The Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema, Chang Cheh, had a career that spanned from the wuxia films of the 1960s to the martial arts movies of the 1970s, encompassing a wide range of other genres.

The Magnificent Trio (1966): Starring Jimmy Wang Yu as swordsman Lu Fang, Lo Lieh as Yen Tzu-ching and Cheng Lui as Huang Liang, this is the story of, well, three badass swordsmen who decide to help farmers against the rich people oppressing them.

A remake of Hideo Gosha’s Three Outlaw Samurai, set in the Ming Dynasty instead of Japan, this film features farmers kidnapping Wei Wen-chen, the magistrate’s daughter, in the hope of securing a ransom to feed their children. As for her father, Magistrate Wei, he keeps the poverty of his people a secret from the Emperor, taxing and beating them into submission.

Lu Feng is everything you want in a wuxia hero. To keep the farmers from being arrested, he agrees to take a hundred lashes, passing out from the pain. Man, the things he does to keep these people safe.

Magnificent Wanderers (1977): Nomads Lin Shao You (Fu Sheng), Shi Da Yong (Chi Kuan-chun), and Guan Fei (Li Yi-min) battle the Mongols in this kung fu epic. It’s also a comedy, as the three engage in a fortune-telling scam before meeting wealthy man Chu Tie Xia (David Chiang), who claims they are friends.

However, there’s no real story here; the Mongols are comical morons instead of frightening monsters and I never expect Cheh to do comedy. Working with Wu Ma, there is some action here. I also dig that Chiang’s character has a bow that shoots arrows of gold.

Even if this is a misstep, a year later, Cheh will make The Five Venoms.

This 88 Films set is a limited edition of 2000 copies. It has a limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré; 1080p HD presentations on Blu-ray from masters supplied by Celestial Pictures; audio commentary on The Magnificent Trio by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and martial artist and filmmaker Michael Worth; audio commentary on Magnificent Wanderers by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema; a video essay by Gary Bettinson, editor-in-chief of Asian Cinema Journal and a limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on Chang Cheh by writer and critic James Oliver. You can get these films from MVD.

Bensoussan (Richard Anconina) is a drug dealer, but really, he’s small-time. When the cops are on his trail, he hides in a gas station and ends up befriending the night manager, Lambert (Coluche), a bitter old man who finds hope and seeks to redeem the younger criminal.

However, debts and bad decisions lead to Bensoussan being murdered while Lambert can only watch, helpless. As he goes for revenge, he becomes close with his dead friend’s girlfriend, Lola (Agnès Soral) and explains how he was once a cop until his son got into drugs, just like Bensoussan. And much like his lost young buddy, his son was killed by his habit.

Nobody is getting out of this alive, but maybe there can be some payback. And perhaps a tiny living before the bullets hit.

Coluche was going through a divorce and a drug habit of his own when he made this. He felt responsible for the suicide of his friend Patrick Dewaere, so his emotional performance comes not just from his acting ability but from his life.

The Radiance Films Blu-ray release of this movie has a 4K restoration by Pathé approved by cinematographer Bruno Nuytten. It also includes extras, such as Once Upon a Time… Tchao Pantin is a documentary film featuring interviews with writer-director Claude Berri, novelist Alain Page, stars Richard Anconina, Mahmoud Zemmouri, Agnès Soral, cinematographer Bruno Nyutten, and others. There’s a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista, as well as a limited-edition booklet featuring new writing by Manuela Lazic. It’s a limited Edition of 3,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with an emovable OBI strip, leaving the packaging free of certificates and markings. You can get it from MVD.

Returning from a ten-year prison sentence, gang leader Gunji (Koji Tsuruta) learns that his territory is now owned by a former enemy who only appears to be a legitimate business. Instead of staying, he and his crew head off to Okinawa.

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku, this finds a proud yakuza learning that his men are now gambling addicts working minimum wage jobs, a far cry from the lawless world he was once part of. Now, there are corporate gangs, big-time operations that have no time for rough individualists like Gunji, who, like the cowboys of the West, are doomed to not fade away but to go out of this world in a violent hail of bullets.

The Radiance Films Blu-ray release of this movie has extras including audio commentary by yakuza film expert Nathan Stuart; an interview with Fukasaku biographer Olivier Hadouchi; a visual essay on Okinawa on screen by film historian and author Aaron Gerow; a trailer; a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow and a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Bastian Meiresonne and an archival review of the film. It’s a limited Edition of 3,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with a removable OBI strip, leaving the packaging free of certificates and markings. You can order the film from MVD.

Georgis (Ugo Tognazzi) has been taken by secret agents, The Investigator (Michel Piccoli) and The Manager (Mario Adolf), as they believe that he’s part of the underground. Sent to Greece to be interrogated, He remains quiet, as he’s trapped in what most people only see in movies, accused of crimes that he knows nothing about, much less has committed.

Directed by Peter Fleischmann, this feels like a nightmare out of Kafka. This has always been my worry: being trapped far from home, unsure why I’m in trouble, and wondering if I’ll ever get out. It’s tense and well-acted; yet another movie Radiance has brought to my attention that I’d not have watched otherwise.

The Radiance Films Blu-ray release of this film has a new 4K restoration from the original negative by Studio Canal. Extras include an audio commentary by critic Travis Woods, an archival TV interview with Michel Piccoli, a feature with soundtrack expert Lovely Jon discussing the Ennio Morricone score, a reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters, and a limited-edition booklet featuring new writing by Kat Ellinger. It’s a limited edition of 3,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with a removable OBI strip, allowing the packaging to remain free of certificates and markings. You can get it from MVD.

