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It was recently reported that the home video distributor Shout Factory is collaborating with Hong Kong Film Archives to bring you the 4K remastering of the most coveted of Chinese action film classics. The films will include works by Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat, John Woo, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark. One of the titles included was Peking Opera Blues from 1986 and Blu-ray.com reports on the new details. Tsui Hark directs with a cast that includes Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh, Cherie Chung, Kenneth Tsang and Mark Cheng. The new remastered release is due to hit retailers on September 23.

Description: Shout Factory’s Hong Kong Cinema Classics continues to offer movie enthusiasts a treasure trove of must-see film classics from a remarkable era in cinematic history. The goal is to preserve and present these iconic movies in their finest form for fans, both old and new, at home.

Official selection of...

The beloved action cinema hailing from Hong Kong in the 1980s and ’90s is now being honored by distributor Shout! Studios.

IndieWire exclusively announces that the films of John Woo, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark, and Tony Ching will screen as part of the “Hong Kong Cinema Classics” series, taking place at Los Angeles’ American Cinematheque and New York City’s IFC Center in August 2025. The retrospective will then tour select markets across the U.S. throughout the fall, with Shout! Studios releasing physical and digital versions, courtesy of the Golden Princess library.

Woo will also be in attendance at select American Cinematheque screenings. The auteur recently made his return to Hollywood filmmaking with 2023’s “Silent Night” and his 2024 remake of “The Killer” Woo’s “Hard Boiled,” “Bullet in the Head,” “A Better Tomorrow,” and its sequel, “A Better Tomorrow II,” are all among the “Hong Kong Cinema Classics” program. “A Better Tomorrow III,...

One of the key figures in Hong Kong cinema, Tsui Hark is a writer, actor, producer, and groundbreaking director. Born in Vietnam, he attended college in the US before working in Hong Kong television.

Hark directed his first features in the early 1980s. In 1984 he formed Film Workshop, a studio that helped boost the careers of John Woo, Chow Yun-fat, and Jet Li. Shanghai Blues, the first Film Workshop release, brought a revolutionary style and originality to Hong Kong filmmaking. Hark’s other films include the Once Upon a Time in China and Detective Dee franchises, Peking Opera Blues, and entry into the anthology film Septet.

I had the opportunity chat with the legendary filmmaker at this year’s Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, where he received the Golden Mulberry Award for Lifetime Achievement, in addition to introducing restored versions of Shanghai Blues and Green Snake, Hark brought his latest film,...

Shout! Studios is punching Monday in the face with brass knuckles by announcing an outstanding action film initiative with Hong Kong Cinema Classics! The celebration of Hong Kong action classics includes 4K presentations on Digital and physical media featuring iconic filmmakers, time-honored films, and many of the action genre’s legendary badasses of the silver screen.

The Hong Kong Cinema Classics collection brings films like Hard Boiled, City on Fire, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, Fist of Legend, Peking Opera Blues, and more to the stage!

Per today’s press release from Shout! Studios:

Hong Kong cinema in the ’80s and ’90s, renowned for its thrilling action choreography, distinctive visual styles, and emotional storytelling, represents a remarkable era in cinematic history, whose crime thrillers, martial arts classics, and action films, in particular, have left an indelible mark on Hollywood, profoundly influencing everything from Quentin Tarantino’s...

In a major boon for action film enthusiasts and physical media collectors, Shout! Studios is launching a new entertainment label dedicated to restored Hong Kong cinema classics.

The Hong Kong Cinema Classics line will spotlight a treasure trove of Hong Kong cinematic masterpieces, beginning with digital 4K releases in June before expanding to definitive-edition physical media.

The move comes on the back of Shout! Studios nabbing worldwide rights (excluding select Asian territories) to the coveted Golden Princess movie library.

The digital rollout begins June 24, while the label’s first physical release will be “The Jet Li Collection,” a 10-disc 4K Uhd + Blu-ray box set arriving July 29. This comprehensive set features five of the martial arts superstar’s seminal Hong Kong films: “Fist of Legend,” “Tai Chi Master,” “Fong Sai Yuk,” “Fong Sai Yuk II,” and “The Bodyguard from Beijing.” The lavish collection includes new interviews, audio commentaries, vintage featurettes and more special features.

