Blu-ray release: ‘Two Taoist Tales’
By Phil Mills | Jul 17, 2024
Eureka Entertainment are bringing ‘Two Taoist Tales’, a collection of two crazy kung-fu extravaganzas from the Yuen Clan, to US and UK Blu-ray on September 23/24, 2024.
In the wake of ‘Encounter of the Spooky Kind’, the Hong Kong film industry launched headlong into a prolific genre cycle that drew upon Taoist folklore. Popular throughout the 1980s and into the next decade, these films combined elements of horror, fantasy, comedy, and martial arts as they pit their protagonists against hopping vampires, vengeful ghosts, and evil sorcerers. This set contains two of the most mind-bending tales of Taoist magic ever committed to film: ‘Taoism Drunkard’ (鬼馬天師) and ‘The Young Taoism Fighter’ (陰陽奇兵).
Directed by and starring Yuen Cheung-Yan, ‘Taoism Drunkard’ follows a man with a love for wine who accidentally damages a sacred statue. To atone for this blunder, he is asked by an enraged Taoist priest (Hsiao Hou-Tao) to find a virginal boy (Yuen Yat-Chor) to aid in defending his temple from a demonic sorcerer (Yuen Shun-Yi). Then, in ‘The Young Taoism Fighter’ (directed by Chen Chi-Hwa), a practitioner of Taoist kung fu (Yuen Yat-Chor) manages to separate his soul from his body before teaming up with a vengeful young woman (Hilda Liu) to take on a sinister sorcerer (Kwan Chung) and the evil leader of a rival kung fu school (Yen Shi-Kwan).
Features:
• Both films presented in 1080p HD from brand new 2K restorations
• Original Cantonese audio and optional English dub tracks (original mono presentations)
• Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
• New audio commentaries on both films by Frank Djeng
• New audio commentaries on both films by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
• New interview with director and actor Yuen Cheung-yan
• New interview with James Mudge
• Trailers
• Limited edition O-Card slipcase [2000 copies]
• Limited edition collector’s booklet [2000 copies]
‘Two Taoist Tales’ is available to pre-order now from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
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