Masters of Cinema | Cagey Films

Recent Asian releases from Eureka

Posted on August 2, 2023July 29, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

Disillusioned Christians Shiro Amakusa (Kenji Sawada) and Hosokawa Gracia (Akiko Kana) return from the dead to seek revenge in Kenji Fukasaku's Samurai Reincarnation (1981)

Eureka, and their specialty label Masters of Cinema, continue to release a range of Asian films, from pulp action to classical tragedy. Among recent releases are a two-disk set of four sequels to Rickay Lau’s Mr. Vampire (1985), Cynthia Rothrock’s first lead role in Mang Hoi & Corey Yuen’s Lady Reporter (1989), and a pair of very different samurai epics: Tadashi Imai’s bleak dissection of the Bushido code in Revenge (1964) and Kenji Fukasaku’s mix of history and supernatural horror in Samurao Reincarnation (1981).

Chinese action and fantasy from Eureka

Posted on February 24, 2021December 25, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Yuen Wah as the distinctive Chinese hopping vampire in Ricky Lau's Mr. Vampire (1985)

Recent releases from Eureka/Masters of Cinema showcase a range of Chinese martial arts movies, from Sammo Hung’s traditional The Iron-Fisted Monk (1977) to Tsui Hark’s genre redefining Once Upon a Time in China trilogy (1991-92) to Ricky Lau’s horror-comedy Mr. Vampire (1985) and Ronny Yu’s visually ravishing fantasy The Bride With White Hair (1993).

Ishiro Honda: Masters of Cinema

Posted on December 12, 2020March 26, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

A seaman transformed by radiation in Ishiro Honda's The H-Man (1958)

Eureka’s Masters of Cinema honour Japanese filmmaker Ishiro Honda with two new releases, one showcasing one of his most appealing kaiju eiga – Mothra (1961) – the other a two-disk set of a pair of lesser-known movies – The H-Man (1958) and Battle in Outer Space (1960).

Exiles at war

Posted on October 14, 2020March 23, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Erich von Stroheim exudes egotistical confidence as Field Marshall Erwin Rommel in Billy Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo (1943)

Two German emigre directors avoid Hollywood war movie cliches in a pair of Blu-rays from Masters of Cinema: Fritz Lang’s anti-nuclear Cloak and Dagger (1946) and Billy Wilder’s suspenseful character drama Five Graves to Cairo (1943).

Two swansongs

Posted on September 2, 2020March 24, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Nothing goes right on board Stan's inherited yacht in Leo Joannon's Atoll K (1960)

A pair of Blu-rays from England showcase the final works of major artists who were considered at the time to be in decline: Laurel and Hardy’s last feature, Atoll K (dir. Leo Joannon, 1951) is a bittersweet mess which captures the Boys’ enduring charm while making their mortality all too clear, while Fritz Lang’s The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) comes full circle by reviving his Weimar criminal mastermind in a Cold War context which paved the way for James Bond’s high-tech thrills.

A frustrating evening

Posted on July 22, 2020April 3, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Michael (Hywel Bennett) can't avoid the distrust, even contempt, of Ellie (Hayley Mills)'s relatives in Sidney Gilliat's Endless Night (1972)

When my friend Howard came over for an evening of movie-watching recently, we ended up with a highly idiosyncratic double-bill of problematic features, one representing self-conscious art, the other polished commercial craft – neither entirely satisfying: Josej Von Sternberg’s The Saga of Anatahan (1953) and Sidney Gilliat’s Endless Night (1972).

Art and action in the films of King Hu

Posted on May 27, 2020December 10, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Esquire Wen (Sun Yueh), White Fox (Hsu Feng) and Gold Lock (Ming Chai-wu) make their way to the temple in King Hu's Raining in the Mountain (1979)

New restorations of movies from early and late in the career of King Hu reconfirm his influential position in Chinese cinema as a master of martial arts and swordplay films: action and poetry blend seamlessly in Come Drink With Me (1966), The Fate of Lee Khan (1973) and Raining in the Mountain (1979).

Looking back …

Posted on January 15, 2020September 14, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

A summer camp trick goes wrong in the prologue of Tony Maylam's slasher The Burning (1980)

A lot of my recent viewing has been catching up on a range of movies from the ’60s through the ’80s, some of which I saw when they were first released, while others weren’t accessible to me at the time. These include some foreign classics … and quite a bit of trash.

Miscellaneous viewing – Summer 2019

Posted on July 3, 2019September 24, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Rancher Blaise Starrett (Robert Ryan) is cautious with Jack Bruhn (Burl Ives) and his violent gang in Andre de Toth's Day of the Outlaw (1959)

Recent viewing includes a stark western (compared to the work of Dreyer by Bertrand Tavernier), an entertaining adventure souffle from frequent collaborators John Huston and Humphrey Bogart, and a ground-breaking satirical drama from Robert Aldrich which dealt sympathetically with lesbianism in the late 1960s.

The storytelling art of Sadao Yamanaka

Posted on June 13, 2018December 10, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

For the underclass, the world grows increasingly dark in Sadao Yamanaka's Kôchiyama Sôshun (1936)

Film history is full of lost movies and forgotten filmmakers, but the case of Sadao Yamanaka is one of the saddest; a brilliant director in 1930s Japan, he died young and all but three of his twenty-seven features are lost. The three that remain are all great works of narrative art.

Tag: Masters of Cinema