Shout! Studios has unveiled Hong Kong Cinema Classics Line, “a new entertainment label spotlighting a treasure trove of Hong Kong’s most captivating and cinematic masterpieces on digital entertainment platforms in 4K and definitive-edition physical releases (Uhd and Blu-ray) for collectors’ home entertainment shelves,” according to the official release. The first titles will be released this summer.

The home video company “in collaboration with the Hong Kong Film Archives, has been working diligently to remaster and restore several prized hits, all scanned in stunning 4K from the original camera negatives. The video and audio have been restored, and the subtitles have been newly translated. With fans in mind, Shout! Studios is currently producing a variety of bonus content for each physical media release for this numbered and deluxe home entertainment series.”

Many of these titles have long been out-of-print or unavailable in the west, so to have them with brand-new...

Early Hong Kong classics from Jet Li, including works from celebrated filmmakers Gordon Chan, Yuen Woo-ping (perhaps best known by western audiences for his work on “The Matrix”) and Corey Yuen will finally arrive on digital 4K on Feb. 18, courtesy of Shout! Studios in collaboration with Li.

The releases include 1994’s “Fist of Legend,” 1993’s “Tai Chi Master,” “The Legend” and “The Legend 2,” and 1994’s “The Bodyguard From Beijing.” These are the movies that made Li an international superstar and paved the way for him to appear in western blockbusters like “Lethal Weapon 4,” “Romeo Must Die,” “The One” and “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” along with Sylvester Stallone’s “Expendables” franchise.

“Thanks to our new partner Shout! Studios, movie fans can now easily enjoy these entertaining films in stunning 4K on various digital platforms. I hope a new generation of audiences will be introduced to these...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSInland Empire.Former MoviePass CEO Ted Farnsworth pleaded guilty to defrauding the company’s investors by making “materially false and misleading representations” of the company’s operations. In the words of a Justice Department official, Farnsworth “concealed that MoviePass’s subscription model was a money-losing gimmick and falsely claimed that [the company] used artificial intelligence to monetize MoviePass’s subscriber data,” the latter tactic described as “AI washing.”Shout! Studios has acquired the worldwide rights to the Golden Princess movie library, a collection of 156 Hong Kong action cinema classics that have been unavailable in Western markets for decades. The collection includes John Woo classics like The Killer (1989), Bullet in the Head (1990), and Hard Boiled (1992), as well as Tsui Hark’s...

Clearly due to the ongoing Tony Leung hype, Netflix has now dug up this rather mediocre film from 2011, which grossed a not-so-impressive $27.2 million at the Chinese box office in the first half of 2012 – on an estimated budget of $15 million – but was at least the highest-grossing Chinese-language film at the time behind eight Hollywood blockbusters. Apart from two festival screenings, the film never made it to Europe or the USA.

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The Hong Kong/Mainland co-production is so disappointing because at first glance it gives cause for optimism. Derek Yee is an experienced director who has a number of successful films, including “People’s Hero” (1987), to his credit. Then there is a basically splendid cast. Alongside Mr. Leung, other actors include Lau Ching-wan, the always great Zhou Xun, Paul Chun, Lam Suet and, in a not so small role, Wang Ziwen, who...

What is quite obviously the best film news of 2025 thus far (and will be tough to beat in the foreseeable future) comes via Variety, who tell us Shout! Studios have acquired worldwide rights (minus certain Asian territories) to 156 films owned by Hong Kong’s legendary Golden Princess, comprising the likes of John Woo, Johnnie To, Tsui Hark, and Ringo Lam, to say nothing of filmmakers whose work’s been long sequestered from western eyes and is finally receiving due attention. For those who consider Hong Kong cinema between the ’80s and ’90s something of a peak for the medium itself (hello) this is a nice leavening effect the same month Los Angeles burns and Donald Trump becomes President once more.

One might expect it’ll take a second for any library so vast as Golden Princess’ to arrive. Restoration plans are unclear, minus the notice that Shout! looks to “remaster...

