The Blood of Fu Manchu – Blue Underground (4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Spain/West Germany/UK/USA, 1968
Director: Jesús Franco
Writers: Peter Welbeck, Manfred R. Köhler, Jesús Franco
Cast: Christopher Lee, Tsai Chin, Maria Rohm, Howard Marion-Crawford, Richard Greene, Shirley Eaton

Release Date: July 29th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 93 Minutes 36 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $49.95

The Blood of Fu Manchu: "From his secret lair deep within the South American jungle, international super-villain Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee of The Man with the Golden Gun) and his sadistic daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin of You Only Live Twice) reveal their latest diabolical plot for world domination: ten beautiful women are infected with an ancient poison so deadly that one kiss from their lips will bring instant death and lead to a global plague. Now the Asian madman's nemesis, Nayland Smith (Richard Greene of Tales from the Crypt), must desperately hunt an antidote in a savage land where rape and torture reign and the ultimate evil lies in The Blood of Fu Manchu." - synopsis provided by the distributor

The Castle of Fu Manchu – Blue Underground (4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Spain/West Germany/UK/USA, 1968
Director: Jesús Franco
Writers: Peter Welbeck, Manfred R. Köhler, Jesús Franco
Cast: Christopher Lee, Tsai Chin, Maria Rohm, Howard Marion-Crawford, Richard Greene, Shirley Eaton

Release Date: July 29th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 91 Minutes 54 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $49.95

The Castle of Fu Manchu: "Christopher Lee (The Lord of the Rings) returns as the diabolical super-villain who, along with his sadistic daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin of Casino Royale), creates a fiendish new chemical weapon that will turn the seas into a giant block of ice. But when his archenemy Nayland Smith (Richard Greene of The Adventures of Robin Hood) tracks the madman's trail of kidnapping, murder and massive global destruction, he himself becomes trapped in Fu Manchu's impenetrable lair of cruelty. Can any of the world's top-secret agents (including a wild performance by Jess Franco) now stop the cold-blooded terror that lives in The Castle of Fu Manchu?" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5 (4K UHD - The Blood of Fu Manchu, 4K UHD - The Castle of Fu Manchu), 4.25/5 (Blu-ray - The Blood of Fu Manchu, Blu-ray - The Castle of Fu Manchu)

Here’s the information provided about The Blood of Fu Manchu's transfer, "a brand-new 4K restoration from its uncut original camera negative, complete with additional scenes of nudity and violence in Dolby Vision HDR!"

The Blood of Fu Manchu comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 55.5 GB

Feature: 52.5 GB

The source is in excellent shape; colors are nicely saturated, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image looks organic.

The Blood of Fu Manchu comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 40.2 GB

Feature: 21.4 GB

This Blu-ray uses the same master that is used for the 4K UHD disc, and it is a massive improvement over Blue Underground’s 2017 Blu-ray release.

Here’s the information provided about The Castle of Fu Manchu's transfer, "a brand-new 4K restoration from its uncut original camera negative, complete with additional scenes of nudity and violence in Dolby Vision HDR!"

The Castle of Fu Manchu comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 52.2 GB

Feature: 49.8 GB

The source is in excellent shape; colors are nicely saturated, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image looks organic.

The Castle of Fu Manchu comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 38.4 GB

Feature: 21.8 GB

This Blu-ray uses the same master that is used for the 4K UHD disc, and it is a massive improvement over Blue Underground’s 2017 Blu-ray release.

Audio: 4.5/5 (DTS-HD Mono English - The Blood of Fu Manchu, DTS-HD Mono English - The Castle of Fu Manchu)

Each film comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in English. Both audio tracks are in excellent shape; dialog comes through clearly, and everything sounds balanced and robust when it should. Included are removable English SDH and French and Spanish subtitles.

Extras:

Extras on The Blood of Fu Manchu’s 4K UHD disc include an international theatrical trailer (3 minutes, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), U.S. theatrical trailer (1 minute 41 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), and an audio commentary with film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson.

Extras on The Blood of Fu Manchu’s Blu-ray disc include an international theatrical trailer (3 minutes, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), U.S. theatrical trailer (1 minute 41 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a poster & still gallery (172 images), an archival featurette titled The Rise of Fu Manchu, featuring director Jess Franco, producer Harry Alan Towers, Christopher Lee, Tsai Chin, and Shirley Eaton (15 minutes 5 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and French with removable English subtitles), an interview with Stephen Thrower, author of Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco, titled Sanguine-Stained Celluloid (27 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson, and RiffTrax edition - The Blood of Fu Manchu riffed Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy (76 minutes 37 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles).

