Shawscope:
Volume One
(1972 - 1979/MVD/Arrow Blu-ray Limited Edition Box Set w/CDs)
Picture:
B- to B Sound: B- Extras: A- Films: B-
Action
and fighting have been on the big screen since film arrived, from
fistfights to boxing to sword fighting to war itself, but martial
arts arrived later, especially in Hollywood. Peter Lorre surprised
audiences worldwide by using Judo as the otherwise silent, quiet and
legendary title detective in the Mr. Moto series, while Spencer Tracy
played a wounded war vet determined to get to the truth and also some
similar moves in Bad
Day At Black Rock,
but the spy craze in the 1960s started to bring all such forms of
fighting to the forefront, starting with Sean Connery's first James
Bond film Dr.
No
(1962) while the small screen offered more with the British spy
classic The
Avengers
(Patrick Macnee, Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, Linda Thorson) and the
Anne Francis in the U.S. detective series Honey
West.
Overseas,
other cinemas started to have more such fighting in their films, but
a particularly interesting competition to make such films started to
develop between two studios in Hong Kong. On one side, by 1971,
there was Golden Harvest, who boasted several stars, eventually
including the greatest star in the field of all time: Bruce Lee. On
the other side were the equally ambitious and prolific Shaw Brothers,
whose own shield logo dared to imitate the studio that would
eventually help lead them to their greatest hits, Warner Bros. and
had weathered other challengers to their prolific string of hits
prior to the 1970s.
The
back and fourth got very interesting, though not all the films were
released in the U.S. and other markets. Bruce Lee was first noticed
in the U.S. as Kato on the short-lived Green
Hornet
TV series and also created a bigger hit show (for Warner Bros!) that
became an icon of its era: Kung-Fu
with David Carradine. Lee's films would eventually have Warner
participating, but it would be one film without Lee that would launch
the martial arts craze of the 1970s that (after a dip) is still with
us today and that landmark international mega-hit was 5
Finger Of Death
(1972, originally title King
Boxer,
offering some fight scenes that remain some of the best ever filmed)
and action cinema would never be the same again.
Immediately,
the impact was felt from Bruce Lee's massive success to serious
suspense thrillers to pop culture songs (#1 novelty hit Kung-Fu
Fighting)
to children's shows (the animated TV classic Hong
Kong Phooey)
among other things. Even the James Bond films returned more
explicitly to this territory as they had in You
Only Live Twice
(1967) with The
Man With The Golden Gun
(1974, whose John Barry soundtrack was used on dozens of later
martial arts films) and that included more imitators there of like
The
Man From Hong Kong
(1975) and all as The Shaw Brothers kept delivering new, original
content.
Now
comes the long awaited Shawscope:
Volume One
Blu-ray/CD box set from Arrow that more than delivers on the promise
of maxing out the extras and restorations of these key films form the
1970s that have been on home video worldwide and in the U.S. and U.K.
before, but not with these extensive extras or the high playback we
get on these 12 films on eight Blu-ray discs.
The
films include:
King
Boxer
(aka 5
Finger Of Death,
1972)
The
Boxer from Shantung
(1972)
Five
Shaolin Masters
(1974, aka 5
Masters Of Death)
Shaolin
Temple
(1976, aka Death
Chamber)
Mighty
Peking Man
(1977, aka Golathon
aka Orangutan
King)
Challenge
Of The Masters
(1976)
Executioners
from Shaolin
(1977)
Chinatown
Kid
(1977)
The
Five Venoms
(1978)
Crippled
Avengers
(1978, aka Mortal
Combat
aka Return
Of The 5 Deadly Venoms)
Heroes
Of The East
(1978, aka Challenge
Of The Ninja)
Dirty
Ho
(1979, aka Dirty
Avengers)
Most
of the films (without oversimplifying) play like Revenge Westerns or
Professional Westerns (an individual (maybe joined by a friend or
two) and/or group is out for revenge, though unlike many of the
latter Hollywood cases, not for the money) and some Kurosawa
influence is unavoidable in general. However, King
Boxer
gets wilder with flying fighters with glowing fingertips, Mighty
Peking Man
is the increasingly impressive (and hilarious) answer to the first
two King
Kong
films (the Jessica Lang remake was just a hit the year before and the
Shaws wanted to show they could compete with Toho's giant monster
films, et al, if need be) and Chinatown
Kid
foreruns the comedy that beset martial arts films staring in the
1980s (saving the genre) and would feature new stars like Jackie
Chan, though it is some influenced from Hollywood classics like
What's
Up Doc?
