Triple Threat: Three Films with Sammo Hung (Hong Kong, 1974-1990, Eureka! Classics, 3 Blu-rays, NR, 277 min.). Two of the three films in this collection – “The Manchu Boxer” and “Shanghai, Shanghai” – are presented in two cuts, with the international ones being slightly longer. The third film – the best – is the comedy “Paper Marriage.”

Sammo Hung is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist and filmmaker, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema and comedy films, and as a fight choreographer for actors Kim Tai-chung, Jackie XChan, Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah. Hung was one of the pivotal figures who spearheaded the Hong Kong New Wave movement of the 1980s, helped reinvent the martial arts genre. He is widely credited with assisting many of his compatriots, giving them their starts in the Hong Kong film industry by casting them in the films he produced or giving them roles in the production crew.

Hung joined the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School in Hong Kong in 1961. Hung became the foremost member of the Seven Little Fortunes, which also included Yuen Lo (later known as Jackie Chan) and Yuen Biao. The three made six films together, starting with “Project A” in 1983. The others were “Winners and Sinners” (1983), “Wheels on Meals” (1984), “My Lucky Stars” (1985), “Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars” (1985) and “Dragons Forever” (1988).

“The Machu Boxer” (1974, 86 min.) was one of 11 films Hung appeared in 1974. In this one, he, as usual, served as fight choreographer, but also had a small role as Japanese bad guy Gang Kan, who was hired along with Kyo Ban (Wilson Tong) to take out would-be competitors in the seven-provinces martial arts tournament.

The film, directed by Wu Ma, centers around Ku Ru-Zhang (Anthony Lua Wing aka Tony Liu) who gets into a brutal fight and, while defending himself, winds up killing his opponent with just his hand. His father, seeking to protect his son, exiles Ku, without explaining why he was doing so. Feeling regret, Ku promises never to use his fighting skills again. While on the road, Ku befriends a sickly thief named Shen, despite having been attacked by him. Shen was only stealing so that he could support his family. After Shen dies from his illness, Ku tracks down Shen’s widow and orphaned daughter, falsely claiming he owed Shen 300 yen, which he proceeds to earn by working construction in their town.

The martial arts tournament is announced by evil martial arts master Chin (Kim Ki-Joo), who wants to win the contest at any cost. Chin has his two Japanese hires take out anyone he thinks might get in his way. Ku finally relents to fight again, after a local fighter who befriended him is killed.

Overall, the film is not too thrilling. Only the final fight between Ku and Chin is real interesting. Extras include audio commentary by East Asia cinema expert Frank Djeng and martial artist/filmmaker Michael Worth. All three films also come with an English dub option. Grade: film 2.25 stars; extras 2 stars

“Paper Marriage” (1988, 92 min.). In this comedy, directed by Alfred Cheung, Hung has a starring role as Bo Ching, a broke guy with ex-wife support payments and debt collectors out for his blood. To raise cash, he agrees to a paper marriage with Jade Li (Maggie Cheung of “In the Mood for Love,” “Hero,” “Comrades: Almost a Love Story”), who has just come to Los Angeles. She enters the marriage arrangement to earn her green card. She plans to divorce Bo after two years and then marry Peter (director Cheung), her real boyfriend.

Jade Li gives Peter the money for the fake marriage, but then he disappears, so the newlyweds have to come up with money. Jade Li tries mud wrestling in a bar, which is slightly funny, while Bo goes to the local university as a test subject. There Bo finds himself subjected to painful acupuncture in the wrong places, before being accidentally electrocuted. (He later returns for two more rounds of different testing.) Bo next enters an underground boxing match, which he wins, but he then is forced to fight his ex-wife’s (Joyce Godenzi, who later became Sammo Hung’s real wife) boyfriend.

The debt collectors eventually catch up with Bo, but Jade Li has found a carrying case of money outside the house. Jade Li is taken and Bo must exchange the money for her at the mall. It is here that most of the action takes place, with several good fights and big fall stunts. In an extra, we learn that Hung was very afraid to go down the long water chute. It is at the mall that the film really comes to life.

