1984 
Written by Koon-Chung Chan
Directed by Po-Chih Leong
Starring Cecilia Yip, Chow Yun-Fat, Alex Man, Paul Chun, Wu Ma
Language: Cantonese (w/English subtitles) and optional English dub track

Buy it HERE from Eureka, HERE from MVD, or HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movie: Excellent

An action romance with epic aspirations but a much more intimate focus, Hong Kong 1941 gallops through set-ups and familiar story beats with a looseness that I really enjoyed. To be fair, there's a lot to set up: Yip (Chow Yun-Fat) comes to Hong Kong to stay with his very sweet aunt and decidedly salty uncle. He butts up against local tough guy Wong (Alex Man) and falls for the sickly but lovely local girl--who Wong is also, somewhat secretly enamored with--Nam (Cecilia Yip). The three of them are fast friends, and form a loose love triangle where everybody behaves themselves (mostly).

There's also some complications involving a local rice magnate who happens to be Nam's father who just fires his workers whenever they want to be paid fairly; a local crime boss / politician Chairman Liu (Wu Ma), and police sergeant Fa-wing (Paul Chun) who especially has it out for Wong. As interwoven as our three leads' lives are with each other, they're being equally dragged into confrontations with these outside obstacles and aggressors. As I said, there's a lot of track to lay before the film drops its biggest bomb: actual bombs.

The spine of this story is built around the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. So on top of the ephemeral, emotional stakes are incredibly tangible, real-world hardships and danger. For what it's worth, I think the script, by Koon-Chung Chan, does an incredible job balancing these things. The war is never fully just a backdrop for the interpersonal drama, it's never allowed to feel commonplace. Scenes that are primarily about developing our leads' stories or characters also showcase actions of the invading Japanese army, from the comparatively innocuous--like rewarding children with food for singing in Japanese--to the outright hideous--hunting down and assaulting the local women.

The fact that Hong Kong 1941 manages to maintain an (overall) light feeling is truly impressive. The love triangle never feels overwrought, the violence and danger never feels excessive, and the whole thing works thanks to director Po-Chih Leong, editor Peter Cheung, and the performances of our leads. I've been a fan of Chow Yun-Fat for a long time. He just has an effortlessness to him that borders on cocky without, for me, ever tipping over the line. Both Alex Man and Cecilia Yip play extremely well off of him and each other, and you can really feel and understand that they all care for each other.

As a war movie, Hong Kong 1941 might be lacking in scope, but that was never its focus. While a war, which is a comparatively abstract concept, can most certainly be interesting, it's the people affected by it that make a story worth telling.

The Packaging: Excellent

Eureka Entertainment's cases are just a bit larger than your standard, closer to Criterion's, which is either nice, because it feels a bit sturdier, or annoying if you'd like all of your Blu-rays to be uniform. This one also comes with a cardboard slip and a reversible cover. The minimalist art on the slip--a hand holding a katana, with our three leads in miniature, standing on the tsuba (guard), in high contrast black and blood red on a deep orange background--is on one side of the cover, with a fantastic painted illustration of Yip, Wong, and certain key scenes on the other.

Also included is a booklet featuring an essay from Hong Kong and Chinese Cinema specialist Gary Bettinson about director Po-Chih Leong which gives a very solid overview of his career. If you've read any of my other Disc Dispatches, you'll know I love context. Additionally there are some wonderful photos from the production in the booklet.

The Audio + Video: Excellent

I thought this looked tremendous. The opening scene (maybe two?) had a slight peach tint to things that I wasn't crazy about. On one hand, it had the overall effect of a sepia filter in that it sort of helped sell the whole "this story takes place in the past" thing, but I was worried it would overstay its welcome. It doesn't, subtly fading to something cooler that makes the blues and greens in the costumes and locations pop and somehow feels more urgent and in-the-moment.

There's some film grain present, but it's a good amount; it lets you feel the movie, the weight of its history. Something I noticed near the end of the film that I found weirdly charming is that you can, occasionally, see the shadows of moths circling the set lights. Imperfections, if you even want to think of them as such, are proof that this was made by people, and through, I'm sure, no small amount of effort. I love that.