Extras on The Castle of Fu Manchu’s 4K UHD disc include an international theatrical trailer (3 minutes, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles) and an audio commentary with Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson.

Extras on The Castle of Fu Manchu’s Blu-ray disc include an international theatrical trailer (3 minutes, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a poster & still gallery (129 images), an archival featurette titled The Fall of Fu Manchu, featuring director Jess Franco, producer Harry Alan Towers, Christopher Lee, Tsai Chin (14 minutes 1 second, Dolby Digital stereo English and French with removable English subtitles), an interview with Stephen Thrower, author of Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco, titled Castle of Carnage (21 minutes 25 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson, and RiffTrax edition - The Castle of Fu Manchu riffed Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy (75 minutes 5 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles).

Each film comes with reversible cover art and a slipcover (limited to the first pressing).

Summary:

Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu is a popular fictional character that’s been adapted for radio, television, and film. Fu Manchu made its film debut in a pair of British series made in 1923, The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu and The Further Mysteries of Fu Manchu, made in 1924. The first feature film adaptation would not come until 1929, when Warner Oland would take on the role of the fiendish Dr. Fu Manchu in the film The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu.

In the 1960s, producer Harry Alan Towers would produce five Fu Manchu films: The Face of Fu Manchu, The Brides of Fu Manchu, The Vengeance of Fu Manchu, The Blood of Fu Manchu, and The Castle of Fu Manchu, all films starring Christopher Lee in the iconic role of Fu Manchu.

Harry Alan Towers would also produce several other films featuring characters created by Sax Rohmer, like The Million Eyes of Sumuru and The Girl from Rio. And besides working as a producer, Harry Alan Towers was a prolific writer. He wrote the screenplays for many of the films that he produced under the pseudonym Peter Welbeck.

The Blood of Fu Manchu: Fu Manchu uses ten women whose lips he has turned into weapons to kill ten world leaders.

The Castle of Fu Manchu: Fu Manchu creates a chemical weapon that can freeze all of the oceans of the world.

There had been three films directed by two other directors before Jess Franco put his imprint on a series of Fu Manchu films produced by Harry Allan Towers. Of the two films directed by Jess Franco, The Blood of Fu Manchu stands out as the more structured one. This greater structure may stem from it being the first collaboration between Jess Franco and Harry Allan Towers. The fifth and last film in the series, The Castle of Fu Manchu, is more representative of the mishmash nature of many of Jess Franco’s films made during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Blood of Fu Manchu and The Castle of Fu Manchu feature moments that are unmistakably the work of Jess Franco. Additionally, both films maintain the pulp cinema vibe that characterized the earlier three films in the series.

Jess Franco was able to draw from a diverse array of internationally recognizable actors for The Blood of Fu Manchu and The Castle of Fu Manchu, as with his other collaborations with Harry Alan Towers. Headlining both of these films is Christopher Lee (The Wicker Man) in the role of Fu Manchu. He delivers a performance that has the right amount of gravitas and menace. Another performance of note is Tsai Chin (You Only Live Twice), who portrays Fu Manchu’s sadist daughter, Lin Tang. Notable cast members in these two films are Maria Rohm (Eugenie... the Story of Her Journey into Perversion), Shirley Eaton (Goldfinger), Rosalba Neri (Lady Frankenstein), and Maria Perschy (Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll). That said, when it comes to the performances, they are all delivered with an enthusiasm that suits these films campy vibe.

The Blood of Fu Manchu would mark the first of nine films that Jess Franco made with Harry Allan Towers. While this initial collaboration aligned with the type of films produced by Harry Allan Towers, subsequent films in their partnership increasingly showcased Jess Franco's unique style, particularly his tendency to recycle footage from other films. The Castle of Fu Manchu uses footage from A Night to Remember and Campbell’s Kingdom. The films provided Jess Franco with the most resources he had ever worked with, as well as exotic locations that he fully utilized. While The Blood of Fu Manchu is the more polished of the two films, The Castle of Fu Manchu is the more entertaining option.

The Blood of Fu Manchu and The Castle of Fu Manchu make their way to 4K UHD via exceptional releases from Blue Underground, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer