Released by Arrow Video
The last two years have seen Hong Kong film collectors treated to dozens of stunning physical media releases from the finest labels in boutique Blu-ray across the globe. Even so, the community was staggered two Christmas’ ago by the size and quality of Arrow’s Shawscope Volume One box set. Twelve films from the legendary Shaw Brothers studio stunningly remastered with audio commentaries, documentaries, and in the case of one, the original ending which had gone unseen since the days of bootleg VHS tapes on Canal Street. This was the finest physical media release for martial arts films ever, bar none.
Now, it’s one year later and collectors have been treated to Arrow’s sophomore Shaw Brothers box set, Shawscope Volume Two.
For the uninitiated, Shaw Brothers was a Hong Kong based Mandarin film studio active from the 50’s to the mid-80’s, whereupon they transformed themselves into a television production company and survived on until the mid-00’s.
Why should you care?
Well, in the late 60’s Shaw noticed the popularity of samurai films in Chinese territories and began to use their huge period backlot to produce violent, intricate, swordplay epics.
In 1971, they produced the Jimmy Wang Yu epic The Chinese Boxer, which almost single-handedly invented the open hand action or “kung fu” movie. This studio was ground zero for the martial arts film, and even though it was definitely a movie factory (churning out upwards of forty films a year at their height) Run Run Shaw’s love of cinema brought an expectation of quality and style that has given these films an evergreen lifespan.
Most of the greatest films we associate with Black Belt Theater and the Kung Fu Boom of the 70’s came from Shaw Brothers.
Arrow has chosen to curate their Shaw box sets to only feature releases from after 1973, when the financial prospects of the studio began to decline after the Hui Brothers’ comedies and Bruce Lee’s own kung fu epics gave rival studio Golden Harvest a massive advantage both in Hong Kong and abroad. We normally associate studios in decline with a sad sputtering out, but the renewed challenge of upstart Golden Harvest led Shaw to its most creatively fertile period: as they couldn’t match Golden Harvest’s naturalistic comedies or Bruce Lee’s (relatively) realistic kung fu mastery they amped the style, the violence, and the cinematic experimentation in an effort to win back a jaded movie going public to their theaters.
As we’ll see in this collection, Shaw was doing interesting work right up until the day they shut the doors on film production.
The set contains fourteen films and what follows is a capsule review for each with a mention of what transfer Arrow is working from, and what special features are associated with each film:
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
With the exception of The Five Venoms (which can be found on Volume One), no film from the Shaw Brothers library continues to resonate in our popular culture as strongly as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Lau Kar-Leung’s best loved film features Gordon Liu as Sun Te, a young scholar who arrives as refugee to the Shaolin Temple looking for revenge against his Manchurian overlords and must overcome each of its 35 “chambers” to train himself into the ultimate fighting machine and return to teach the rest of the world Shaolin kung fu.
The inspiration for the Wu Tang Clan’s debut album (and group member Masta Killa’s moniker), this is, along with Rocky, the greatest “training sequence” film ever made. An untouchable masterpiece– this is the kung fu film to show new fans and to celebrate with aficionados alike.
Features a brand new 4K transfer, two audio commentaries, the second part of a three part documentary on the comprehensive history of the studio, a documentary on the actual Shaolin Temple, and a featurette on the Shaw Brothers films and their connection to popular music. This is the crown jewel of the set.
***** out of *****
Return to the 36th Chamber
Lau Kar-Leung’s follow up is often criticized for the increased comedy from the original, but this is one of the most misunderstood classics in all of kung fu cinema.
Gordon Liu here plays a con man whose resemblance to the famous monk Sun Te leads him to impersonate the monk in a labor dispute at a dye factory. After he’s found out, he tracks down the real Sun Te (played by a different actor) to learn kung fu, but his cunning allows him to find shortcuts to bypass the normal chambers and extraordinary means must be employed.
Most sequels raise the stakes and deepen the relationships of the characters of the first film– this film does neither. Rather, it raises the difficulty of the training and tells us that with kung fu the hard work is the point.