Home video distributor Shout! Studios has acquired the worldwide rights (excluding select Asian territories) to the Golden Princess movie library – a deal that Variety reports will “electrify action film aficionados” because the Golden Princess library is “a treasure trove of 156 Hong Kong cinema classics that’s been Mia from Western markets for decades. The deal, which brings together Hollywood’s indie powerhouse with one of Hong Kong cinema’s most prestigious catalogs, includes genre-defining works from directing legends John Woo and Tsui Hark, alongside star-studded vehicles featuring Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Leslie Cheung.“

The line-up that is now in the hands of Shout! Studios includes “Woo’s action masterpieces Hard Boiled, The Killer, the complete Better Tomorrow trilogy, Bullet in the Head, and Once a Thief. The library also boasts Ringo Lam’s City on Fire, Prison on Fire and its sequel; Eric Tsang’s Aces Go Places...

In a major move set to electrify action film aficionados, Shout! Studios has nabbed worldwide rights (excluding select Asian territories) to the coveted Golden Princess movie library, a treasure trove of 156 Hong Kong cinema classics that’s been Mia from Western markets for decades.

The deal, which brings together Hollywood’s indie powerhouse with one of Hong Kong cinema’s most prestigious catalogs, includes genre-defining works from directing legends John Woo and Tsui Hark, alongside star-studded vehicles featuring Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Leslie Cheung.

The acquisition’s crown jewels include Woo’s action masterpieces “Hard Boiled,” “The Killer,” the complete “Better Tomorrow” trilogy, “Bullet in the Head” and “Once a Thief.” The library also boasts Ringo Lam’s “City on Fire,” “Prison on Fire” and its sequel; Eric Tsang’s “Aces Go Places”; Tsui’s “Peking Opera Blues”; Tony Ching’s “Chinese Ghost Story” trilogy; and additional hits...

Known for co-directing “The Big Heat” (1988) with Johnnie To, unsung Hong Kong filmmaker Andrew Kam Yeung Wa also worked as the 2nd Unit director for “Peking Opera Blues” (1986) and “A Better Tomorrow III” (1989). But with “Fatal Termination”, a simple revenge-driven action thriller, he manages to bring it to an intensely merciless level during the film’s last half hour climax.

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The simple plot concerns a big batch of weapons flown into Hong Kong. However, arms dealer Ko Mok Fu (Philip Ko) hijacks it after colluding with the corrupted Customs Chief, Wai Loong (Robin Shou). Inspector Lee (Simon Yam), who is investigating the case, believes that customs officer Miu (Michael Miu Kiu Wai) is responsible since the weapons disappeared under his watch. Before long, Miu, his sister Moon (Moon Lee Choi Fung) and her police husband John (Ray Lui) all become Lee’s prime suspects.

No one, including Warner Bros, was prepared for how successful “The Matrix” would be when it hit theaters on March 31, 1999. Only the second film by the Wachowski siblings (their first being the low-budget indie “Bound”), it would go on the be the fourth highest grossing film of the year, and a cultural phenomenon that became part of our lexicon.

The movie’s success would also mark a number of shifts happening in the industry. The diverse approach to casting by the Wachowskis, and their casting directors Mali Finn and Shauna Wolifson, took in building their ensemble helped redefine who could be an American action star, as Hollywood was desperate to move away from its already stale reliance on brawny white males, whose bulging muscles justified their physical prowess. The Wachowskis’ philosophy-inspired script helped usher in an era of narrative gravity and complexity in how studios approached the world-building storytelling of studio IP.

After several years in television and the release of three romantic comedies including “Seven Years Itch” (1987), Johnnie To comes up with his first Action Movie “The Big Heat”. The extremely rare movie, famously known for its DVD release that falls short in terms of synchronization and subtitling, holds the blueprint of many later films of the director.

“The Big Heat” centers around the policemen John, played by Waise Lee also known as the bad guy from “A Better Tomorrow” (1986) and “Bullet in the Head” (1990), who has to solve the murder of his former partner before he can retire. Like many other of To’s heroes John has a disability. Due to a nerve damage, his hand is temporarily paralyzed.

Speaking of Johnnie To, one cannot dismiss the aspect of the auteur. Johnnie To is a prime example of a director that changed the nature of a genre...

