Three and Three...Extremes (2002 & 2004)

Arrow are releasing a double disc Blu-ray set of producer Peter Ho-Sun Chan's two Asian horror anthology pictures, both of which contain work by some of the most famous directors working in that part of the world. But before we get started, let's clear up what might be a little confusion. THREE EXTREMES was released first by Tartan DVD in the UK, with its predecessor THREE then being released as THREE EXTREMES 2, so if you're wondering where the 'sequel' to THREE EXTREMES is in this set it's here under the correct title. OK - now let's take a look at what we get:

Disc One: Three (2002)

THREE, as the title suggests, offers us three short (ish) stories over a two hours running time. These consist of Memories directed by Kim Jee-woon (A TALE OF TWO SISTERS) in which a woman wakes up in the road with no memory of how she got there. Meanwhile a man consults a psychiatrist because his wife has seemingly left him but he has no memory of it. It's not difficult to guess how these tie together but the appeal of Memories is in an execution which offers us some atmospheric compositions and an excellent music score by Byung-woo Lee. 

        Second is The Wheel, a slightly confusing tale from Thai director Nonzee Nimibutr. Puppeteer Master Tao is dying and asks that his beloved puppets be destroyed,. They aren't of course, and this leads to all manner of mayhem and murder. A jealousy subplot is shoehorned in and by the end it's still not terribly clear why or how the puppets have caused the mayhem that has ensued. 

        Last is Peter Ho-Sun Chan's Going Home, which is essentially a love story told within the exceedingly grim environs of a tower block due to be demolished.

New extras include new interviews with Peter Ho-Sun Chan (20 minutes), Kim Jee-woon (15 minutes) and Memories DP Hong Kyoung-pyo (6 minutes). Archival material includes two more interviews with Chan (55 minutes in all), Kim Jee-woon (16 minutes) and Going Home star Eugenia Yuan (12 minutes). There's also a 16 minute making of.

Disc Two: Three...Extremes (2004)

THREE was so successful that Peter Ho-Sun Chan was able to attract even bigger Asian talent for this sequel. Fruit Chan's Dumplings offers a unique and delightfully disgusting take on youth treatments, Park Chan-Wook (OLDBOY, THE HANDMAIDEN) gives us Cut, in which a film director is terrorised by an insane actor who has wired his wife up to a piano with every intention of cutting off her fingers, and Takashi Miike concludes the film with Box, a tale about a stage show featuring two young sister contortionists and a jealousy that leads to something horrible. 

Extras include new interviews with Peter Ho-Sun Chan (16 minutes), Fruit Chan (a whopping career-spanning 43 minutes) and Takashi Miike (18 minutes) as well as archival interviews with Fruit Chan (15 minutes), Dumplings star Bai Ling (19 minutes) and three makings of for Dumplings (15 minutes), Cut (21 minutes) and Box (18 minutes). Those who still have their old Tartan DVDs may want to hang onto them as the feature length version of Dumplings isn't included here. There's also the usual booklet, double-sided poster and sleeve.

THREE and THREE...EXTREMES are out in a double disc Blu-ray set from Arrow Films on Monday 20th October 2025

The Driver (2020)

New Thai-shot zombie picture THE DRIVER gets a digital and DVD release from Lionsgate UK.

There's been a zombie apocalypse. Somewhere in Thailand survivors have banded together to build a community walled in with the usual wooden fencing, barbed wire and watchtowers. Bandits attack and the place is destroyed. The camp's security chief is known in the credits only as The Driver (Mark Dacascos) presumably because one of his jobs is driving those found guilty of crimes within the commune out to a gut-munching death. He survives, as does his daughter, and together they set off in his car to look for legendary zombie-free paradise Haven.

The premise plus the poster art suggests we should be in for 1971's VANISHING POINT with zombies (and wouldn't that be great?) or something along the lines of a Brian Trenchard-Smith 1980s Ozsploitation road movie (which would also be marvellous). Imagine it - a known action star (Mark Dacascos from JOHN WICK 3) in the lead, tearing down the highway running down zombies and being beset by MAD MAX-style marauders as explosions risk him and his little girl ending up being blasted into the tarmac.

But oh dear it's not. For a movie with that title THE DRIVER completely wastes its central idea, taking ages to get to the road bit of the story and then it's the same bit of road (or at least it looks like it from the scenery) over and over again combined with lots of safe careful driving. Then The Driver teaches his daughter how to drive. No montage, no clips, no hair-raising episodes, and it's all done in real time. He does the same with teaching her how to shoot. Aside from the attack on the compound it's all so dull, filmed with the air of someone who doesn't care & just wants to fill 90 minutes. The only extra is a 12 minute making of.  

Now here's the interesting part. Apparently this is the third part of a trilogy. The first, DEAD EARTH (retitled from TWO OF US) has yet to see a UK release, and the second hasn't actually been shot yet. One begins to suspect the thought processes of a Thai Richard Driscoll at work here. Expect THE DRIVER to turn up under a different title at some point, possibly with new footage edited in to make it better. Except it won't be.

THE DRIVER is out from Lionsgate UK on Digital Download on Monday 12th October 2020 and DVD on Monday 19th October 2020