Sammo Hung’s series ‘Martial Law’ is finally going to get an official DVD box-set release…
It’s only taken eighteen years, but in mid August 2016, Visual Entertainment will be releasing Martial Law: The Complete Collection on a ten disc set that includes both seasons and two bonus crossover episodes with Walker: Texas Ranger and additional material. Martial Law was the CBS police action series that ran from 1998-2000, and saw Hong Kong legend Sammo Hung playing a Chinese policeman and martial arts master who comes to the United States and ends up working with the LAPD. The series was produced by Carlton Cuse (Nash Bridges) and Stanley Tong (Rumble in the Bronx) who also directed the pilot and several episodes.
The premiere episode, entitled Shanghai Express, follows Hung’s character Sammo Law who leaves Shanghai and follows the trail of his missing protege (Kelly Hu) to Los Angeles. Ultimately he finds himself assigned to work with the LAPD as part of a new special task force. The series was a huge hit in its first series, and made Hung something of a surprise star and one of the first Chinese faces to headline a prime-time series in the United States. The show originally saw Hung working alongside Kelly Hu, Costas Mandylor, Tom Wright and Tammy Lauren, but perhaps to cash in on the success of Rush Hour on the big screen, comedian Arsenio Hall was soon added to the cast as Hung’s partner in crime-solving.
In the course of its 48 episode run, all manner of faces familiar to fans of the action and martial arts genre appeared…including Tzi Ma (Rapid Fire, Yellowthread Street), Sung Kang (Fast & Furious; Tokyo Drift), Elaine Lui (Angel, Bride with White Hair), James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China), Mako (The Big Brawl), Eugenia Yuan (Crouching Tiger 2), Byron Mann (Man with the Iron Fists), Billy Blanks (King of the Kickboxers), Mark Dacascos (Drive), Shannon Lee (Enter the Eagles), Aki Aleong (Pound of Flesh), Olivier Gruner (Nemesis), Dave Lea (Double Impact), Reuben Langdon (Devil May Cry), Simon Rhee (Best of the Best), Ron Hall (Bloodsport 2), Koichi Sakamoto (Alpha Stunts), Jeff Wolfe (Once Upon a Time in China & America), JJ Perry (Undisputed 2) and David Leith (John Wick). The series action choreography was overseen by Stanley Tong, Andy Cheng (The Rundown, US Seals 2), Allen Sit (China Strike Force), Alan ‘Jai Jai’ Lan (Death Games), Dion Lam (Shanghai Shanghai), Yuen Tak/Richard Hung (Shanghai Surprise, Prince of the Sun) and others..
The series underwent something of a change between Seasons One and Two, with the first season’s cliffhanger never being resolved and certain cast members having mysteriously vanished without explanation… never to be mentioned again. Subsequently the series fell from grace with both the critics and audiences which was a pity. Hung would return to Hong Kong after the show, where one of his projects was of a similar remit… almost an unofficial Martial Law season 3 for Chinese TV, where Hung played an American-Chinese Cop who returns to his homeland to work with the Chinese Police. The show also featured his youngest son Sammy Hung (Dragon Blade, Choy Li Fut) and Fan Bing-bing (X-Men: Days of Future Past) among the cast.
While various episodes were given VHS and VCD releases in certain territories, apart from ‘fan collection-bootlegs’, this DVD set marks the first official release of the full series. As noted the release includes all 44 episodes plus those two crossover episodes with Chuck Norris’ Walker: Texas Ranger, and an audio commentary on the pilot from creator Carlton Cuse. No word yet on any other additional features (there was a very amusing Making Of video put together by Sammo during shooting to thank the cast and crew for all their work, but I wonder if rights issues might prevent that from being included?)
Here’s a Martial Law tribute…