Extras include audio commentary by genre cinema experts Arne Venema and Dominie Ting; and a new interview, in English, with director Cheung (21:32). Much of the film, including the mall scenes, were filmed in Edmonton, Canada. Grade: film 3 stars; extras 2.5 stars

“Shanghai, Shanghai” (1990, 87 min.). This film, directed by Teddy Robin Kwan, stars Yuen Biao as Little Tiger, who arrives in 1930s Shanghai, hoping to make it big. He first tries to visit his military officer brother Big Tiger (George Lam of “Boat People”) at the British military compound, but he gets on the wrong transport and finds himself with a group of thugs who are about to set fire to the home of mob boss Dai, kill him and steal some money.

Little Tiger thwarts this, then befriends a group of acrobats, including Ah Ho, whom he becomes fond of. When he defends them against another gangster named Daring Keung and kills him, Little Tiger is asked by Daring and Dai’s boss Chin Hung-Yun (Sammo Hung) to work for him as a boss. Meanwhile Chin’s goddaughter Mary Sung (Anita Mui) arrives in town. She not only has a secret agenda, but she is Big Tiger’s ex-girlfriend, which could be a problem as he also loves Ting-Ting, who is engaged to Big Tiger’s superior, General William Pottinger.

The film emphasizes fighting much less than usual, being a bit more a historical film, with $5 million in revolutionary funds going missing. There are some nice acrobatic stunts and Yuen is at his most likable as the hero. Yuen even gets to fight Mui while dancing with her. Some humor comes in with the inventions Big Tiger creates, with one helping out in the climax. Hung, other than a closing fight with Yuen, has very little to do in the film.

The extra is audio commentary by Djeng and producer/writer F.J. DeSanto. Grade: film 2.5 stars; extra 2 stars

The set, limited to 2,000 copies, also comes with a bonus disc that has new 2K restorations of the extended international versions of “The Manchu Boxer” (92 min.) and “Shanghai, Shanghai” (93 min.). There also is a booklet with new writing on Hung by film critic James Oliver. Extras: 2.75 stars

Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it

Rosa (Hong Kong, 1986, 88 Films, Blu-ray, NR, 96 min.). Yuen Biao delivers an energetic performance in this action-packed blend of material arts, comedy and romance. He plays rookie cop “Little Monster” Ha. After a botched assignment – Ha is sent in to take a suspect’s weapons, only to have his own gun stolen, which results in supervisor Paul Tien (Paul Chun) being demoted -- Ha is partnered with hot-tempered officer Lui Gung (Lowell Lo) on a high-stakes case to find a missing police informant. Their only lead is Rosa (Lu Hsiao-Fen), the informant’s girlfriend. Lui had upset Tien by hitting his wife’s car, forcing her to delivery her baby a month early.

In one of the comic scenes, Tien makes Ha and Lui fall from a balcony to recreate a death scene.

Rosa, who likes to gamble, has debt problems, which she tries to pass off onto Ha and Lui, but they end up helping her anyway, including pretending to be mobsters in a comic scene that turns into a brawl. There is more humor in the final fights, with Ha’s taking place in a meat factory’s refrigerated storage, while Lui battles among the hanging meat.

The film is full of witty banter, some good stunts and heartfelt drama. The film comes with two audio commentaries: one by Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto; and one by David West. Also, there is an interview with director Joe Cheung and assistant director Benz Kong (23:23); English opening and closing titles; an image gallery (2:14); a premium art card; and 40-page perfect-bound book with new writing on the film by Fraser Elliott and Paul Bramhall, plus many photos. Grade: film and extras 3 stars

88 Films also is releasing “Saga of the Phoenix” (1989), also starring Yuen Biao, on Dec. 16. It arrived too late for this column, but will be reviewed later this month.

The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 91 min.). The film features the second pairing of James Cagney and Bette Davis, after “Jimmy the Gent” in 1934. The screwball comedy has Cagney as charter pilot Steve Collins, while Davis is Texas oil heiress Joan Winfield, who has just agreed to marry nightclub singer/band leader Allen Brice (Jack Carson of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Arsenic and Old Lace”), whose romantic talk mostly consists of song lyrics.

