Blu-ray Film Review | Eureka

The Bells of Death (1968) • Limited Edition Blu-ray [Eureka] — dark dynamic revenge tale grounded in visceral physicality

A woodcutter’s family is killed by psychotic marauders, so he undertakes martial arts training and sets out to exact revenge on the evildoers.

A lesser-known early example of wuxia cinema from the legendary Shaw Brothers studios, The Bells of Death / Duo hun ling has been historically underseen and underrated. Now this new Limited Edition Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment will give it a long-overdue chance to reach a fresh audience and be welcomed by aficionados of Hong Kong martial arts films.

Although wuxia is perhaps the oldest genre in existence, the so-called ‘New Wuxia Revival’ gained momentum in the mid-1960s which, ironically, coincided with its suppression in mainland China during the Cultural Revolution. King Hu’s Come Drink with Me (1966) was at the vanguard, but it was his follow-up Dragon Inn (1967) along with Chang Cheh’s One-Armed Swordsman (1967) that cemented wuxia’s…