1080p presentation, with a small featurette produced in 2003.
***** out of *****
Disciples of the 36th Chamber
The final film produced on the Shaw backlot before closure sees Gordon Liu return as Sun Te to train a hot headed but brilliant martial artist played by Lau Kar-Leung prodigy Hsaio Hou.
The first film is idealized training creating cultivated students, and the second is about how when the student is too clever sometimes he must be tricked into learning, this one raises the stakes to a student who seems emotionally unfit and maybe even dangerous. Ultimately success for the teacher in this case is not breaking the student into the teacher’s ideal, but helping him develop the best parts of himself.
*** ½ out of *****
Mad Monkey Kung Fu
Lau Kar-Leung directs and stars in this absolute banger about a Peking Opera prodigy who is tricked and maimed by an evil landowner (played by Lo Lieh, star of King Boxer and the original Pai Mei). He meets an idealistic street urchin played by Hsaio Hou and teaches him the ways of Monkey kung fu leading to an absolutely manic climax.
A little self aggrandizing and mythologizing but the essential love Lau has for young people and the need for the old to pass on their knowledge shines through. Incredible fight scenes.
2K Presentation, commentary, video essay by Tony Rayns.
**** out of *****
Five Superfighters
Veteran Shaw choreographer Lo Mar directs this fight-a-minute basher about disgraced students who go searching for new mentors after their master is crushed by a traveling bully. No big names and the constant excellent fight scenes put the viewer in the mind of Joseph Kuo’s independent kung fu films and the ending, where the story is revealed to be an origin for a very famous style of kung fu, is deeply satisfying.
No real profundity as the first four films had to offer on the nature of the student-teacher relationship, but tremendous entertainment.
2K presentation, featurette on Shaw Brothers’ presence in the United States.
*** ½ out of *****
Invincible Shaolin
The Venoms return! The Imperial Court concocts a plan to turn Northern and Southern Shaolin students against one another.
This was the actual first follow up to The Five Venoms (as opposed to Crippled Avengers which was marketed as such) as is one of the most deliberately paced Shaw Brothers films in the studio’s library as almost the whole action of the piece is built to and contained in its blistering final action sequence.
To me, this feels like director Cheng Cheh shedding the skin of his “Shaolin Cycle” films once and for all as he moves forward with Venoms Mob. Lacks the mythic power of The Five Venoms or Crippled Avengers but still very worthwhile indeed.
2K presentation, interview with action director Robert Tai.
*** out of *****
The Kid With the Golden Arm
Maybe the very best Venom Mob movie as Lo Meng, who typically plays a star-crossed hero is recast as the nigh-invincible antagonist in a plot where a disgraced swordsman returns to deal with a bandit clan that has intercepted a shipment of Imperial gold. Feels like an “end of the West” film with world weary fighters dancing around one another all the while courting inevitable death.
A perfect Shaw Brothers film, and one of the essential pictures of the studio’s late period.
2K presentation, Venom Mob documentary.
**** ½ out of *****
Magnificent Ruffians
The Venoms are manipulated by a treacherous and wealthy master looking to expand his family’s holdings. Exemplary fight scenes, incredible violence, and one of the very best villains in any Shaw brothers film add up to one of the very best Venom Mob films.
Also a classic Venoms plot which spirals into a number of plot lines, seemingly at random, before all coming together for a final showdown.
This was the biggest surprise of the set for me, as the later Venoms films don’t always have a tremendous reputation but this one was right up with the best of them.
**** out of *****
Ten Tigers of Kwangtung
Less a Venoms movie than a Cheng Cheh all star extravaganza with stars from almost his entire Shaw Brothers career. Appropriately enough for such an overstuffed cast, we get an overstuffed film of plots and subplots told in flashback where you’ll be sure to get a little turned around on first viewing.
Phillip Kwok as Beggar Su (the master from Drunken Master) and Ti Lung as Li Ren-Chao are the real standouts This, like the many Wong Fei-Hung pictures, is part of the cinematic mythology of Hong Kong and Canton itself– a kind of hagiography of semi-mythical martial arts folk heroes who were active in the 19th Century and whose influence goes back to the beginning of Chinese cinema.