I noticed no issues with the audio at all. There is a certain distance to the sound that is era appropriate, but it's not nearly as noticeable as other films from this era. Whether this is the result of the filmmaking at the time, or any sort of restoration, I'm not sure. Regardless, everything came through very clearly, even at times when contrasting sounds--like a gentle score playing alongside the sounds of a boat engine--were present.

Special Features: Excellent

I won't pretend that every single piece of additional material on here was fascinating or enlightening, but much of it was. And there's just so much of it that I'm actually not sure where it was that I learned what became the background information I was most obsessed with: this was made because of Margaret Thatcher!

What I mean is (and forgive me if I'm getting details wrong): Thatcher bungled some deal or another which led to Britain losing their longstanding control of Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1984, which reminded many people (including filmmakers) of the Japanese invasion after Pearl Harbor in 1941. This film as well as a film called Love in a Fallen City (1984, dir. Ann Hui), both set in that era, were each released within the same year and, coincidentally, both star Chow Yun-Fat!

For reasons that I think should be obvious, I've been wondering about world history, the lessons we may or may not be learning from it, and the impact that has on people who just want to live their lives as peacefully as they are able. This gave me quite a lot to chew on.

• Tony Rayns on Hong Kong 1941 (30:29)
• Crossing Cultures with Po-Chih Leong (21:47)
• Po-Chih Leong on Hong Kong 1941 and Cultural Identity (recorded at East Film Fest 2023) (21:38)
• Archival Interviews
• Cecilia Yip 1 (29:09)
• Cecilia Yip 2 (4:23)
• Cecilia Yip 3 (11:33)
• Chow Yun-Fat 1 (13:13)
• Chow Yun-Fat 2 (5:33)
  
• Paul Chun (a.k.a. Paul Pui) (8:30)
• Hong Kong theatrical trailer (4:03)
• International release trailer (3:48)

• Included booklet with an essay from Gary Bettinson

In Summary: Buy it on sale

While I was knocked out by Hong Kong 1941, and I was, I admit that this type of film might not be for literally everyone. Sure, few films are, but some are, and it is for those that I'll reserve the absolute highest recommendation. As it stands, this is an incredibly strong offering. As a film, it's an excellent bit of historical melodrama. As a release this is incredibly rewarding, with plenty of additional materials to inform the production and its history. It's also the first time Hong Kong 1941 has been made available on Blu-ray outside of Asia.

This has some absolutely gorgeous moments, both visually and emotionally and I think anyone with an interest in Asian cinema would be well-served to have this on their shelves. 

HOPPING MAD: the MR. VAMPIRE sequels Boxed Set (Eureka Entertainment)

HOPPING MAD: THE MR. VAMPIRE SEQUELS
Special Edition Two-Disc Blu-Ray
Comprising:
Mr. Vampire II a.k.a. Vampire Family (1986)
Mr. Vampire III (1987)
Mr. Vampire Saga IV a.k.a. Uncle Vampire (1988)
(Part V) Vampire Vs Vampire (1989)
Directed by Ricky Lau (2 - 4), Ching-Ying Lam (5)
Written by Barry Wong (2), Cheuk-Han Szeto (3), Wing-Keung Lo (3 & 4), Kam Cheong Chan, Chi-Leung Shum, Mei-Yee Sze (5)
Starring Ching-Ying Lam, Richard Ng, Billy Lau, Fong Lui, Pauline Yuk-Wan Wong, Anthony Chan, Wu Ma, & many, many more!
Running times between 1 hour, 26 minutes (shortest), and 1 hour, 36 minutes (longest)
From Eureka Entertainment

By “Doc” Hunter Bush, Staff Writer, Podcast Czar

Synopsis:

In 1985, the Ricky Lau directed horror comedy Mr. Vampire was released to much success, with a subsequent installment following each year from 1986 - 1989. Now, for the first time, all four sequels (BUT, it should be noted: NOT the original) are collected in one boxed set! The films as a series take an anthology approach to being a franchise; each film is its own thing, with actors playing similar archetypes across multiple entries, but have no specific hard & fast continuity.

