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March 29, 2024, 03:51:19 PM

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Shawscope - Volume One

Started by Crenners, December 19, 2021, 10:01:57 AM

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Crenners


This twelve-film Shaw Brothers retrospective is released tomorrow by Arrow Video and while the size looks imposing, the quality outweighed it for me. There was some chat about it a while back and I know a few people were weighing up the early bird offer from Arrow. Just wondering if anyone went for it. There will be a Volume Two to follow, as well.

I'm not enormously familiar with Shaw Brothers films but I've loved the bigger releases on 88 Films over the last couple of years, like the Come Drink With Me, One-Armed Swordsman, Eight Diagram Pole Fighter and The Chinese Boxer. I've seen there's also a load to rent/buy on Prime Video but when I heard about this set, I decided to wait to take the plunge. I also understand that Arrow have licensed fifty SB films so there's every chance that 36 Chambers of Shaolin and some of the other big names not in this set will come soon enough.

Volume One includes:

King Boxer aka Five Fingers of Death
The Boxer from Shantung
Five Shaolin Masters
Shaolin Temple
Mighty Peking Man
Challenge of the Masters
Executioners from Shaolin
Chinatown Kid
The Five Venoms
Crippled Avengers
Heroes of the East
Dirty Ho

There's also hours of bonus features including new commentaries and critic appreciations, new and archive interviews, plus a 60-page book featuring new writing with cast and crew info for each film.

I haven't been too interested in Arrow for a little while, they seem to have focused on milking a smaller number of offerings with extra tat but this looks like an amazing release, maybe the boxset of the year. It's my Christmas present and I can't wait to get stuck in.

Goldentony

didnt go ahead on this yet but I saw an unboxing (accidentally, I DO NOT watch those DO NOT THINK THAT) on Twitter and now I want one. I imagine i'll probably do it after Christmas now. Eureka have been putting out more of the stuff i've been interested in the past few months. 88 are doing too much CAT III shite for my tastes atm and aye Arrow haven't been too exciting for a bit but this looks proper great.

Crenners

Quote from: Goldentony on December 19, 2021, 10:06:49 AMEureka have been putting out more of the stuff i've been interested in the past few months. 88 are doing too much CAT III shite for my tastes atm and aye Arrow haven't been too exciting for a bit but this looks proper great.

I cancelled my pre/re-order several times before just asking for it for Chrimbo. God knows where it'll go but I'll report back. I know you know your SB movies already but I'll let you know the tat:quality ratio. Knowing Arrow, they'll milk this set with various individual releases next year.

As for the labels in general, yeah, Eureka have been immense this year. Encounter of the Spooky Kind, Millionaire's Express, Duel to the Death, Johnny Guitar, One Armed Boxer, The Great Silence, Joseph Kuo, lot of the silent stuff. They hardly ever miss. As for 88, I would say that new Armour of God is well worth it. Was The Young Master this year? Can't remember. I really enjoyed Story of Ricky but I do know what you mean about Cat III. Robotrix and Erotic Ghost Story are fundamentally shite, though I suspect there's enough of an audience for more like them (i.e. people like me).

bgmnts

Definitely tempting! But I realised I dont have a dvd player anymore so no point.

Really cool collection though.

Herbert Ashe

I pre-ordered, had my order cancelled because of the changes at arrow, and re-ordered with the discount code so only paid £90 for this in the end. I would have paid £15-20 a pop for the 4 Lau Kar-Leung films anyway so everything else is a bonus. Not turned up yet...


Anyway for what it's worth I've seen all but one of these at some time or another. Plain text = average, italics = better, bold = must see. Dirty Ho is a contender for my favourite kung-fu film. Heroes of the East is probably the 2nd best on this set, especially if you've ever wondered what a kung-fu romcom would look like (I don't think it fully qualifies as one, but it's the closest that I've ever seen)

Quote from: Crenners on December 19, 2021, 10:01:57 AMKing Boxer aka Five Fingers of Death
The Boxer from Shantung
Five Shaolin Masters
Shaolin Temple
Mighty Peking Man
Challenge of the Masters
Executioners from Shaolin
Chinatown Kid
The Five Venoms
Crippled Avengers
Heroes of the East
Dirty Ho

Crenners

Quote from: Herbert Ashe on December 19, 2021, 12:07:40 PMAnyway for what it's worth I've seen all but one of these at some time or another.

Cheers for the thoughts, I remember you made some great posts on the previous Shaw Brothers thread:

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=85007.0

I'll look forward to getting stuck into this set and will then see what's on Prime to investigate further.