Good film, but too much going on for it to be truly great.
2K presentation, documentary on Shaw’s presentation of China’s mythic history.
*** out of *****
My Young Auntie
Absolute comic tour-de-force. Kara Hui stars as a young woman who is married by an extremely wealthy man to keep his inheritance safe.
When she visits his nephew (Director Lau Kar-Leung) and great nephew (Hsaio Hao) we get a surprisingly able comedy of manners where all the various tensions of Chinese society (men and women, elders and their juniors, tradition and the appeal of the west, and finally the urban sophisticate vs simple, rustic country folk) are held up for examination. Lau, as we might expect, decides the kids are alright, they just need a little seasoning.
Oh, and in between all this social consideration there’s a fight film going with some outstanding choreography. Bonus points given for a truly ridiculous Gordon Liu cameo. Few action heroes dare to be stupid with such verve.
1080p presentation, commentary, interview with star, and featurette on the women of Shaw Brothers.
**** ½ out of *****
Mercenaries From Hong Kong
One of the two “oddball” selections (that is to say, not kung fu pictures), is this thrilling and preposterous action film.
Ti Lung stars and it feels like a dry run for his performances in the Better Tomorrow films under John Woo a few years later. Story is a pale Dirty Dozen rip off with a little Dogs of War thrown in, but the action sequences are outstanding and the contemporary setting and extensive location shooting give this one a radically different feel from everything else.
2K presentation, interview with action director.
*** ½ out of *****
The Boxer’s Omen
The other oddball selection is absolutely insane.
The Boxer’s Omen chronicles the story of a professional kickboxer in Thailand who gets caught up in a black magic hex by unscrupulous Taoist priests and must give up the fame and money of his profession (and especially the women) and embrace Buddhism to have any chance at dispelling the evil forces which surround him.
That synopsis may sound somewhat reasonable but it doesn’t do the film justice– one of the weirdest gonzo horror films I’ve ever seen and actually revolting in that some of the rituals are likely to turn the average viewer’s stomach.
2K presentation, video essay, commentary.
Impossible to rate, you’re either down with this one or you’re not.
Martial Arts of Shaolin
The final film released by Shaw during its initial cinematic run, the only Shaw film to be filmed in Mainland China and the only Shaw film to star Jet Li.
This is actually part three in a trilogy of movies but the other two aren’t owned by Shaw, so God knows when they’ll ever get some kind of release.
The plot is bog standard Lau Kar-Leung stuff but the amazing location work and strong fight work of Li elevate it. Legend has it that Shaw shut the doors so quickly that they didn’t even send the crew the air fare to get back to Hong Kong from the location and they had to fend for themselves.
Great story, and it might even be true.
1080p presentation, alternate version, commentary, video essay interview with screenwriter.
*** out of *****
The Bare Footed Kid
Johnnie To did a number of films with Shaw early in his career after the switchover had happened that were good enough to warrant theatrical release and this was a standout. Starring Aaron Kwok, Maggie Cheung, and Shaw great Ti Lung this is a loving tribute to Cheng Cheh’s “Shaolin Cycle” of films from the early 70’s.
Not one of To’s best, but certainly a worthy addition– like a cinematic nightcap for the thirteen course meal that preceded it.
1080p presentation, commentary, video essay.
*** ½ out of *****
In the final analysis, this is a startling box set and every bit the equal of Volume One.
If you’re a fan, you already know this is a must own and I would definitely recommend it to someone looking to get into Hong Kong film as a great sampler. Some people have raised criticism of the decision to only focus on films after a certain point, but the recent announcement from Arrow that they’re sourcing films for two more sets that will presumably focus on the earlier Wuxia period, that anger has subsided.
Like the first one, if you’re not a fan of martial arts films there isn’t enough counter programming to be of interest but if you’re not a fan of Shaw martial arts films, you’re not my kinda film buff anyway.
Highest recommendation.