Gossip radio reporter Tommy Keenan (Stuart Erwin of “After Office Hours”) pushes them to elope to Las Vegas and get married immediately, instead of waiting three days as per California law, so he will have a main news story for his nightly broadcast. He rents Collins’ plane to fly the three of them to Las Vegas. However, Collins, hearing Winfield is an oil heiress, and knowing he needs $1,100 to forestall his plane being confiscated, calls her father (Eugene Pallette of “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” as Lucius K. Winfield) and agrees to fly Joan to Amarillo, Texas instead, where dad will meet her. He agrees to fly her for $10 per pound, as if she were freight.

Everything is going according to Collins’ plan until passenger Joan, who offered $6,000 by check for him to go return to Los Angeles, tries to parachute out of the plane – she has it on backwards by the way – and causes the plane to crash in the desert. Sort of lucky, there is a ghost town nearby, only inhabited by Pop Tolliver (Harry Davenport of “Gone with the Wind,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Meet Me in St. Louis”).

Despite being 90 miles from Las Vegas and no way of getting there other than walking, Joan tries to escape, eventually hiding in the abandoned mine. Collins finds her, but she causes a cave-in. When Collins finds a back way out that leads to Tolliver’s basement, he does not tell Joan, and they begin to get close while “trapped.”

This all leads to a hectic finale, after everyone finally shows up at the ghost town, which is in California, but Collins and Tolliver pretend is in Nevada. George Tobias (“Sergeant York”) plays Collins’ airport assistant, William Frawley (TV’s “I Love Lucy”) plays L.A. Sheriff McGee who has been sent to arrest Collins for non-payment, and William Hopper (TV’s “Perry Mason”) plays Keenan’s pilot.

Extras include “Warner Night at the Movies 1941,” which includes a newsreel, musical shorts “Carnival of Rhythm” (17:52) and the Oscar-nominated “Forty Boys and a Song” (10:13), and cartoons “Porky’s Pooch,” “Rhapsody in Rivets” and “Saddle Silly.” There also is the Lux Radio Theater version (59:28) with Bob Hope and Hedy Lamarr. Grade: film 3.25 stars; extras 2.75 stars

At the Circus (1939, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 87 min.). This was the ninth of the 10 movies starring the Marx Brothers. Chico Marx plays Antonio who helps out at Wilson’s Wonder Circus, while Harpo Marx is Punchy, who helps out strongman Goliath (Nat Pendleton of “The Thin Man”) in his act, but accidently fires a cannonball into his butt. The circus is owned by Jeff Wilson (Kenny Baker of “The Harvey Girls,” “Hit Parade of 1941”), but he is in dire financial straits, about to lose the circus to John Carter (James Burke of “The Maltese Falcon,” “All through the night”) unless he can pay back a $10,000 loan.

Wilson actually has come up with the money through show receipts, but Carter gets Goliath to steal the money during the train ride to the next performance location.

Meanwhile, Antonio has hired, via telephone, Attorney Loophole (Groucho Marx), who is on the lam from the law. After an absurd situation of trying to get on the train through Antonio without a badge, Loophole sings “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady” and then tries solving the theft. That includes a hilarious scene when Loophole tried to steal back the money from Carter’s associate, aerial acrobat Peerless Pauline (Eve Arden of “Grease,” “Anatomy of a Murder,” TV’s “Our Miss Brooks”), who takes it back from Loophole and hides the cash in her bosom. The opposing pair also get to walk on the ceiling.

Also helping Carter is Little Professor Atom (Jerry Marin of “House”), who lives in a small room that is continually disrupted by Punchy’s sneezes. Then there is Gibraltar the Gorilla (Charles Gemora), who plays a large role in the “high” stakes circus finale, which occurs at the estate of Mrs. Dukesbury (Marx Brothers’ regular Margaret Dumont).

The film has songs with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, who also wrote the music for “The Wizard of Oz.” Chico is used in a long musical number that includes a large African American singing group, otherwise not seen in the film.

Extras include the Our Gang comedy “Short Dog Daze” (10:37) and the cartoon “Jitterbug Follies” (8:45). There also is an audio “Leo Is on the Air” radio promo. Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 2 stars

I Love You Again (1940, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 99 min.). After their highly successful “Thin Man” films, William Powell and Myrna Loy collaborated again as a married couple in this amusing and unique film.