A loose remake of Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye and Visconti’s Death in Venice, this is about private eye and part-time blues singer BJ (Yusaku Matsuda), who is blamed for the death of his police detective best friend. Struggling to clear his name all on his own, he makes his way through a violent world of gangsters, bad cops and the underground gay and biker scenes of Tokyo.

Directed by Eichii Kudo, this neo-noir is one weird and wild movie, an unexpected detective story set in early 80s Japan, a time when the country was at the height of its financial power. It’s filled with neon and too many cigarettes; it’s also wonderful.

The Radiance Films Blu-ray release marks the world premiere of this film on Blu-ray. Extras include interviews with star Mari Hemmi, screenwriter Shoichi Maruyama and writer and Yokohama expert Toru Sano; a trailer; a reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters and a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Dimitri Ianni on Toei Central Film, a subsidiary of Toei studios famed for releasing Pink Films and independent productions such as Yokohama BJ Blues and an archival review of the film. This is a limited edition of 3,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with a removable OBI strip, allowing the packaging to remain free of certificates and markings. You can order this from MVD.

Aida (Claudia Cardinale) shows up at the door of Marcello, the rich man she’s fallen for, only to have it slammed in her face. Yet the man’s brother, Lorenzo (Jacques Perrin), despite being dispatched to get rid of her, immediately falls for her. However, their worlds are so far apart, and she has already become an adult, a woman with a child, while he’s still a teenager.

Director Valerio Zurlini also made The Camp Followers, Black Jesus and Violent Summer.  In 2008, this film was included in the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s list of 100 Italian films to be saved, a selection of movies that have “changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978.”

Cardinale would go on to appear in 8 1/2, The Pink Panther, Once Upon a Time in the West, Blonde in Black Leather, The Immortal Bachelor, Goodbye & Amen, Fitzcarraldo , and so many more wonderful movies.

The Radiance Films Blu-ray release features a 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative, created by the Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with Camelia and Titanus. Extras include interviews with assistant director Piero Schivazappa, screenwriter Piero De Bernardi and film critic Bruno Torri; a video essay by Kat Ellinger; a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista and a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Giuliana Minghelli and an overview of the US critical reception by Cullen Callagher. This is a limited edition of 3,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with a removable OBI strip, leaving the packaging free of certificates and markings. You can get it from MVD.

The editor of a sports magazine is trying to transform fashion model Reiko (Yoko Shiraki) into a professional golfer, while retaining all the rights to her image. Despite that, she becomes a big star after winning her first tournament. Yet a hit-and-run accident leads to her being blackmailed by an obsessed stalker, Kayo.

After being blacklisted for a decade, this was director Seijun Suzuki’s comeback film. He had been told that his “…films were incomprehensible, that they did not make any money and that Suzuki might as well give up his career as a director as he would not be making films for any other companies.” This led to a lawsuit that lasted three and a half years and barely generated any financial gain for him, despite his victory. His biggest concern was that Nikkatsu, the studio where he worked, would hold all of his films forever, never allowing them to be released.

Written by manga illustrator Ikki Kajiwara, this story revolves around a woman who is seemingly gifted everything to become a star, yet remains unaware of how the machinations of fame will ultimately ruin any hope of an everyday life. It’s not the sports story that you expect.

The Radiance Films Blu-ray release of this film has extras such as audio commentary by critic and author Samm Deighan, a new interview with editor Kunihiko Ukai, a trailers, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Smith and a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Jasper Sharp and an archival review of the film. It’s a limited edition of 3,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with a removable OBI strip, allowing the packaging to remain free of certificates and markings. You can order this movie from MVD.

Nino (Giuliano Gemma) was once a car thief, but now he’s gone legit, running a coffee business to support his wife, Lucia (Eleonora Giorgi), and their children. Yet somehow — and by accident — he’s ended up on the kill list of Antonio (Michele Placido).

Directed by Damiano Damiani, this isn’t a poliziotteschi with a hard cop fighting against horrible criminals. Instead, it’s a somewhat ordinary man being hunted for reasons he doesn’t understand, but knows that he’s back in a world that he thought he’d never be part of again. Can he stay alive, protect his family and keep his personal code of honor? Will Antonio be his enemy, his friend, his killer or something else? So many questions, but all answered so perfectly by this film.

The Radiance Films Blu-ray release features a new 4K restoration from the original negative and extras such as archival interviews with stars Giuliano Gemma, Tano Cimarosa and assistant director Mino Giarda; a new interview with Alberto Pezzotta, author of Regia Damiano Damiani; a trailer; a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista and a booklet featuring new writing by Roberto Curti. It is available in a limited edition of 3,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with a removable OBI strip, allowing the packaging to remain free of certificates and markings. You can get it from MVD.

Black marketeer Ueda (Hiroki Matsukata) gets revenge on those who stole a pound of his morphine, but gets arrested and charged with murder. Looking at twenty years in prison, he keeps escaping, over and over again, just like the true story this was based on, as that man ran seven times.

I’m struck by the fact that we know the protagonist of director Sadao Nakajima is a bad person, yet prison and confinement are horrible for everyone and should build empathy within us — or at least, that’s the intention. The first of a jailhouse trilogy of films, along with Shimane Prison Riot and The Man Who Shot the Don, this is a tough movie about rough men, including one who wants to be free, no matter what it takes.

The Radiance Films Blu-ray — the first Western release of this movie — has extras including commentary by yakuza film expert Nathan Stuart, a visual essay on Sadao Nakajima by Tom Mes, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista and a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Earl Jackson and an archival review of the film. It’s a limited edition of 3,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with a removable OBI strip, leaving the packaging free of certificates and markings. You can get it from MVD.