Mortal Kombat 4K (1995) and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation 4K (1997)

“Mortal Kombat!”

With the latest in the franchise only just out of cinemas, Arrow Films are releasing the first two films to bear the name MORTAL KOMBAT in 4K on UHD and Blu-ray with a bunch of extras. Based on a bestselling video game and featuring plenty of martial arts, the question I am best posed to answer here is: can these films be enjoyed by someone who has never played the game and has only a very passing interest in martial arts?

Let’s find out.

Disc One: Mortal Kombat (1995)

In which a group of fighters including Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby), Liu Kang (Robin Shou) and Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson from Bill Malone’s superior HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL remake) are recruited to fight for humanity in a series of tournaments. If they lose some enormously evil Emperor will get to rule our realm. In order to do this the Emperor has to win ten tournaments of which he has won nine so far. Who makes these rules? And what’s to stop him from cheating?

The opening half of MORTAL KOMBAT is actually quite engrossing, with excellent Thailand locations and some impressive sets. The actual main villain seems to be Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) but there’s also a chap with four arms who’s much bigger and taller than anyone but still delights when he wins a fight against someone much smaller than him. 

Our heroes enter the tournament. I think. Because that’s when it all starts to get a bit unclear. However if you’ve paid your money to see lots and lots of fighting then you’ll likely be happy with what you get here. Presiding over everything on the side of good is Raiden (Christopher Lambert) who looks as if he has just stepped out of a shampoo commercial into a gig that probably paid about the same amount of money. It’s all bouncy, energetic stuff with likeable leads and hissable villains - a bit like an Empire Picture but made with a lot more money and in its favour it has to be said that it’s never dull, even if the ending is of the ‘is that it?’ variety.

Extras on Arrow’s disc include two new commentaries from director Paul WS Anderson (who starts by explaining the WS in his name) and podcaster Dave Baxter. There are new interviews with star Ashby (16 minutes), DP John R Leonetti on his career and on becoming a director (16 minutes), producer Lawrence Kasanoff (18 minutes) and special effects artist Tom Woodruff on bringing Goro to life (16 minutes).

Archival extras include a 1995 promotional featurette with most of the main cast and crew (15 minutes), who also feature in a collection of tiny minute-long soundbites. There’s also 13 minutes of behind the scenes footage, a trailer and image gallery.

Disc Two: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

The budget goes up while the quality goes down in this infamously poorly-rated sequel that looks a lot more like an Empire production than its predecessor. We pick up where the previous film left off except Christopher Lambert has been replaced by James Remar and some of the others have been brazenly recast as well, with the film showing us the previous Sonja and then the new Sonja (Sandra Hess) and not caring two hoots that audiences would likely be scratching their heads two minutes in before staring open-mouthed as a major cast member gets killed right away.

If that suggests that MORTAL KOMBAT: ANNIHILATION isn’t fun then far from it. In fact in its own way it’s even more of a blast than the first film. Brian Thompson is the baddie this time around and he embraces his role with all the gusto of Jack Palance in HAWK THE SLAYER and just like that film, this one also deserves a cult all to itself. The plot is bonkers, some of the location shooting is amazing (the city of Petra in Jordan) and the CGI is just one step up from 1990s-era Doom, but the film isn’t dull for a single one of its 95 minutes and some of the scenes are instant ‘show this to your friends the next time they’re round’. I had no idea what was going on much of the time and I still had a blast with it.

Extras this time include a new commentary from director John R Leonetti, prompted by Gillian Wallace Horvat, and another from a returning Dave Baxter. There are new interviews with star Musetta Vander (18 minutes), composer George S Clinton (16 minutes) and stunt man J J Perry (20 minutes), with archival behind the scenes footage (15 minutes) and on-set soundbites (around 10 minutes in all). Plus of course trailers, TV spots and image galleries. Arrow’s limited edition set also comes with a booklet, two double-sided posters and a reversible sleeve.

The Mortal Kombat Kollection is out in limited edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray sets from Arrow Films on Monday 29th June 2026   

The Paper Tigers (2021)

"Endearing Martial Arts Picture With Depth"

Quoc Bao Tran's unexpectedly charming Kung Fu picture gets a digital release from Altitude following its UK premiere at this year's Fighting Spirit Film Festival.

As kids Danny (Alain Uy), Hing (Ron Yuan) and Jim (Mykel Shannon Jenkins) trained in Kung Fu under their master Sifu Cheung (Roger Yuan), eventually as young men becoming skilled enough that he considered them his disciples. Now out of shape and having to deal with chronic injuries and family problems, they learn than Sifu Cheung has been murdered. They set out to find his killer and avenge his death. Unfortunately, they're not quite as fit as they used to be, and the odds look stacked against them.

