DVD roundup: Hard Gun with Tony Jaa and Panna, plus Chocolate, Mercury Man, Re-cycle

Hard Gun is another pre-Ong Bak Panna Rittikrai/Tony Jaa effort due out from Brentwood/BCI Eclipse, which earlier released Spirited Killer. Set for release in January, Hard Gun will be issued on both DVD and Blu-ray. It features Tony Jaa in a rare role as a villain, with Panna as the cop chasing him. HK Flix has the DVD and the Blu-ray available for pre-order.

Tasty Thai action choreographed by Panna and his stunt team can be seen in Chocolate, which has hit cinemas in the U.K. in a limited run for before the DVD and Blu-ray release on November 3. Reviews of Chocolate are rolling in, and there have been some advance looks at the DVD. But most importantly for Blu-ray folks is that the Chocolate Blu-ray release is zone-free, according to the DVD Talk forum. Stateside, Chocolate has been picked up by Magnolia, which plans to release the movie next year. So folks in the U.S. without region-free DVD players, who just say no to pirated movies and torrent downloads, will have to wait awhile longer to catch Jeeja Yanin and her chocolate-fueled martial-arts moves.

And from more or less the same action team is Mercury Man, which apparently has been picked up for release in the U.S. by Magnolia -- the new go-to company for Thai action from Sahamongkol. According to Amazon, the Magnolia/Magnet DVD will be released on January 27 and have an optional English dubtrack as well as the original soundtrack and English and Spanish subs. Made in 2006, Mercury Man, has been the subject of new attention after it was screened earlier this month at the Pusan International Film Festival as part of the Superheroes in Asia programme. It had previously been released in the West on a region-free "uncut & unedited" DVD by Bonzai Media, but that now appears to be out of print.

And finally, the Pang Bros.' thriller Re-Cycle, was released on Region 1 DVD and Blu-ray in September. I spotted a review of the disc sometime back on DVD Verdict, which praised the thriller for its loads of eye candy and compelling, tension-filled story. The Blu-ray and regular DVD releases are available at Amazon.


(Thanks Logboy! Chocolate screenshot via DVD Times)