(1972) and Bullitt
(1968; both films also happen to be from Warner Bros.)
There
is humor here and there intentionally (we cannot speak to camp and
other aspects that might strike one (no pun intended) as amusing, but
these are not the tired, condescending joke-fests the genre has
collapsed into since the later 1980s. We get some visual effects,
but physical action with moves then often unseen (even when it might
be surreal and unrealistic here and there) moves that still impress
to this day. Despite keeping many a large single-screen theater
alive as cineplexes arrived for better and worse, these films were
meant to be seen on the largest screen possible, a point made by the
title of this collection and its legendary logo. Many went to these
films just for the action and could have cared less or much about the
stories, but they are all still well-written enough and have stood
the test of time.
Most
impressive is their cinema has a look, feel and density that is
distinct and once it is set, each films runs with what it is doing
and that works well. The actors are decent and the battles are very
well choreographed and staged, yet the film are not necessarily
repetitious and you can see why they have so many die hard fans.
This set should bring these films a whole new audience and more
respect than they may have had before, though they obviously have
some, but they are not just excuses for fight scenes, a stereotype
that now applies to all kinds of B-movies we are getting of late.
The wait for this set, one of the best sets of the last few years and
definitely of 2021, was worth it.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer can show the
age of the materials used, but these are all far superior to all
previous video releases of these films and owner Celestial Pictures,
with Arrow, have spent some serious time and money to save and
restore these genre classics, some of which more than exceed their
genre. Their beauty influences the many epic film coming out of
Chinese cinema now and going back to Ang Lee's Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Most of the newer transfers are stunning and have demo scene that
even exceed my highest picture rating. Per the press release, these
are the newer transfers.
-
Brand new 2K restorations by Arrow Films from the original camera
negatives of King
Boxer,
The
Boxer from Shantung,
Challenge
of the Masters,
The
Five Venoms,
Crippled
Avengers
and Dirty
Ho.
-
Brand new 2K master of the longer international cut of Chinatown
Kid
from original film elements[, but it is in rougher shape than the
short cut overall.]
Color
quality and range can also really impress, usually shot on Eastman
Kodak 35mm film, while the anamorphic scope lenses are apparently
often Super CineScope renamed, though one ad credits one film as
'Panavision' at one point, that is just like calling it generically
scope or 'CinemaScope' as was the custom for describing a widescreen
frame. We hope to learn more about this as time goes on, but I have
to say at their best, these transfers are sharp and have great
detail, so the lenses are high quality enough to deliver what we see
here.
The
DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes on the films include English
dubs and are otherwise in original Mandarin (and sometimes Cantonese
on the later films) sound as good as they are all likely to ever
sound, all being theatrical monophonic releases as the studio never
saw the need at the time for stereo of any kind. The better the
image, however, the odder the difference can feel. Otherwise, the
combination of the two in all cases can only be rivaled by the best,
mint condition scope prints in full color 35mm and maybe 16mm
reduction prints at best. The PCM 2.0 16/44.1 sound on the CDs sound
good too.
Extras
include (per the press release, with added notes) a
60-page high-quality softcover book featuring excellent, detailed new
writing by David Desser, Simon Abrams and Terrence J. Brady, with
cast and crew info for each film plus trivia, history fo the Shaw
Studios and the history surrounding it back in the day and soundtrack
information and two fine-sounding CDs with scores of six of these
films, while the Blu-ray discs contain many, many hours of bonus
features including brand new commentaries and critic appreciations on
selected films, new and archive interviews with cast and crew,
alternate credit sequences, trailer and image galleries for each
film. More specifically, you get...