Herbert Ashe

Ta, trying not to repeat myself too much (I'm sure I've droned on about Dirty Ho here or elsewhere years ago).

Anyway I've been thinking about what a volume 2 would be, I'm wondering if the plan is to make that a swordplay / Wu Xia-heavy set (this one is clearly kung fu focused). In which case I'd take a guess at:

- A few Chang Cheh films, with at least 1 one-armed swordsman, and probably one of his historical epics from the mid 70s
- 2 or 3 Chor Yuens, at least some of Chinese Courtesan, Magic Blade, Killer Clans
- A few late 60s/early 70s deep cuts. Lady With a Sword would be nice and make sense (dir. Kao Pao-Shu, the only (?) woman SB director), something like the Black Tavern as well
- A couple of early 80s films, something like Secret Service of the Imperial Court or something from the nuttier, let's-try-any-old-crazy-shit wing.

But I suppose it depends on if they've got rights for some of the horror and exploitation stuff which I imagine fits the Arrow mo as well.

(if they announce a 12 film huangmei box i'm gonna be creaming myself for a year)

Goldentony

ah come on Boxer From Shangtung's worth an italics!

Yeah the next one having a bit more of the 80s stuff would be good, was thinking about Secret Service myself. Would enjoy some of the lesser seen mad (but no maggots) stuff too. Love films like Demon Of The Lute/Descendant Of The Sun/Portrait In Crystal but nae idea if that's what people would go for. Then again I can't imagine literally anyone is excited about a Mighty Peking Man re-release, so why not. More of that for me, personally. Buddha's Palm, Bastard Swordsman 1 & 2, Vengeance, probably loads more. Bat Without Wings, maybe one of those 70s crime films. Feels like there's tons more of these they could put out.

Hope 88 finish of the Story Of Ricky director guys films. 7th Curse & Saga Of The Phoenix getting the big box treatment would be nice.

EDIT - fucking Hong Kong Godfather from 1985 is Shaw too, get that out.

kalowski

Definitely tempted by this. Look at it every now and then, think "I can't afford it" and look away.
Daily.

Crenners

First thing to say is that it's actually much smaller than I expected, really compact and actually a sensible size. I thought it was going to be another Criterion Godzilla thing but it's far less cumbersome. It doesn't especially fit on a shelf any way but sitting in front of everything else but it's perhaps 3 cases in thickness so fits well on my somewhat deep shelves. If you double-row like I do, it's also a perfect fit as it's as wide as two cases. I suspect that's how it'll end up.

The actual films I'll report back but King Boxer looks great, crisp and punchy colours, and I've really enjoyed it, but still got half an hour to go.

Goldentony

mention of a few of the future Shawscope releases too in the booklet from what i've seen, decent choices too

Herbert Ashe

^ oooh, My Young Auntie, fuck yeah!


Watched Mighty Peking Man first as it's the only film on this set I'd not seen, and I had zero expectations and minimal interest, all I knew about this before was the title.

Doesn't seem to do anything novel with king kong or giant monster template. I dunno, a HK film featuring an enormous ape bursting out of a mountain and no-one tried to add any hint of the most famous legendary Chinese simian to the mix? Guess it's fun if you enjoy this sort of thing, but makes next to zero sense packaging this with 11 kung fu films that I can see, other than for weird licensing shite.


Saw some post by someone on social media moaning at about the artwork for one of the disc menus. Is this something people give a shit about? Like fair enough for case/box art, although I'm not much arsed with those either, but whos paying attention to a menu for more than 5 seconds? Maybe the irony went over my head whilst I was getting excited by the 2CDs of library music.

Goldentony

the first unboxing I saw, THE ONLY ONE, was sure to mention in near enough every post how they didn't like any of the artwork but otherwise loved the set. Seems mad to me to mention in a video of yourself opening a box, but this is the world we're in now. I used to send hours on the Blu Ray forum reading men talk about how they'd keep th sellophane on boxes. Taught me to just stop listening to lads.

Mighty Peking Man is horse shit and its inclusion is baffling, especially with it being an 88 release just a few years back.

Herbert Ashe

Working my way through this, some more random thoughts:

- King Boxer

Liked this much more than I remember. I used to be a bit sniffier towards early 70s KF, maybe seeing restorations & good quality rips & seeing them on a proper big tv gives them back their (ahem) punch. Obviously, as it's the 70s and the film is set in the Republican era, there are some villainous Japanese around to accomplish what the bad Warlord kung fu school can't on it's own.

