PRE-ORDER: The Cinema of King Hu: Volume Two (1975 - 1983) - 4K UHD + Blu-ray Limited Edition Hardbox + Hardcover Booklet

Chinese cinema would not be the same without the enormous impact of writer and director King Hu. Hu propelled wuxia films into mainstream consciousness by combining his passion for traditional Peking opera and Japanese samurai cinema, ushering in a new era of action filmmaking throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and revolutionising the landscape of genre film for decades to come.

Imprint Asia is thrilled to celebrate King Hu’s transformative work with two volumes exploring the legacy and influence of his extensive filmography. In this second volume, go on a rewarding journey of clashing swords and bewitching fantasy with these five juggernauts:

This Limited Edition 8-disc release is packed with brand NEW and archival Special Features, including an exclusive Bonus Disc, plus a 100-page Hardcover Booklet featuring essays from Ryan Swen, Peter Rist, Michael Berry, and Sean Gilman, all housed in a Lid Hardbox.

Strictly limited to 1,500 copies only.

The Valiant Ones (1975) – Imprint Asia #66

Widely recognised as one of the greatest wuxia films of all time, The Valiant Ones is King Hu’s martial arts epic filled with an “intricate web of betrayals and plots” (film historian Chris Berry), known as the inspiration for Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Set during the Ming Dynasty, China's coastlines are under relentless assault from Japanese pirates. Unable to ignore the crisis any longer, the Emperor dispatches a general to assemble a small band of elite warriors, among them a formidable husband-and-wife sword-fighting duo. But as they close in on their quarry, it becomes clear that the enemy within the court may be as dangerous as any pirate.

Starring Roy Chiao Hung, Hsu Feng, and a young Sammo Hung Ka-bo (who also served as fight choreographer), the film’s original negatives were once thought lost, but were discovered in a film processing lab and gifted to the Hong Kong Film Archive by King Hu himself – used for this magnificent 4K restoration.

Disc One – 4K UHD

Disc Two – Blu-ray

Raining in the Mountain (1979) – Imprint Asia #67

Shot back-to-back with Legend of the Mountain on location in South Korea, Raining in the Mountain is a visually ravishing Buddhist fable from King Hu that combines heist thrills, martial arts action, and spiritual drama, all with a comedic flair.

In a remote Ming Dynasty monastery, an elderly abbot is choosing his successor and invites two powerful outsiders to advise him. Neither has come in good faith, as both plot to steal the monastery's most precious treasure: a handwritten copy of the Mahayana Sutra. As schemes develop and allegiances shift, the labyrinthine monastery corridors become a stage for deception, pursuit, and an increasingly farcical scramble for the sacred scroll.

Starring Hsu Feng (A Touch of Zen), Sun Yueh (City on Fire), and Tung Lin (5 Fingers of Death, Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan), the film was selected as Hong Kong's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and named one of the Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures by the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Special Features & Technical Specifications – Blu-ray

Legend of the Mountain (1979) – Imprint Asia #68

Worldwide First on 4K UHD!

Where Raining in the Mountain is a heist film in Buddhist robes, its companion piece Legend of the Mountain is something altogether stranger and more ethereal – a ghost story of extraordinary beauty, nearly three-and-a-half hours in length.

A mild-mannered Buddhist scholar is tasked with travelling to a remote hilltop monastery to translate a powerful sutra said to have power over the souls of the dead. On his journey, he becomes entangled in a mysterious plot involving witchcraft, demons, and a battle to preserve his own soul from the attacks of the supernatural underworld.

Starring Hsu Feng (A Touch of Zen), Sylvia Chang Ai-chia (Long Day's Journey Into Night), and Shih Chun (Dragon Inn), Legend of the Mountain was based on the classic Chinese ghost story A Cave of Ghosts on the Western Mountain, nominated for Best Feature Film at the Golden Horse Awards, where Hu himself won Best Director.

Disc One – 4K UHD

Disc Two – Blu-ray

The Wheel of Life (1983) – Imprint Asia #69

The Wheel of Life is a Taiwanese anthology film which brings together three of Taiwan's finest directors – King Hu, Lee Hsing, and Pai Ching-Jui – for an interconnected triptych united by the Buddhist concept of reincarnation, following the same three souls across three lifetimes and three very different genres.

King Hu opens the film with a characteristically kinetic Ming Dynasty wuxia tale of renegade swordsmen battling secret police. Lee Hsing follows with a richly atmospheric melodrama set in an early 20th-century opera troupe. Pai Ching-Jui closes with a modern romance between a dancer and a temple medium.

Starring Shih Chun (A Touch of Zen), Peng Hsueh-fen, and Chiang Hou-jen, The Wheel of Life was awarded four-and-a-half stars out of five from EasternKicks.com.

Special Features & Technical Specifications – Blu-ray

All the King’s Men (1983) – Imprint Asia #70

The last film King Hu made in Taiwan before he relocated to California, All the King's Men is a departure from everything that came before it, and a delightful bookend to our two King Hu collections – a mad, dizzyingly complex comedy of manners set in the courts of 10th-century China.

The Emperor is gravely ill, being poisoned slowly by ‘Immortal Li’, a Taoist con artist who has gained his trust. As the court scrambles to find a real physician, a cascade of comic complications follow: to smuggle a doctor, a bribe is needed; to secure the bribe, a painting is required; to get the painting, a princess must sit for a portrait.

Starring Tien Feng (A Better Tomorrow, Fist of Fury), Tang Pao-yun (Execution in Autumn), and Cui Tai-ching (My Father, My Husband, My Son), with an appearance from the great Cheng Pei-pei (Come Drink with Me), All the King’s Men was written by Wu Nien-jen (star of Yi Yi) and is a late-career King Hu gem.

Special Features & Technical Specifications – Blu-ray

Bonus Disc

Hardcover Booklet

An exclusive 100-page hardcover booklet featuring production stills and essays from Ryan Swen, Peter Rist, Michael Berry, and Sean Gilman.

Australian Exclusive Release – Limited to 1,500 Copies.