What do you do when Queen Elizabeth II pays a ceremonial visit to your capital city? That’s right, capture as much cheeky footage as possible and then weave it into a haywire action-filled crime-adventure starring one-time James Bond actor, George Lazenby – and the result will be A Queen’s Ransom, available now on Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment.
International criminals are contracted by an Irish Republican, George (Lazenby) to assassinate the Queen during her state visit to Hong Kong, taking of advantage of a strained police force due to a refugee crisis.
A Queen’s Ransom follows many of the same beats as your typical espionage plot as seen in many Western titles, but the high energy of Hong Kong cinema and perhaps an element of broken translation, eventuating in a genre piece that sprints through its 96-minute runtime.
Meeting our cast of characters is among the most entertaining portions of the film. Lazenby and his Chinese co-star, Jimmy Wang Yu, chew up the scenery and give off major ‘pimp daddy’ vibes, but despite their shared screen-hogging, the remaining crew and resident moll, played by Judith Brown, bring a lot of variety. Bolo Yeung is even among the hit squad and he’s absolutely iconique with his casual fashion style combined with those signature giant arms. He’s the team’s “prominent killer” to quote his dossier, and to his credit, Bolo is still very intimidating while wearing a straw hat.
While the climax to A Queen’s Ransom may be a forgone collusion to most, especially since Her Majesty only passed away two years ago, the film’s audacious premise certainly does keep you wondering if they’ll indeed pull the trigger so to speak. There’s heavy use of real-life footage of the Queen and her royal entourage along with archival footage, which gives the impression the feature itself was made on the fly or mostly improvised, yet the story structure is well thought out. Probably more than it needed to be.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling [2000 copies]
- 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the original Hong Kong theatrical cut from a brand new 2K restoration
- 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the original English language export cut from a brand new 2K restoration
- Original Mandarin and optional classic English dub (Hong Kong theatrical cut)
- Classic English dub (Export version)
- Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
- Brand new audio commentary on the Hong Kong theatrical version by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
- Brand new audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
- Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork
- Trailers
- A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by James Oliver [2000 copies]
Collectors of Eureka’s extensive Asian cinema catalogue will find it no surprise that this release of A Queen’s Ransom comes with two commentary tracks from the pairing of Frank Djeng and Michael Worth and Mike Leeder and Arne Venema, respectively. As usual, both groups of film enthusiasts are a joy to listen to and share an extensive knowledge of the time period, and the backgrounds of those involved with the movie’s production. Michael Worth also contributes a 15-minute interview, this disc’s sole featurette, where he discuses George Lazenby who he helped train for a film later in the actor’s post-HK career. – by Hannah Lynch
VIDEO AND AUDIO
Eureka’s HD presentations rarely disappoint, and A Queen’s Ransom – which comes from a new 2K restoration is no exception. Despite a slight milky and washed-out quality to the 2.35:1 image, it’s still very sharp with beautiful colours that complement the Asian setting.
Mandarin and English LPCM Mono do not differ in quality, although the English dub is a little jarring at first, but I recommend the original track for authenticity’s sake. The audio itself is rather flat despite the variety of sound effects that were passed around to just about every martial arts movie in the 70s, but everything comes in loud and clear.
If you like other east-meets-west actioners from the era like Slaughter in San Francisco and The Man from Hong Kong you’ll find the same energy and style with A Queen’s Ransom, which is a very entertaining film in its own right, further enhanced by the passing of time.
A QUEEN’S RANSOM
(1976, Director: Shan-Hsi Ting)
★★★★½
direct blu-ray screen captures
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