There's a fair amount of martial arts battling in THE PAPER TIGERS, but it tends to be of a more restrained one-on-one kind than the all-in one-man-fights-an-army shenanigans of many a 1970s Kung Fu exploitationer. In between there are plenty of dialogue scenes and character development and this mix is surprisingly well balanced. While there are moments of humour (and the occasional silly bit), the film as a whole is played seriously and is more about the three men coming to terms with who they are now as opposed to revisiting the glory days of their fighting peak. The three leads work well together and by the end you feel quite endeared to them. In fact it's the kind of film a martial arts movie fan could quite comfortably show to someone who isn't a fan of the genre and maybe even convert them. Not bad at all and well worth a look.

THE PAPER TIGERS is getting a digital release from Altitude on Monday 20th September 2021

Two Films by John Woo (1976 & 1979)

"Two From Woo!"

Eureka are to be commended for bringing out two lesser known 1970s martial arts classics from director John Woo, better known to Western cinema goers for modern classics like 1997's FACE/OFF, A BETTER TOMORROW (1986) and HARD BOILED (1992). So what do we get in this set? 

Hand of Death (1976)

aka SHAO LIN MEN, in which a Shaolin monk (Tao-Liang Tan) is given the task of finding and killing a Manchu warlord (moustache twirling - well he would if it was long enough - James Tien) who is trying to destroy the Shaolin. Aided by Jackie Chan in an early role, our hero has to combat not only the lead villain but Sammo Hung and his bizarre plastic teeth in a movie that is the epitome of kung fu epics of the era.

Which means we get superbly choreographed fight sequences against beautiful scenery. The lead doesn't have that much charisma  and it's a bit slow going at first but HAND OF DEATH builds into great kicking and chopping entertainment.

Extras include a commentary track by martial arts cinema expert Mike Leeder, a whole range of dialogue options including Cantonese, Mandarin, and two different English dialogue dubs. There's also an archival interview with the director.

Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979) 

LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY starts at a wedding where nearly everyone ends up killed after the husband-to-be's arch rival turns up with his army of assassins. It doesn't help that the bride-to-be is in his employ and stabs the groom. The only survivor swears revenge. But he's not the hero of our tale. 

He employs two hired killers, Cheng San (Wei Pei) and the wine guzzling Green Suit (Damian Lau), claiming he needs their help when actually he's manipulating them into storming his enemy's citadel on their own. 

The fairly slight plot is an excuse for some jaw-dropping swordplay and the film as a whole demonstrates how Woo had developed as a film-maker since HAND OF DEATH (which I suggest you watch first). A noticeably bigger budget helps as well. Your ability to suspend disbelief will determine how well you like the climax, though, as it all gets a little over the top. 

Extras include the same number of dialogue options as for HAND OF DEATH, a commentary track from Mike Leeder and Arne Venema, an archival John Woo interview and a trailer. The set also comes with a booklet featuring new writing on both movies by Matthew Thrift.

TWO FILM BY JOHN WOO is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 24th June 2019

Project A & Project A Part II (1983 & 1987)

It's time for some more knockabout martial arts comedy fun as Eureka releases Jackie Chan's colourful period adventure pictures in a special limited edition two-disc hardbound boxed set.

PROJECT A sounds like it might be science fiction, or possibly a political thriller, but in fact it's a pirate adventure set at the turn of the century. (The title was apparently Chan's attempt to stop other studios copying him before his film had been released).

This time, our Jackie is Sergeant Dragon Ma, a member of the Hong Kong Marine Police Force. Pirates have been attacking and raiding ships in the area and it's up to our hero, with the help of Sammo Hung, to get into as many highly (and possibly sometimes dangerously) choreographed fight scenes as possible. For those of you interested in Chan's stunts, this is the one where he pays tribute to silent comedian Harold Lloyd by hanging from a clock before plummeting (several times in the out-takes) to the ground, without the aid of a net but with the aid of some canopies to break his fall.

PROJECT A PART II followed four years later. Dragon Ma is still busy up against pirates, again in lengthy, sometimes breathtakingly choreographed fight scenes. This time we get a tribute to the Marx Brothers' A NIGHT AT THE OPERA and perhaps even more famously, a tribute to the classic scene in Buster Keaton's STEAMBOAT BILL JR where a house falls onto our protagonist and he escapes unscathed. 

