2025 HAUL - OCTOBER v4
I know I haven't been posting as much these days (because work is long) but I have more packages to wrap up October's haul. There's one more post after this as well going over a new arrival for November's haul.
And if you want to see what else I have received for October, you can check my blog post here.
#14 | More Eureka Ent. Shaw Brothers Releases
#15 | Arrow Video 4K Ultra HD Haul
#16 | Carole & Tuesday
#17 | Terracotta October Pre-order Haul
I know I haven't been posting as much these days (because work is long) but I have more packages to wrap up October's haul. There's one more post after this as well going over a new arrival for November's haul.
And if you want to see what else I have received for October, you can check my blog post here.
#14 | More Eureka Ent. Shaw Brothers Releases
Upon browsing the Blu-ray forums I noticed a couple of folks were panicking about a few newer releases surprisingly sold out already on Eureka Entertainment’s online store. So I had a look and one of the titles that I was after was also sold out. Miraculously I was able to secure a copy for the release from Terracotta which I bundled with another release from earlier in the year that I had yet to pick up.
The one that sold out was Martial Law: Lo Wei’s Wuxia World, a three film collection from director Lo Wei that he worked on with the Shaw Brothers company. The films included in this set are 1968’s The Black Butterfly (女俠黑蝴蝶) starring Lisa Chiao Chiao (The One-Armed Swordsman), Elliot Ngok Wah (Come Drink With Me) and Tien Feng (Fist of Fury), 1968’s Death Valley (斷魂谷) starring Elliot Ngok Wah, Angela Yu Chien (Hong Kong 1941), and Chen Hung-Lieh (Come Drink With Me), and 1971’s Vengeance of a Snow Girl (冰天俠女) starring Li Ching (The 14 Amazons), Elliot Ngok Wah, Ku Feng (The One-Armed Swordsman), Tien Feng and Lisa Chiao Chiao.
I should have figured it would sell faster than the previous Shaw Brothers releases because Lo Wei is one of the more popular and well-known directors in the Hong Kong scene.
Also picked up is a double-film collection called The Daredevils and Ode to Gallantry: Two Venom Mob Films from director Chang Cheh. This one includes 1979’s The Daredevils (雜技亡命隊) and 1982’s Ode to Gallantry (俠客行), each starring members of the Venom Mob crew with Phillip Kwok (Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky), Chiang Sheng (Crippled Avengers), Lu Feng (Five Deadly Venoms), Sun Chien (Human Lanterns), and Lo Meng (Kid with the Golden Arm).
Both of these Eureka Entertainment releases were priced really well and are packaged in their first print limited editions with the o-card slipcase, unique artwork from either the film poster or scenes and a booklet to go with it. There are at least two more Shaw Brothers releases left for me to grab that were also released earlier in the year – those being The Magnificent Chang Cheh and Exact revenge: The Eunuch and The Deadly Knives which I am hoping to look into before the year is over.
The one that sold out was Martial Law: Lo Wei’s Wuxia World, a three film collection from director Lo Wei that he worked on with the Shaw Brothers company. The films included in this set are 1968’s The Black Butterfly (女俠黑蝴蝶) starring Lisa Chiao Chiao (The One-Armed Swordsman), Elliot Ngok Wah (Come Drink With Me) and Tien Feng (Fist of Fury), 1968’s Death Valley (斷魂谷) starring Elliot Ngok Wah, Angela Yu Chien (Hong Kong 1941), and Chen Hung-Lieh (Come Drink With Me), and 1971’s Vengeance of a Snow Girl (冰天俠女) starring Li Ching (The 14 Amazons), Elliot Ngok Wah, Ku Feng (The One-Armed Swordsman), Tien Feng and Lisa Chiao Chiao.
I should have figured it would sell faster than the previous Shaw Brothers releases because Lo Wei is one of the more popular and well-known directors in the Hong Kong scene.
Also picked up is a double-film collection called The Daredevils and Ode to Gallantry: Two Venom Mob Films from director Chang Cheh. This one includes 1979’s The Daredevils (雜技亡命隊) and 1982’s Ode to Gallantry (俠客行), each starring members of the Venom Mob crew with Phillip Kwok (Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky), Chiang Sheng (Crippled Avengers), Lu Feng (Five Deadly Venoms), Sun Chien (Human Lanterns), and Lo Meng (Kid with the Golden Arm).
