The Blade, Trouble in Paradise and Gilda from Criterion UK in April
Spirit Entertainment has revealed that the Criterion Collection UK releases for April 2026 will be director Tsui Hark’s tour de force of action expressionism The Blade, Ernst Lubitsch’s delightfully risqué example comic-romantic sophistication Trouble in Paradise, and Rita Hayworth in her most iconic role in Charles Vidor’s Gilda. All three titles will be released as 4K UHD/Blu-ray editions. Full details below.
THE BLADE [DAO] (Hong Kong/China 1995)
UHD + Blu-ray | 13 April 2026 | Pre-order price £29.99
Among the boldest accomplishments of Hong Kong cinema’s golden age, this uniquely visceral martial-arts movie puts a gritty new spin on the story of the one-armed swordsman, an iconic figure from the moment he was introduced by the Shaw Brothers studio in 1967. Composed in a whirlwind of immersive close-ups and fractured editing, The Blade follows the young sword-maker Ding On (Vincent Zhao), who, after losing an arm in an ambush, transforms himself into a furious avenger.
With its intentionally disorienting stylization and starkly brutal tone, The Blade was a rare commercial disappointment for Tsui Hark, but it has since been reclaimed as one of the director’s most radical visions—a tour de force of action expressionism, and a scathing reappraisal of the wuxia genre’s code of masculinity, that achieves a feverish intensity.
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New audio commentary featuring Hong Kong cinema expert and producer Frank Djeng
- Action et vérité (2006), a documentary featuring director Tsui Hark, coscreenwriter Koan Hui, and actor Xiong Xin-xin
- New video essay by filmmakers Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou (Every Frame a Painting)
- New York Asian Film Festival Q&A with Tsui from 2011
- Alternate English-dubbed track
- International-version opening and end credits
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by author Lisa Morton
TROUBLE IN PARADISE (USA 1932)
UHD + Blu-ray | 20 April 2026 | Pre-order price £29.99
Ernst Lubitsch’s famed touch is on exquisite display in this sexy pre-Code jewel, glittering with witty innuendo and elegant comic invention. It’s love at first swindle when high-society thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) and pickpocket Lily Vautier (Miriam Hopkins) cross paths amid the canals of Venice while attempting to con each other—and then it’s off to Paris, where the pair meet their match in their latest mark, the très chic Madame Colet (Kay Francis), whose fabulous fortune is exceeded only by her powers of seduction.
With its delightfully risqué dialogue, swoonworthy couture, and high deco style, Trouble in Paradise is a pinnacle of comic-romantic sophistication that fizzes like the finest champagne.
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring Scott Eyman, biographer of director Ernst Lubitsch
- Introduction by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
- New video essay by critic David Cairns
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme
GILDA (USA 1946)
UHD + Blu-ray | 20 April 2026 | Pre-order price £29.99
“Gilda, are you decent?” Rita Hayworth tosses her hair back and slyly responds, “Me?” in one of the great star entrances in movie history. Gilda, directed by Charles Vidor, features a sultry Hayworth in her most iconic role, as the much-lusted-after wife of a criminal kingpin (George Macready), as well as the former flame of his bitter henchman (Glenn Ford), and she drives them both mad with desire and jealousy.
An ever-shifting battle of the sexes set on a Buenos Aires casino’s glittering floor and in its shadowy back rooms, Gilda is among the most sensual of all Hollywood noirs.
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary by film critic Richard Schickel
- Interview with film-noir historian Eddie Muller
- Program featuring filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann discussing their appreciation for Gilda
- “The Odyssey of Rita Hayworth,” a 1964 episode of the television show Hollywood and the Stars
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Plus: An essay by critic Sheila O’Malley
- Cover by Jessica Hische and Eric Skillman