Step right up folks! The midway is hot with attractions!
That’s the carnival-like
atmosphere that Well Go U.S.A. has planned for the month of August. Every single street-date Tuesday during the
month (all four of them) are booked with new Blu-ray and DVD releases.
Yowser! Yowser!
Yowser! Step right up folks and let the
festivities begin.
First up is the Aug. 6
DVD and Blu-ray debut of the all-action mixed martial arts thriller, The
King of the Streets (in Mandarin, with English subtitles).
This is “old school”
chop-socky action as newcomer Yue Song (who also co-directed and is a real-life
MMA fighter) plays the roll of street punk Feng, who is an undisciplined,
unschooled brawler who accidently kills an opponent as a teenager and served an
eight-year prison jolt.
He looks to
make amends for his past, but quickly runs afoul of the local underworld … the
only thing he knows is to fight! And
fight … and fight … and fight he does against ten of the world’s best MMA
contenders!
Up next and streeting on
Aug. 13 is lavish period piece (Qing Dynasty) from filmmaker Andrew Lau (aka:
Andrew Lau Wai-Keung), The Guillotines (also in Mandarin
with English subtitles, plus Well Go U.S.A. has included an English dubbed
version as well).
Emperor Yong Zheng (Lau
in a bit of cameo) created a secret “hit” squad of assassins known as the
Guillotines; ruthless and effective killers.
But their days are numbered as a new emperor has ascended to the throne
and is looking to the West for new ideas.
These Guillotines are
nevertheless an effect killing force — having never failed a mission — so they
are “repurposed” by the new ruler to serve his needs. Loyal to the core, the five warriors that
comprise the Guillotines soon realize that they have become expendable and must
not only fight those they’ve been assigned to eliminate, but take on the secret
police that look to replace them.
Shifting to Aug. 20, we
find writer/director Yim Ho’s Hong Kong-based historical drama, Floating
City. In Cantonese with English
subtitles.
While Aaron Kwok (Divergence,
Til
Death Do Us Part, After This Our Exile, etc.) shines
as Bo Wah Chuen, a mixed-race descendent of Tanka fishermen (literally living
on junks in the harbor of Hong Kong and neighboring Macau), who rises to the
position of Taipan within the British East India Company, this fascinating
drama is really about the city of Hong Kong and how it became such an economic
power.
Despite all of his power
— and the trappings and privileges that go with it — Bo Wah Chuen remains
conflicted throughout. There’s that
“why me” question asked time and again.
Closing out the month on
the run up to the Labor Day weekend is the Aug. 27 Blu-ray and DVD release
South Korean filmmaker Lim Sang-Yoon’s A Company Man. In Korean with English subtitles.
Hyeong-do (So Ji-sub — Rough
Cut) is seemingly a low-level businessman in a mega corporation. He’s just another white collar worker
filling a niche, but not is all as it seems.
He is actually a trained
hitman, who does “assignments” on order and then goes back to his seemingly
normal routine.
This could go on forever
— a nice career — but Hyeong-do falls in love with a woman — worse yet, she’s
married — named Su-yeon (Lee Mi-yeon — Typhoon, Addicted) and decides to
call it a day. Silly boy … hitmen don’t
resign from the company!
To download this week's
complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report