Both of these Eureka Entertainment releases were priced really well and are packaged in their first print limited editions with the o-card slipcase, unique artwork from either the film poster or scenes and a booklet to go with it. There are at least two more Shaw Brothers releases left for me to grab that were also released earlier in the year – those being The Magnificent Chang Cheh and Exact revenge: The Eunuch and The Deadly Knives which I am hoping to look into before the year is over.
#15 | Arrow Video 4K Ultra HD Haul
As we were approaching Halloween season, Arrow Video once again ran another sale so a bunch of their releases went down in price, especially through HMV. I was eyeing one box set and a few others joined the mix even though I could in theory waited until their standard editions came out.
The box set that I had been meaning to get for a while was the standard edition 4K Ultra HD set for Hellraiser Tetralogy, which includes Clive Barker’s 1987 film Hellraiser starring Clare Higgins (Ready Player One), Ashley Laurence (Lurking Fear), Sean Chapman (Scum) and Doug Bradley (Nightbreed), the latter of which appeared in these four films known as the ‘Pinhead’ by a lot of fans, Tony Randell’s 1988 film Hellbound: Hellraiser II starring Kenneth Cranham (Layer Cake), Imogen Boorman (Alive and Kicking) and William Hope (Aliens), Anthony Hickox’s 1992 film Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth starring Terry Farrell (Back to School), Kevin Bernhardt (Midnight Warrior) and Ken Carpenter (Phantom of the Paradise), and Alan Smithee’s 1996 film Hellraiser: Bloodline starring Bruce Ramsay (Holes), Valentina Vargas (Dirty Games), and Charlotte Chatton (Titanic).
Out of the four films I have currently watched the first three. The first film is not what I had expected but it worked really well and loved the direction that it went. The second film captures the horror vibe with the hell world that it introduces and the practical effects were great too. And the third film was interesting but deviates a lot from the first two even though it does capture some of the horror even if it’s rather silly at times.
Next we have the limited edition 4K Ultra HD release for William Peter Blatty’s 1990 film The Exorcist III, starring George C. Scott (Dr. Strangelove), Ed Flanders (Salem’s Lot) and Brad Dourif (Child’s Play), and this is the seuel to the iconic 1973 horror classic which I have not actually seen despite being familiar with the name. So as you can probably guess I won’t be able to watch this one just yet but I heard it’s a solid film on its own.
The limited edition release includes the o-card slipcase, a booklet and also a second disc that contains the ‘Legion’ director’s cut on Blu-ray which should be available for the standard edition as well like the previous Blu-ray release did when Arrow first put it out.
And then we switch genres from horror all the way to crime with two films that looked pretty intriguing to me. The first is Joe Carnahan’s 2002 film Narc starring Jason Patric (Speed 2: Cruise Control), Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) and Chi McBride (The Terminal), which was released in North America first by Arrow and they managed to bring it over to the UK about a year later, and Bryan Singer’s 1995 film The Usual Suspects starring Stephen Baldwin (Born on the Fourth of July), Gabriel Byrne (Ballerina: From the World of John Wick) and Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another).
Both of these films I could have waited for the standard editions as well but the price was pretty solid and the artwork used for the slipcase looked pretty good. Each come with an o-card slipcase, booklet and a poster plus art cards for the latter.
The box set that I had been meaning to get for a while was the standard edition 4K Ultra HD set for Hellraiser Tetralogy, which includes Clive Barker’s 1987 film Hellraiser starring Clare Higgins (Ready Player One), Ashley Laurence (Lurking Fear), Sean Chapman (Scum) and Doug Bradley (Nightbreed), the latter of which appeared in these four films known as the ‘Pinhead’ by a lot of fans, Tony Randell’s 1988 film Hellbound: Hellraiser II starring Kenneth Cranham (Layer Cake), Imogen Boorman (Alive and Kicking) and William Hope (Aliens), Anthony Hickox’s 1992 film Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth starring Terry Farrell (Back to School), Kevin Bernhardt (Midnight Warrior) and Ken Carpenter (Phantom of the Paradise), and Alan Smithee’s 1996 film Hellraiser: Bloodline starring Bruce Ramsay (Holes), Valentina Vargas (Dirty Games), and Charlotte Chatton (Titanic).