Powell plays a dual role, but is the same person. On a ship cruise, he is teetotaler Larry Wilson – he only drinks grape juice at the bar – who rescues inebriated fellow passenger “Doc” Ryan (Frank McHugh of “The Roaring Twenties,” “All Through the Night”) after he falls overboard into the ocean. In the process, Wilson awakes, but as confidence man George Carey, who has had amnesia for nine years.

He still thinks he was on a train, carrying $10,000 to bet on a boxing match. Instead, he learns that, as Wilson, he has become the manager of a small-town pottery works, joined the Elks and many other clubs, and married Kay (Loy). He also believes, falsely, that he is wealthy. It is fun seeing Carey trying to fake his way through stuff he should know, like when he and Ryan set off a burglar alarm at the pottery factory or when he is leading a boy scouting group.

Ryan tags along because he is a con artist as well, and they both get involved in running a fake oil scam with Duke Sheldon (Edmund Lowe of “Chandu the Magician”).

Carey also learns that there is trouble in his three-year marriage to beautiful Kay, as they have been sleeping in separate bedrooms for a year. He does his best to correct the situation, but she is puzzled as he acts the opposite of how her staid, penny-pinching husband did.

Extras include the Lux Radio Theater broadcast of the story with Loy and Cary Grant (59:45); the James A. Fitzpatrick travelogue “Cavalcade of San Francisco” (8:53); and the cartoon “The Milky Way” (8 min.). Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 2 stars

Ted Lasso: The Richmond Way (2020-2023, Warner Bros., 8 4K Ultra HD discs, NR, 1,453 min.). The set contains the first three seasons –a fourth season started filming last summer – of the heartwarming and critically-acclaimed comedy series that sees an American college football coach hired to manage AFC Richmond, a reeling British soccer team that faces regulation or ouster from the Premier League. (While soccer is referred to as football in the rest of the world, I’ll be sticking to “soccer” here.)

This upgrade to 4K Ultra HD was released Dec. 2. The show has 34 episodes and each season has its own case. The 4K transfer is spectacular. Mastered in Dolby Vision, the show looks better than ever, with rich colors and natural skin tones. The finer details, such as the texture of AFC Richmond’s kits or the lush green of the pitch, are crystal clear. The high dynamic range brings out subtle nuances in both bright and shadowy scenes.

Jason Sudeikis (TV’s “Saturday Night Live”) stars as Ted Lasso, who brings with him Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), humor, heart and hope, as well as daily home-made biscuits for club owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham of “The Fall Guy”), who has taken over ownership during a bitter divorce from her rich, but unfaithful husband, Rupert Mannion (Anthony Head of TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”). Unbeknownst to Lasso, Waddingham and her Director of Football Operations, Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift of TV’s “Downton Abbey”), are out to sabotage the team, starting with Lasso’s hire, as she wants to “burn this club to the ground” as she believes the club was the only thing her ex-husband truly loved.

Lasso quickly makes an ally in club kitman Nathan Shelley (Nick Mohammed of “The Martian”) because he says no one else has ever remembered his name. Nathan also eventually offers some solid soccer plays. Prominent team members, whom Lasso struggles to connect with in his nice, usually gentle way, include young, egotistical top player Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster); team captain Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein of “Thor: Love and Thunder”), who is an aging former star striker; and exuberant young newcomer Dani Rojas (Cristo Fernandez, a real former soccer player).

Other key characters are Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) as Tartt’s girlfriend and Trent Crimm (James Lance) as a reporter whose accompanying Lasso for a profile is one of the nicest episodes. Yes, nice is an adjective one can apply often to this series as Lasso’s coaching is not about wins and losses, but to have the young players be the best versions of themselves, both on and off the field.

In addition to starring in the show, Sudeikis and Hunt co-created the show with Joe Kelly (writer for TV’s “How I Met Your Mother,” “Saturday Night Live”) and Bill Lawrence (producer/showrunner for TV’s “Scrubs,” “Cougar Town”). The show has won 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, out of 61 nominations, with wins including Best Comedy Series in both 2021 and 2022, with Sudeikis winning Lead Actor in a Comedy Series both years as well. Goldstein also won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 2021. Grade: series 3.5 stars