British label, Eureka Entertainment, is releasing director King Hu’s Raining in the Mountain (1979) on a 2K restoration Blu-ray.

Set in a remote Buddhist monastery in 16th Century China, Raining in the Mountain deals with a power struggle that ensues when the Abbot of the Three Treasures Temple announces his imminent retirement.

The aging Abbot invites three outsiders to advise him on the critical choice of appointing his successor: Esquire Wen, a wealthy patron of the monastery, General Wang, commander-in-chief of the local military, and Wu Wai, a respected lay Buddhist master. Within the monastery, several disciples aspiring to the position begin to collude individually with Esquire Wen and General Wang.

But these two invited advisers have come with seditious intent, scheming to obtain the priceless scroll housed in the monastery: the scriptural text of “The Mahayana Sutra,” hand-copied by Tripitaka. Meanwhile, convicted criminal Chiu Ming has arrived at the monastery to atone as a monk. He is assigned to safeguard the scroll at the house of scriptures and encounters thieving rivals White Fox who poses as Esquire Wen’s concubine and General Wang’s fearsome Lieutenant Chang, who originally framed Chiu Ming for the crime he did not commit.

Selected as one of the Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures by the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2005, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present King Hu’s Raining in the Mountain on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time in the UK, from a new 2K restoration completed in 2018 by the Taiwan Film Institute.

Also, see King Hu’s Dragon Inn (1967, Criterion Collection)

Release date: February 24, 2020

Genre: Martial Arts / Action

Disc and film details

Director: King Hu

Cast: Feng Hsu, Yueh Sun, Chun Shih

Country: Taiwan

Production Year: 1979

Discs: 1 Blu-ray Disc + 1 DVD

Region: B

Run Time: 121 minutes

Formats: Color; 2.39:1

Audio: Mandarin

Subtitle: Optional English

AKA: Kong shan ling yu

Studio: Eureka Entertainment (UK)

Special features

1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray

5.1 DTS-HD MA and uncompressed LPCM 2.0 audio options

Optional English subtitles

Brand new audio commentary with film historians Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan (Daughters of Darkness podcast)

Audio commentary with director Joe Begos and actress Dora Madison

Audio Commentary by director Joe Begos, producer Josh Ethier, and the Russell FX team

Trailer

Limited Edition O Card slipcase with a silver laminate finish

Limited Edition Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas; and an interview with writer/director Joe Begos

Raining in the Mountain (1979) trailer