Rio Lobo and Shogun’s Samurai on blu-ray from Eureka in November
Eureka Entertainment has announced the November release of two films by acclaimed filmmakers from both East and West on Limited Edition blu-ray in the shape of Howard Hawks’ classic western Rio Lobo and Fukusaku Kinji’s chanbara thriller Shogun’s Samurai. Details below.
RIO LOBO (USA 1970)
Blu-ray | 17 November 2025 | RRP: £22.99 | Eureka store pre-order price £17.99
Rio Lobo is the last film by Howard Hawks, a titan of American cinema and the director of a litany of undisputed classics, including Scarface, Only Angels Have Wings, The Big Sleep and Monkey Business. Like his previous films Red River, The Big Sky and Rio Bravo, it is an ode to the Old West – a staunchly traditionalist tale of the frontier led by the genre’s biggest star, John Wayne.
Wayne stars as Colonel Cord McNally of the Union army, who loses a close friend during a raid on a Union payroll train carried out by a group of Confederates under the leadership of Captain Pierre Cordana (Jorge Rivero) and Sergeant Tuscarora Phillips (Christopher Mitchum). McNally suspects that he and his men were betrayed by traitors within the Union, setting in motion a quest for revenge that will continue even after the Civil War is over – and which will bring McNally into a bitter conflict with ruthless landowner Ketcham (Victor French) and “Blue Tom” Hendricks (Mike Henry), the corrupt sheriff of Rio Lobo, Texas.
By 1970, the Western genre was rapidly changing. In America, Revisionist Westerns – typified by the likes of The Wild Bunch, Little Big Man and Soldier Blue – were questioning the established mythology of the West, while Italy’s morally grey Spaghetti Westerns were at the height of their international popularity. Meanwhile, Rio Lobo stood firm in tradition as Hawks’ final Western – and now joins the Masters of Cinema series.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- Limited Edition [2000 copies]
- Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork Colin Murdoch
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on Rio Lobo by film writer and critic Richard Combs
- 1080p HD presentation from a restoration by Paramount Pictures
- Original English mono audio
- Optional DTS HD-MA 5.1 audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Back to the Old West – new interview on Rio Lobo with Western scholar Austin Fisher, author of Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western
- Directed and Produced by Howard Hawks – new interview with film historian Sheldon Hall on Rio Lobo and Hawksian cinema
- Original theatrical trailer
All extras subject to change
SHOGUN’S SAMURAI [YAGYŪ ICHIZOKU NO INBŌ] (Japan 1978)
Blu-ray | 17 November 2025 | RRP: £22.99 | Eureka store pre-order price £17.99
Shogun’s Samurai – also known as The Yagyu Clan Conspiracy – is one of Fukasaku Kinji’s most revered forays into the chanbara or samurai genre: a twisting tale of political intrigue and bloody betrayal starring Yorozuya Kinnosuke (The Fall of Ako Castle), Matsukata Hiroki (Battles Without Honor and Humanity) and the incomparable Chiba Shinichi, aka “Sonny” Chiba (The Street Fighter) in its lead roles.
During the Edo period, shogun Hidetada Tokugawa is killed, poisoned by an unknown assailant. In the aftermath of his death, a vicious power struggle breaks out between his two sons Tadanaga (Saigo Teruhiko) and Iemitsu (Matsukata), who is suspected of having arranged his father’s murder. As the conflict between the two brothers intensifies and their father’s former allies are forced to choose sides, samurai Munenori Yagyu (Yorozuya) and his own sons Jubei (Chiba) and Munefuyu (Kudo Kentaro) become embroiled in the conflict until it reaches its bitter end.
Featuring Chiba’s first portrayal of the legendary samurai Jubei Mitsuyoshi Yagyu (a character he would later return to in Fukasaku’s Samurai Reincarnation), Shogun’s Samurai stands with The Fall of Ako Castleas one of its director’s finest and most accomplished samurai epics. The Masters of Cinema Series is presenting this landmark chanbara film on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- Limited edition [2000 copies]
- Limited O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by John Dunn strictly exclusive to this edition only
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by on the film by Jonathan Clements
- 1080p HD presentation from a 4K restoration by Toei
- Uncompressed original Japanese mono audio
- Optional English subtitles, newly revised for this release
- Echoes of the Present: Kinji Fukasaku’s Jidaigeki Cinema – new video essay by Japanese cinema expert Joe Hickinbottom
- Original theatrical trailer
All extras subject to change