US viewers can watch this outstanding recent Donnie Yen movie (full title Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen) for free courtesy of the good folks at Well Go USA.
I'm not sure if I've seen Yen's fists faster, and I defy you to not smile at the Bruce Lee homage.
Another Asian home video release from this week that I recommend highly is Hur Jin-ho's adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons, which sets the story in 1930s Shanghai. It's a Chinese production with a Korean director and male lead opposite two major Chinese actresses.
An historical aside: China is just on the verge of war with Japan over the The Manchurian Incident, an event that is examined briefly at the beginning of the sixth installment of Discovering Ozu.
The production design and cinematography are gorgeous, and the performances are stellar all around. The Blu-ray runs $20 and it's also rentable on iTunes at the standard $3/$5 SD/HD rate.
I went nuts for The Thieves when I saw it last year, to the point that I promoted and hosted a Tugg On-Demand screening of it here in Austin. The trailer makes it look like an Ocean's Eleven (2001) ripoff, but it isn't, setting aside the fact that they borrow some music and style cues for the heist portion of the movie. About 80 minutes in, it spins into a Hong Kong action caper.
The Thieves was the biggest box office hit in South Korea's history, it has a Korean/Hong Kong hybrid cast to die for, and it's probably not on the radar of most. It's one of my go-to blind recommendations at the moment.
It's now on Blu-ray for a mere $13 (the cost of a single ticket to the movies in many areas), and you can rent it in iTunes now as well ($3/$5 for SD/HD).