“I Am Not Your Negro” (Magnolia), Raoul Peck’s acclaimed documentary on author James Baldwin, opened extremely well this weekend to achieve an elevated position among this year’s Oscar Documentary Features. It also defied the usual strategy for specialized releases, documentary or otherwise, with a wider that usual first week opening.

It joins the Iranian “The Salesman” as a perfectly timed late-stage release. Asghar Faradi’s film expanded in its second weekend to about the same number of theaters showing “Negro.” They stand out as fresh blood in a period when multiple longer running Oscar nominees are still thriving, including a rare trifecta of three Best Picture nominees in the Top Ten: “Hidden Figures,” “La La Land” and “Lion.”

The first two Sundance 2017 films debuted theatrically, both with near-term home viewing prospects. Barbara Kopple’s “This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous” (on YouTube Red this Wednesday) and “Oklahoma City” (on...

It’s not every day a director comes on stage in Buddhist monk’s garb and slippers, but such was Patrick Lung Kong’s refreshingly idiosyncratic appearance Saturday night at Queens’ Museum of the Moving Image, two days into a two weekend retro of his work. To his right was Tsui Hark, who himself reshaped the Hong Kong film industry multiple times: with 1986′s Peking Opera Blues, a breakthrough moment for international recognition of Hk martial arts fare, 1992′s Once Upon a Time in China, and as producer on John Woo’s 1986 A Better Tomorrow, among many other instances. 1967′s The Story of […]...

It’s not every day a director comes on stage in Buddhist monk’s garb and slippers, but such was Patrick Lung Kong’s refreshingly idiosyncratic appearance Saturday night at Queens’ Museum of the Moving Image, two days into a two weekend retro of his work. To his right was Tsui Hark, who himself reshaped the Hong Kong film industry multiple times: with 1986′s Peking Opera Blues, a breakthrough moment for international recognition of Hk martial arts fare, 1992′s Once Upon a Time in China, and as producer on John Woo’s 1986 A Better Tomorrow, among many other instances. 1967′s The Story of […]...

Wu Ma is a legend when it comes to Kung Fu movies, starring in his first movie at the age of 14 in Lady General Hua Mulan and is still active till this day. Wu must be one of the most recognizable faces in the business, starring in movies such as Encounters Of The Spooky Kind, Dead And The Deadly, The Manchu Boxer, Iron Monkey and lots more. Wu Ma is still making movies to this day, this year he appeared in the movie Game Of Assassins, which also featured Leung Kar Yan and Chen Kuan Tai.

Selected Filmography

1977:Iron Monkey

1980:Encounters Of The Spooky Kind

1980:By Hook Or By Crook

1982:Dead And The Deadly

1986:Righting Wrongs

1987:Chinese Ghost Story

1990:Swordsman

1993:Kickboxer

2012:Game Of Assassins

Background

Wu was born Feng Hongyuan in Tianjin. At 16 he moved to Guangzhou and became a machinist before migrating to Hong Kong in 1960. In...

[Us readers are reminded that Detective Dee is in limited theatrical release in the Us Right Now and this is a film that greatly benefits from being seen in as large a format as possible. Watch Andy Lau punch a deer in the face on the big screen! Find the complete list of theaters screening the film here.]Much has been made about Detective Dee being Tsui Hark's return to form after a largely shaky 15 year run of mediocrity.  I must say, he delivers the goods here in a way I was not expecting.  Hark used to be the king of Hong Kong action, with films like The Blade and Peking Opera Blues in his satchel, it used to be that a film with his...

Tonight, you can catch a special free screening of Amélie as part of the Whole Foods Sunset Supper Cinema; seating is limited, and starts around 6:30 pm. I'm seriously thinking of going to try some of the food specials, which include a crème brûlée shake.

Then get a triple-shot of filmmaker Ti West, who's been in town for Fantastic Fest. On Saturday he's doing a Moviemaker Dialogue over at the Afs screening room, on Sunday The Roost and The House of the Devil play Alamo Drafthouse Village, followed by an Afs Best of the Fest screening on Monday of The Innkeepers.