Out of the four films I have currently watched the first three. The first film is not what I had expected but it worked really well and loved the direction that it went. The second film captures the horror vibe with the hell world that it introduces and the practical effects were great too. And the third film was interesting but deviates a lot from the first two even though it does capture some of the horror even if it’s rather silly at times.
Next we have the limited edition 4K Ultra HD release for William Peter Blatty’s 1990 film The Exorcist III, starring George C. Scott (Dr. Strangelove), Ed Flanders (Salem’s Lot) and Brad Dourif (Child’s Play), and this is the seuel to the iconic 1973 horror classic which I have not actually seen despite being familiar with the name. So as you can probably guess I won’t be able to watch this one just yet but I heard it’s a solid film on its own.
The limited edition release includes the o-card slipcase, a booklet and also a second disc that contains the ‘Legion’ director’s cut on Blu-ray which should be available for the standard edition as well like the previous Blu-ray release did when Arrow first put it out.
And then we switch genres from horror all the way to crime with two films that looked pretty intriguing to me. The first is Joe Carnahan’s 2002 film Narc starring Jason Patric (Speed 2: Cruise Control), Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) and Chi McBride (The Terminal), which was released in North America first by Arrow and they managed to bring it over to the UK about a year later, and Bryan Singer’s 1995 film The Usual Suspects starring Stephen Baldwin (Born on the Fourth of July), Gabriel Byrne (Ballerina: From the World of John Wick) and Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another).
Both of these films I could have waited for the standard editions as well but the price was pretty solid and the artwork used for the slipcase looked pretty good. Each come with an o-card slipcase, booklet and a poster plus art cards for the latter.
#16 | Carole & Tuesday
Another Anime Limited release arriving on time (well a week’s delay technically) but it’s a pretty interesting one for the collection as we finally have Carole & Tuesday from studio Bones and creator Shinichirō Watanabe. I’ve not watched this series yet because it landed on Netflix at the time due to the programming block deal between Fuji Creative Corporation had with the streaming platform for +ULTRA.
Since it took a long while to make it over to the UK as Sentai Filmworks released it over in the US for a few years, this did work in our favour as we were also able to get the big booklet that was included in Sentai’s premium edition that came years later for this release which is pretty good. This series is also different to Watanabe’s other works as we have more collaborations with international members for the music which is pretty cool to see.
You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
Since it took a long while to make it over to the UK as Sentai Filmworks released it over in the US for a few years, this did work in our favour as we were also able to get the big booklet that was included in Sentai’s premium edition that came years later for this release which is pretty good. This series is also different to Watanabe’s other works as we have more collaborations with international members for the music which is pretty cool to see.
You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
#17 | Terracotta October Pre-order Haul
And rounding up this month’s haul are another set of pre-orders that I did through Terracotta to be ahead of the holiday season. We have three releases here and each of them are different for various reasons.
Starting off with Third Window Films’ latest release and a limited edition in fact. This is Kaizô Hayashi’s Maiku Hama Trilogy which centres on the main lead portrayed by Masatoshi Nagase (Electric Dragon 80000V). The films included in this release are 1994’s The Most Terrible Time in My Life (我が人生最悪の時), 1995’s The Stairway to the Distant Past (遙かな時代の階段を) and 1996’s The Trap (罠 THE TRAP). Each of these films also feature actors who have reprised their roles throughout including Joe Shishido (Cruel Gun Story), Haruko Wanibuchi (House) and Shinya Tsukamoto (Shin Godzilla).
Each of these films were restored in 4K as part of a 30th anniversary project and much like previous Third Window releases we also have a couple of good extras included with audio commentary, interviews and more. This set also includes a small essay booklet going over the director’s filmography which is great for those unfamiliar with his works.
You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
Next we have two brand new releases from Arrow Video which are horror focused but from different parts of Asia.