Eureka's transfers for PROJECT A PARTS I & II are absolutely gorgeous - bright and colourful, they've done a very fine job indeed with these 2K restorations. Both films have both Cantonese & English dialogue tracks. There's an absolute stack of interviews (ten altogether), some of them new and some archival. You also get an archival featurette, Jackie's introduction to the film for the lunar new year 1984, behind the scenes footage, alternate out-takes from the Japanese version of PROJECT A, behind the scenes footage and deleted scenes. Exclusive to the box set are booklets for each film, featuring both new and archival material.

Jackie Chan's PROJECT A & PROJECT A PART II are out in a limited edition set now. 

Re:Born (2016)

"Lots & Lots & Lots of Fighting"

Yuji Shimomura's stripped down action-packed close-combat picture gets a dual format release from Eureka.

Tak Sagaguchi is Toshiro. When he was a special forces operative, Toshiro was known as "Ghost" for his skill of creeping up on and massacring large numbers of the enemy undetected. Now Toshiro runs a shop and looks after his little niece. 

Unfortunately, one of Toshiro's old buddies (yes the subtitles do use that word), Phantom, has gone over to the dark side, acquired a facial scar, dark glasses, and a veritable army of assassins which he sends to bump off his former colleague. When individual attempts fail, the gang kidnaps Toshiro's niece, at which point he goes on a mass killing rampage (mainly in a forest in a bit that goes on for quite a bit) before the inevitable confrontation with his enemy.

There's a lot of violence in RE:BORN. The press release refers to the fight technique as 'Zero Range Combat' which basically looks like people beating each other up realistically as opposed to perhaps the more balletic, over the top fight choreography of other martial arts movies. If this is your thing you'll love it. If not, you'll be using the fast forward button through the lengthy forest massacre. 

Eureka's Blu-ray is 1080p with a progressive encode on the DVD. The disc comes with a cheerful introduction from the director and leads at the Fighting Spirit Festival, where we get a brief on-stage demonstration of the Zero Range Combat technique. You also get two trailers.

RE:BORN is out from Eureka on dual format Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 12 March 2018

Drunken Master (1978)

“Lots of Fighting & Lots of Silly”

         Yes indeed, if complex and intricate martial arts mixed with the pratfalls, gurning and silly voices of a typical British sitcom are what you want then DRUNKEN MASTER, Jackie Chan’s second breakthrough picture (following on from the same year’s SNAKE IN EAGLE’S SHADOW) is going to be just the thing for you. Eureka are bringing it out in a dual format Blu-ray and DVD release.

         Chan plays Wong Fei-Hung, (or ‘Freddie’ in the English dub), who keeps getting himself into all kinds of trouble. As punishment, his father sends him to train for a year under the auspices of martial arts master (and wine enthusiast) Su Hua Chi (Yuen Siu-tien). 

         Soon Fei-Hung is being put through the kind of training montage that would become de rigeur for these sorts of pictures but which was still pretty original back in 1978. Eventually Su teaches him the Way of the Eight Drunken Gods, and like the Oliver Reed of martial arts that he (sort of) is, he shows Fei-Hung that you have to be a bit pissed to be able to do it properly.

         Meanwhile, just as we’re beginning to wonder what all that stuff at the beginning has to do with this film, in which villainous assassin-for-hire Thunderleg (Jang Lee Hwang) has a dual to the death with his latest target, up he pops to give Fei-Hung a good slapping, before being given his latest commission - to bump off our hero’s father! Cue more training followed by intricately choreographed, well-shot, brightly lit smackdown in an attractive rural area. The End.

         If you can put up with the silly bits (and be warned there are a lot of them) DRUNKEN MASTER deserves its reputation as a great martial arts film and a fabulous showcase for the unique talents of its rising star. Chan is never less than likeable, and Yuen Siu-Tien is enjoyably crazy as his mentor.
         Eureka’s disc comes with some decent extras, including Cantonese, Mandarin and English dialogue tracks. The Cantonese is probably the best, while the English certainly adds to the feeling that this was made on a planet where they only have an approximate idea of how people speak and act. There’s also a 2002 commentary track with Ric Meyers and Jeff Yang. Check out the subtitle options, because while one is exactly what you might expect, the other gives you the kind of poorly translated (and utterly hilarious) experience you might have enjoyed on DRUNKEN MASTER's original release in the Westerm world.

    There are some good video interviews with Jackie Chan and director Yuen Woo-Ping, and good video appreciations by Gareth THE RAID Evans and Tony Rayns. Finally, if you’re like me and don’t know an awful lot about this subgenre of cinema, Michael Brooke supplies an excellent essay in the accompanying booklet that helps contextualise DRUNKEN MASTER in the history of Hong Kong cinema. A great package.



 

DRUNKEN MASTER is out from Eureka in a dual format edition on Monday 24th April 2017