Mr. Vampire II features an archeological dig unearthing a family of vamps (mother, father, son) and shenanigans ensue. In Mr. Vampire III a Taoist priest pulling an exorcism scheme not unlike Michael J. Fox’s from The Frighteners runs afoul of a cabal of horse thieves led by a for-real witch. Shenanigans ensue. Mr. Vampire Saga 4 is a Grumpy Old Men -style rivalry between next door neighbors, one a Taoist priest and the other a Buddhist monk. A vampire does eventually show up llate in the game, with shenanigans ensuing both before and after. Vampire Vs Vampire sees yet another Taoist priest attempting to cleanse a mountain town only to run afoul of a European-style vampire. Do shenanigans ensue? You betcha.

A Little Table-Setting:

Chinese vampires - or jiangshi - are different from western vamps. They’re undead corpses, but more in the zombie vein because they operate on instinct, locating victims by sound or sight instead of strategy. They hop rather than fly, and while they do bite, they feed on energy instead of blood and only bite as an attack. Their bites and scratches can eventually turn a victim into one of them, but there are numerous esoteric ways to fend off the transformation.

They’re based on descriptions of men hauling groups of preserved dead bodies by tying their arms to long bamboo poles with the living man in the lead, pulling them along. His lurching, hauling gate gave the corpses the appearance of all jumping in unison along the roads at night, searching for unwary travelers.

What Features Make it Special:

• 1080p HD from brand new 2K restorations (Mr. Vampire II and Mr. Vampire III)
• 1080p HD from brand new HD restorations (Mr. Vampire IV and Vampire vs Vampire)
• Cantonese and English audio options on all films
• Optional English subtitles for all films, newly translated for this release
• Brand new feature length audio commentaries for Mr. Vampire II and Vampire vs Vampire by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
• Brand new feature length audio commentaries for Mr. Vampire III and Mr. Vampire IV by action cinema experts Mike Leeder & Arne Venema
• Brand new video piece discussing the history and resurgent popularity of the Jiangshi genre
• Trailers
• Reversible sleeve featuring original poster art
• Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling (first 2000 copies)
• Limited Edition collector’s booklet feature new writing on the films and the Jiangshi genre by James Oliver (first 2000 copies)

Why You Need to Add It to Your Video Library:

For fans of genre oddities, this is the proverbial candy store for you to feel like a kid within. The films themselves are incredibly unique and interesting with tons of cool wirework, slick choreography, goofball antics, numerous practical effects, beautiful design work, and rich worldbuilding and lore. The sets and costumes are beautiful, and the stunt work is largely just incredibly impressive. I can’t imagine any four films that would offer up this varied an assortment of distinctive bits: limboing chains of corpses, deep fried fat golems, chemicals that make you move in slo-mo, and a ghost forced into the body of a soldier and hypnotized to attack anyone wearing a Taoist’s robe, which the ghost/soldier sees as a giant eagle!

Y’all. I am not kidding. If this were a bare-bones set with ONLY the films, it’d be worth picking up (provided you’ve got access to a region-free player), but Eureka Entertainment have crafted an absolute embarrassment of riches. The transfers look incredible; crisp and with lovely colors throughout, and the sound mixes are dynamite. I personally l-o-v-e lore and worldbuilding, and one of the bonus features is an interview with an actual Taoist priest, Kelvin a.k.a. Sam Fai, who explains the origins behind some of the weapons and tactics most frequently-used against the jiangshi! It was absolutely fascinating and made me want to research even more about some of these beliefs. Beyond that, there are commentary tracks for each of the films which I’m sure are all packed with even more tidbits and anecdotes, but I’ve not had the luxury of watching them all quite yet. 

You don’t NEED to have seen the original Mr. Vampire to appreciate the weirdness, the creativity, the absolutely bonkers choices you’ll see in these four films. Ghosts stretching their limbs, a TV sitcom-style musical number for a child vampire, a vampire fight in a quicksand-filled swamp; I could list things all day and still not accurately convey how surprising these movies are. I honestly never stopped smiling through any viewing of any film in the set.

If you’re a fan of films like Evil Dead II, The Frighteners, Ghostbusters, House (1977), or are just curious about the jiangshi hopping vampire genre in general, you owe it to yourself to make space on your media shelves for Hopping Mad. And, for completists like myself, they’ve got the original on blu-ray too.

Hopping Mad: The Mr. Vampire Sequels boxed set is available HERE from Eureka Entertainment