On Tuesday, check out the lastest Essential Cinema screening Peking Opera Blues over at Alamo South Lamar. And apparently Afs is kicking of a new "season pass" option -- Season Pass holders get into the Essential Cinema screenings for free.

Now on to the films opening in Austin today,...

Detective Dee and Mystery of the Phantom Flame is yet another magical adventure from Hong Kong action maestro Tsui Hark (Peking Opera Blues, Seven Swords). The $20-million film was funded entirely in China--as opposed to his old friend John Woo's $80 million Red Cliff, which was backed by a pool of investors from several Asian countries. This entertaining big-scale epic is packed with action and visual effects, including a towering hollow statue that is central to the mystery in the movie. Tsui would like to see more movies like his cross over with American audiences, who seem oddly culturally constrained, he says. "It's always a problem, the culture barrier, which becomes a separating factor, categorizing audiences." He realizes that educating audiences in eastern traditions is ...

There's more than a whiff of Tsui Hark's Peking Opera Blues in Gao Xiaosong's My Kingdom, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Four years in the making, with action choreography from Sammo Hung and a role for the rarely seen Yuen Biao, this could end up being a lot of fun. The producers have assembled a young, attractive cast in the form of Wu Chun, Han Geng and Barbie Hsu and seem determined to underline that this is a film with modern sensibilities, even though it features old school cultural elements like traditional Chinese opera. A fan-subbed version of the film's trailer has popped up online and certainly boasts a colourful blend of operatics and martial arts. Whether it succeeds in being an entertaining...

The lineup of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema's 2011 New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff), which runs July 1 -14, includes 45 features and one short film each from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Among the world premieres are Takashi Miike's Ninja Kids!!! and Eiji Uchida's The Last Days of the World. American premieres include the fest opener, Yoshimasa Ishibashi’s Milocrorze: A Love Story. This year's Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award is going to Hong Kong auteur Tsui Hark (Peking Opera Blues); the Rising Star Award goes to Japanese actor Takayuki Yamadass. More highlights, details and the complete lineup is listed below: In addition, 2011 Nyaff will feature 12 films making their North ...

Updated through 9/21.

"Tsui Hark, who directed about half of the best films of Hong Kong's golden age (Peking Opera Blues, Once Upon a Time in China, Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain) and produced most of the other half (A Better Tomorrow, A Chinese Ghost Story, Iron Monkey), returns in fabulous form with this gorgeous action picture about the intrigue attending the rise of history's first female emperor," writes Time's Richard Corliss. "Detective Dee is the first China-Hong Kong coproduction since Hero to make good on the grand promise of epic entertainment."...

(Finally getting around to a review of this masterpiece for the Twitch archives. With the recent announcement that his forthcoming Chinese Western Let the Bullets Fly will not be coming out any time soon, let's remind ourselves of the film that established Jiang Wen as one of the most accomplished directors working today in the first place.)

Jiang Wen's extraordinary 1994 debut In the Heat of the Sun (literally Days of Lush, Bright Sunshine) is the story of a child growing up in 1970s Beijing during the Cultural Revolution, but it's a dreamy abstract place perpetually awash in baking heat. The plot is a loosely connected series of offhand anecdotes built around the emotional cornerstones of adolescence - acting out, asserting one's identity, celebrating freedom, getting the girl. This is a film about memory, as in the way we remember something versus what actually happened. It's a man's memory of being a boy,...

Let's ease into the new year with a couple of news bites of interest for Asian film fans. First up: the Us distribution front: if you're like me, you'll have trouble naming more than two East Asian pictures that got any kind of theatrical release in the latter half of 2008; I'm remembering only the Japanese drama Love and Honor and Wong Kar Wai's meditative action remix, Ashes of Time Redux. Anything I'm forgetting?

This year, the release calendar looks pretty empty as well. Tokyo!, expected in March, compiles three short films set in the titular city, but only one from an Asian director, the very talented Bong Joon-ho (The Host). So it's welcome news to hear via indieWIRE that Regent Releasing has picked up the drama Departures (Okuribito) for Us release this summer. Directed by Yojiro Takita, the film focuses on a Japanese death custom, specifically, "a professional who cleanses and clothes a body,...