Starting off with Rob Jabbaz’s 2021 film The Sadness (哭悲) starring Berant Zhu (Bad Education), Regina Lei (Twelve), Tzu-Chiang Wang (My Missing Valentine) and Ying-Ru Chen (Wrath of Desite). This film is unique as it’s another scenario of a foreign director producing a film in Asia with an Asian cast and their language, as Rob Jabbaz is from Canada. A good example of a previous film produced like this was Welsh director Gareth Evans producing The Raid in Indonesia. US distributor Shudder had the rights which Arrow Video was able to license for the UK & Ireland. I was honestly expecting this film to be too gruesome for the UK but thankfully its uncut. It’s also on the 4K Ultra HD format as well which is very nice.
Next we have a very special release that I had been waiting a very long time to see return to the UK. The Three/Three Extremes collection are two anthology films from various directors across Asia. This includes 2002’s Three (三更/쓰리) by Korean director Kim Jee-woon on the segment ‘Memories’, Thai director Nonzee Nimibutr on the segment ‘The Wheel’, and Hong Kong director Peter Chan on the segment ‘Going Home’, and 2004’s Three… Extremes (三更2/쓰리, 몬스터) by Hong Kong director Fruit Chan on the segment ‘Dumplings’, Korean director Park Chan-wook on the segment ‘Cut’ and Japanese director Takashi Miike on the segment ‘Box’. Tartan Video previously released these films in the UK and I believe they were released in reverse order (the second film came first). Also worth noting that one of the segments ‘Dumplings’ did receive a full theatrical version but that’s not included in this release unfortunately. Arrow Video’s Blu-ray release is a limited edition that includes an o-card slipcase, booklet and poster.
Starting off with Third Window Films’ latest release and a limited edition in fact. This is Kaizô Hayashi’s Maiku Hama Trilogy which centres on the main lead portrayed by Masatoshi Nagase (Electric Dragon 80000V). The films included in this release are 1994’s The Most Terrible Time in My Life (我が人生最悪の時), 1995’s The Stairway to the Distant Past (遙かな時代の階段を) and 1996’s The Trap (罠 THE TRAP). Each of these films also feature actors who have reprised their roles throughout including Joe Shishido (Cruel Gun Story), Haruko Wanibuchi (House) and Shinya Tsukamoto (Shin Godzilla).
Each of these films were restored in 4K as part of a 30th anniversary project and much like previous Third Window releases we also have a couple of good extras included with audio commentary, interviews and more. This set also includes a small essay booklet going over the director’s filmography which is great for those unfamiliar with his works.
You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
Next we have two brand new releases from Arrow Video which are horror focused but from different parts of Asia.
Starting off with Rob Jabbaz’s 2021 film The Sadness (哭悲) starring Berant Zhu (Bad Education), Regina Lei (Twelve), Tzu-Chiang Wang (My Missing Valentine) and Ying-Ru Chen (Wrath of Desite). This film is unique as it’s another scenario of a foreign director producing a film in Asia with an Asian cast and their language, as Rob Jabbaz is from Canada. A good example of a previous film produced like this was Welsh director Gareth Evans producing The Raid in Indonesia. US distributor Shudder had the rights which Arrow Video was able to license for the UK & Ireland. I was honestly expecting this film to be too gruesome for the UK but thankfully its uncut. It’s also on the 4K Ultra HD format as well which is very nice.
Next we have a very special release that I had been waiting a very long time to see return to the UK. The Three/Three Extremes collection are two anthology films from various directors across Asia. This includes 2002’s Three (三更/쓰리) by Korean director Kim Jee-woon on the segment ‘Memories’, Thai director Nonzee Nimibutr on the segment ‘The Wheel’, and Hong Kong director Peter Chan on the segment ‘Going Home’, and 2004’s Three… Extremes (三更2/쓰리, 몬스터) by Hong Kong director Fruit Chan on the segment ‘Dumplings’, Korean director Park Chan-wook on the segment ‘Cut’ and Japanese director Takashi Miike on the segment ‘Box’. Tartan Video previously released these films in the UK and I believe they were released in reverse order (the second film came first). Also worth noting that one of the segments ‘Dumplings’ did receive a full theatrical version but that’s not included in this release unfortunately. Arrow Video’s Blu-ray release is a limited edition that includes an o-card slipcase, booklet and poster.
