Crime, action & melodrama are at the heart of Eureka’s June 2022 line-up

Eureka! has announced its June 2022 line-up today. Featured amongst this announcement are a masterpiece from the Godfather of Taiwan Cinema, one of the first psychologically driven films of the gangster genre, plus a 2K restoration of one of the best and most important works of martial arts cinema.

The films of director Lee Hsing combined Western realism with the neo-Confucian ideals advocated by the nationalist government in Taiwan. Director of a number of masterpieces, the film he considered his personal favourite of all his films—and certainly his most successful—Execution in Autumn comes to Blu-ray for the first time ever as part of the Masters of Cinema series, in time for its 50th anniversary. The first print-run of 2000 copies will feature a Limited-Edition O-card Slipcase, and will be released on the 20 June.

While under contract at Universal Studios, Tod Browning crafted a series of melodramas with strong female protagonists, women on the wrong side of the law, who stood defiantly against the men who tried to control them. No actress better personified this tough, glamorous anti-hero than Priscilla Dean (Drifting, White Tiger). Outside the Law was Browning’s second film with actor Lon Chaney, whose gifts for elaborate makeup and ruthless villainy would flower under Browning’s direction, setting the stage for a series of monstrous characterisations that would revolutionise the melodrama and lay the foundations of the American horror film. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Outside the Law from a 4K restoration for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK on 13 June.

After his work directing the action sequences for King Hu’s Palme D’or winning A Touch of Zen, Sammo Hung worked with director Huang Feng (Lady Whirlwind, Hapkido) on a series of martial arts masterpieces which continuously broke new ground for action cinema, the culmination of which was The Shaolin Plot. After the release of this film, Sammo (who also has one of his first major acting roles here, playing a deadly monk with an unusual choice of weaponry) began his own career as a director and would play a huge role in the “Golden Age” of Hong Kong cinema – an era which revolutionised action filmmaking around the world.  On home video for the first time in the UK from a new 2K restoration, Eureka Classics is proud to present a towering classic that deserves to be recognised as one of the best and most important works of martial arts cinema. Available on Blu-ray from 20 June 2022, the first print run of 2000 copies will feature a Limited-Edition O-card Slipcase and Collectors Booklet.