- 2 x Lau Kar-Leung

Challenge of the Masters: suffers a bit just because LKL did more or less everything in this better later on, e.g. Martial Club is a better young Wong Fei-Hong film, but it's packed with more than enough Good Shit. Ending is pure Lau.

Executioners From Shaolin: still pretty great; but the sense I get here is Lau straining at the limits of the Shaw's system to get everything in - feel the back end was a bit rushed and lacking another 10-15 minutes of room to flesh everything out. Not really worth spoiler tag, but you've been warned: I enjoyed/was creeped out by Lily Li's Uncle looking a bit too excited by the idea of her wedding nuptials.

- Extras

I'll watch or listen to all the Tony Rayns ones as he knows his stuff, i think he's a better fit here (and on the King Hu releases) than Drunken Master, where he was a bit sniffy and it'd might have been nice to have some a bit more enthusiastic. Not sure i'll bother with many of the cast interviews, these hk ones always feel a little bland (hi to all my fans!) and subs mean you can't just have them on in background and pick out the interesting bits.

The King Boxer had a decent one with a South Korean expert on the director, gave me two more films to his I'd hadn't heard of to investigate.

The one thing I'd wish at least one of these releases would commission is a good video essay that does a deep dive into the editing, especially for the late 70s/80s era. A few people have done stuff here and there (Tony Zhou on Jackie, and I think David Bordwell did something somewhere to supplement his writing or talks) but I feel there's so much potential for analysis on exactly how the HK style was so effective. All I remember getting are those David Cairns ones for some of the King Hus, and those aren't much more than extended trailers.

Crenners

Heroes of the East is completely new to me but it only cemented how much I love Gordon Liu. He has about two facial expressions and they're both great. His costuming here is also fantastic, and the wig is one of the most entertaining I've ever seen.

I also loved Yuka Mizuno, really charismatic and funny, plus she's a badass. I loved her booting the walls and statues down and basically slagging off all the Chinese mores and taking the piss. Excellent dynamic with our Gordy.

I'm jumping about in this set but I think it's a monster release, delighted with it.

Crenners

I'm amazed by how much and how well Dirty Ho does the Jackie Chan thing, pretty much at the same time he was starting to do it. Wang Yu is great and Gordon Liu is arguably even better here than in Heroes of the East, lots of funny playing dumb and really creative and unusual choreography. The scene with the marvellous Kara Hui and the lute is a highlight. This set is brilliant, I really wish I'd got into Shaw Brethren twenty five years ago.

Herbert Ashe

Agree with all that. Some time I mean to watch a ton of the 77/78 classics (Lau, Sammo, Yuen Woo-Ping) in chronological order based on the release dates on HKMDB, just to get that sense of how these guys were feeding off and having to one-up each other all the time.

I used to underrate that boat fight compared to the disguised wine/art ones, but now I think it's the best; the movements never feel contrived, and everyone has to do some acting at the same time as well: Gordon Liu the fake-naif, Kara Hui terrified, and Wong Yu confused.

IIRC it was mentioned that Yuka Mizuno had a proper (Japanese, I presume) martial arts background, and maybe that's why she makes that strong, dynamic impression (c.f. Yukari Oshima in the 80s). I think the typical career path for the HKers & Taiwanese was to come from a dance background (e.g. Cheng Pei-Pei, Kara Hui), or they learnt it in the Shaw's system, and that was plenty to give you the sense of movement and rhythm to film well in a Wu Xia.

Quotethe wig is one of the most entertaining I've ever seen

Oh man, if you haven't seen it yet then one of the Joseph Kuo films will blow your mind. It did mine...

Small Man Big Horse

Crippled Avengers (1978) - After his wife is killed and his son is mutilated, local warlord Chu Twin is a right dick, bullying those who live in his town and anyone who threatens him ends up the worse, with one man blinded, another deafened and muted, a third has his legs chopped off while a fourth is given severe brain damage. Yet this ultimately backfires as they team up to fight back, in a film that could have done with a little more plot, and the odd extra bit of dialogue, but action wise is incredibly impressive and the choreographed fighting is stunning. 7.4/10


steveh

The Shawscope Vol. 1 films and some extras are also on the Arrow Player app, which for a fiver a month for around 650 titles - including some only recently out on Blu Ray - is a bargain.

kalowski

Well Mighty Peking Man is pretty rubbish and nowhere near the other films in the set.