King
Boxer
Brand
New commentary by David Desser, co-editor of The
Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema
and The
Cinema of Hong Kong
Newly
filmed appreciation by film critic and historian Tony Rayns
Interview
with director Chung Chang-wha, filmed in 2003 and 2004 by Frederic
Ambroisine
Interview
with star Wang Ping, filmed in 2007 by Frederic Ambroisine
Interview
with Korean cinema expert Cho Young-jung, author of Chung
Chang-wha: Man of Action,
filmed in 2005 by Frederic Ambroisine
Cinema
Hong Kong: Kung Fu,
the first in a three-part documentary on Shaw Brothers' place within
the martial arts genre produced by Celestial Pictures in 2003,
featuring interviews with Jackie Chan, Jet Li, John Woo, Sammo Hung,
Gordon Liu, Lau Kar-leung, Cheng Pei-pei, David Chiang and many
others
Alternate
opening credits from the American version titled Five
Fingers of Death
Hong
Kong, US and German theatrical trailers, plus US TV and radio spots
and
an Image gallery
The
Boxer From Shantung
Interview
with star Chen Kuan-tai, filmed in 2007 by Frederic Ambroisine
Interview
with assistant director John Woo, filmed in 2004 by Frederic
Ambroisine
Interview
with star David Chiang, filmed in 2003 by Frederic Ambroisine
Conversation
between stars Chen Kuan-tai and Ku Feng, filmed at a Shaw Brothers
reunion in 2007 by Frederic Ambroisine
Alternate
Opening Credits
Hong
Kong and German theatrical trailers, plus US TV spot
and
an Image gallery
Five
Shaolin Masters
/ Shaolin
Temple
Newly
filmed appreciation of Chang Cheh by film critic and historian Tony
Rayns
Interview
with star Kong Do, filmed in 2003 by Frederic Ambroisine
Elegant
Trails: David Chiang
and Elegant
Trails:
Ti Lung, two featurettes on the actors produced by Celestial Pictures
in 2003
Alternate
standard-definition version of Shaolin
Temple
Alternate
opening credits from Five
Masters of Death,
the US version of Five
Shaolin Masters
Alternate
opening credits sequences for Shaolin
Temple
US
and German trailers for Five
Shaolin Masters
Hong
Kong and German trailers for Shaolin
Temple
and
Image Galleries for both films
Mighty
Peking Man
Brand
new feature length audio commentary by Travis Crawford
Brand
new interview with suit designer Keizo Murase, filmed in 2021 by
Daisuke Sato and Yoshikazu Ishii
Interview
with director Ho Meng-hua, filmed in 2003 by Frederic Ambroisine
Interview
with star Ku Feng, filmed in 2004 by Frederic Ambroisine
Behind-the-scenes
Super 8 footage from the archives of Keizo Murase
'Unrestored'
standard-definition version
Alternate
opening credits from Goliathon,
the US version of Mighty
Peking Man
Hong
Kong, US, German and Dutch theatrical trailers, plus US TV spot
and
an Image Gallery
Challenge
Of The Masters
/ Executioners
From Shaolin
Newly
filmed appreciation of Lau Kar-leung by film critic and historian
Tony Rayns
Interview
with star Gordon Liu, filmed in 2002 by Frederic Ambroisine
Interview
with star Chen Kuan-tai, filmed in 2007 by Frederic Ambroisine
Textless
opening credits for Challenge
of the Masters
Alternate
English credits for Executioners
from Shaolin
Hong
Kong theatrical trailers for Challenge
of the Masters
Hong
Kong and US theatrical trailers for Executioners
from Shaolin
and
Image Galleries for both films
Chinatown
Kid
(International and Alternate versions)
Select
scene video commentary by co-star Susan Shaw from 2021
Elegant
Trails: Fu Sheng,
a featurette on the actor produced by Celestial Pictures in 2005
Hong
Kong, US and German theatrical trailers, plus US TV spot
and
an Image Gallery
The
Five Venoms
/ Crippled
Avengers
Brand
new commentary on The
Five Venoms
by critic Simon Abrams
Interview
with star Lo Meng, filmed in 2003 by Frederic Ambroisine
Chang
Cheh: The Master,
a featurette about the director produced by Celestial Pictures in
2003
Hong
Kong and US theatrical trailers for The
Five Venoms
Hong
Kong theatrical trailer for Crippled
Avengers
and
Image Galleries for both films
Heroes
of the East
/ Dirty
Ho
Brand
new commentary on Heroes
of the East
by Jonathan Clements, author of A
Brief History of the Martial Arts
Newly
filmed appreciation of both films by film critic and historian Tony
Rayns
Interview
with Heroes
of the East
star Yasuaki Kurata, filmed in 2003 by Frederic Ambroisine
Alternate
opening credits for Shaolin
Challenges Ninja,
the international version of Heroes
of the East
Alternate
English credits for Dirty
Ho
Hong
Kong theatrical trailer for Heroes
of the East,
plus US TV spot
Hong
Kong theatrical trailer for Dirty
Ho
and
Image Galleries for both films
So
if that is not enough to keep you watching, than these are not your
kinds of films, but they all deserves to be seen at least once and
they are a must for a serious film fans, especially in the genre. So
impressive is this extensive set that we hope and expect a series of
them (I am hoping Super
Inframan
will be on the next set) of such sets if we are lucky. There are
plenty more great and fun films where these came from and Shawscope:
Volume One
is a great place to start.
-
Nicholas Sheffo