Well Go U.S.A.'s The Chef, The Actor, The Scoundrel On June 24; Suspect On July 22

With director/producer John Stockwell’s Kid Cannabis in place for a DVD and Blu-ray push on July 8, Well Go U.S.A. has bracketed that early July street date with two new thrillers from the Far East.

Added to the release calendar on June 24 are DVD and Blu-ray editions of writer/director Guan Hu’s acclaimed World War II action/comedy, The Chef, The Actor, The Scoundrel (in Mandarin with English subtitles).

Pi Zi/The Scoundrel (Huang Bo) is a wheeler-dealer in Japanese-occupied Beijing (circa 1941), who quite by accident captures two Japanese bio-terror scientists and plans on holding them for ransom — he imagines a large payout.  

It’s a simple plan, but the wheels quickly come off when he finds himself and his hostages trapped in a restaurant run by Chu (Liu Ye), his wife (Liang Jing) and part-time actor/restaurant worker Xi/The Actor (Zhang Hanyu).   With the help of his new friends Pi Zi soon discovers that the two scientists are worth far more for the cure to the cholera epidemic that they possess … but how to get the information from them, that’s the trick!!!  

An elaborate “Kabuki–style” charade unfolds (think: a life-and-death version of Andy Hardy and Judy Garland putting on a show) as the trio have to outwit the scientists and what seems to be the entire Japanese army to find the cure, collect their booty … and, oh yes, stay alive!

Jumping to the other side of the Kid Cannabis window we find writer/director Won Shin-yun’s Korean-language import, Suspect, hitting retail venues on July 22 as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings.

Suspect is an all-out, no-holds-barred action thriller — guns, cars and hand-to-hand combat!  So buckle up and hang on tight!

Ji Dong-chul (Gong Yoo — Silenced, She’s On Duty, etc.) is a former operative from North Korea who lost his wife and daughter (murdered) and escaped south.   That’s the quickie backstory.   

Instead of working his skills for the South Korean government, he has taken a job as a chauffeur, which gives him the cover necessary to track down those who were responsible for the murder of his family.  

One of his clients has been helping him, but when he ends up murdered all arrows point to Ji … he’s being set-up and both the good guys and the bad guys are suddenly hot on this tail.   From this starting point Suspect just rips along (Ji Dong-chul is sort of like Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive … everyone is after him).

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report