On May 9, Arrow Video releases Hand of Death, the only Jackie Chan performance directed by John Woo, and an important early collaboration with Sammo Hung, on Blu-ray in a new 2K restoration. Yun Fei (Tan Tao-Liang) sets out for vengeance after thousands of his fellow Shaolin practitioners are hunted down and killed by Shih Shao-Feng (James Tien), Tu Ching (Sammo Hung) Shih’s vicious lieutenant, and their army.

Photo: Hand of Death (1976)

Yun Fei teams with a blacksmith (Jackie Chan) and a swordsman (Yang Wei) to face unsurmountable odds. The Blu-ray edition features a new audio commentary by martial arts cinema experts Frank Djeng & Michael Worth; From Hong Kong to Hollywood, an archive featurette on John Woo’s early career; archival interviews with star Tan Tao-Liang and Sammo Hung; an alternate credits sequence, Countdown to Kung Fu; a Trailer gallery; an Image gallery; a double-sided fold-out poster and a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch.

Next on May 30th, the ‘80s classic The Last Starfighter is released on 4K UHD, newly restored from a 4K scan of the original negative and featuring a 4.1 mix originally created for the film’s 70mm release – never included on previous home video formats. Alex Rogan (Lance Guess) dreams of something bigger than his current existence.

Photo: The Last Starfighter (1984)

He gets more than he bargained for when he breaks the record on The Last Starfighter video game and is recruited by the Star League to defend the universe against Xur and the Kordan Armada.

Alex and pilot Grig (Dan O’Herlihy), armed with the “last” Starfighter, are all that stand between the villainous Xur and domination. The 4K UHD edition features audio commentaries with star Lance Guest and his son Jackson Guest, Mike White of The Projection Booth podcast, and director Nick Castle and production designer Ron Cobb; interviews with actor Catherine Mary Stewart, composer Craig Safan, screenwriter Jonathan Betuel, special effects supervisor Kevin Pike, sci-fi author Greg Bear, and arcade game collector Estil Vance on reconstructing the Starfighter game; Heroes of the Screen, an archival featurette; Crossing the Frontier: The Making of The Last Starfighter, an archival 4-part documentary; Image galleries; Theatrical and teaser Trailers; a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Ferguson.

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