Classic kung fu films have always struggled to find legitimate release in the U.S., for a short spell in the early 2000’s in the direct period after Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill was released Miramax/The Weinstein Company made a deal with Celestial Pictures/Shaw Brothers to release some of their titles under the Dragon Dynasty banner. At the time I was super excited to get access to legitimate copies of kung fu titles I had desired to see for so long in good editions. Of course, I was let down by the fact that the Celestial masters were PAL, and DD did not bother converting them to NTSC, so they were slightly out of sync (not all the time, but quite a few times), and that was just the beginning of the problems the label had.
Still it was better than nothing.
Over the last few years 88 Films in the U.K. Has been issuing Shaw titles for Region B, Blu-ray, which is great for those of us region free, but it still leaves the U.S. Market untapped with the exception of a few scattered releases like Arrow’s Lady Street Fighter, Shout Factory’s The Street Fighter, and the Criterion Bruce Lee collection, there have been almost zero legitimate old school martial arts releases in HD over here.
That changed in a big way this last December with Arrow Video’s GLORIOUS Shawscope Volume1 which brings the Shaw Brothers Studio’s output to Blu-ray with a BANG. This is a 10 disc collection containing 12 films across 8 Blu-ray’s and then 2 soundtrack compilations across 2 CD’s, as well as an extensive physical book of liner notes. So let’s break this down, and see what we have here…
King Boxer
King Boxer was picked up by Warner Brothers and released to U.S. Audiences as Five Fingers of Death. This was the great martial arts success story before Bruce Lee entered the picture. The story follows Zhihao (Lieh Lo) who is forced to leave the home of his retiring master to go to a larger city and more dynamic school to continue his training. Unfortunately, his skills are looked down upon there until he gets into a fight that changes everything. Now he will learn a special technique that will allow him to compete at a high level at a martial arts tournament that will potentially allow him to be the leader of kung fu in his region.This one is a bit long and a bit slow, but when it takes off it is a violent and wild slice of classic kung fu cinema. Shaw Brothers, really only started taking off in the martial arts game in 1967 with Come Drink with Me, and this is about 5-6 years after that, so while they’ve had a few years in the market, this is early enough where it hasn’t been fully mastered, but what is here is sheer classic and an obvious building block for the wildness to come.
The Boxer From Shantung
The Boxer from Shantung takes up the whole of disc 2, much like King Boxer did for disc 1. This film is a Chang Cheh directed entry which follows Ma, a prize fighter from the sticks who comes to Shanghai to really make it, only to find himself living among gangsters. He becomes one himself, first as an apprentice, and then a low level boss, who now finds himself in gang warfare, KUNG FU STYLE! This one has a different feel than many of the Shaw films I’ve seen from the period and comes off like a Kung Fu gangster epic. The choreography from Lau Kar-leung and Tong Gaai is fantastic, which translate to incredible fight sequences.
Five Shaolin Masters/Shaolin Temple
Disc 3 contains 2 Chang Cheh entries Five Shaolin Masters and it’s prequel (shot 2 years later) Shaolin Temple. Five Shaolin Masters follows a group of a literal five Shaolin Masters as they go up against Qing invaders who have destroyed their temple, and since there is only five of them they must decide whether to engage or to hold back until they are ready to take on their foes. Shaolin Temple takes place 2 years earlier, and finds the 5 arriving at the temple, and still having to take on the Qing. Both films are masterfully choreographed, very dramatic at times in their approach, and just straight up exciting experiences.
Mighty Peking Man
Mighty Peking Man is the true oddity of the box, not a Kung Fu picture, but maybe a KONG FU…(OK I’ll stop)…. It’s basically a King Kong rip-off made in the shadow of the Dino De Laurentiis 1976 version of King Kong. It played America drive-in’s under the title Goliathon throughout the late 1970’s and was considered forgotten until Quentin Tarantino brought the film back under this Rolling Thunder Pictures banner in the 90’s. The film follows an expedition into the jungles of India to discover a monstrous ape who has befriended a Tarzan-esque woman. They end up back in the city, and of course, Kong-like lunacy occurs. This film is AMAZING. If you are not having a good time watching the Mighty Peking Man, check your pulse, you might be dead.
Challenge of the Masters/Executioners from Shaolin
Disc 5 gives us 2 films directed by Liu Chia-Liang. The first is a piece Wong Fei-Hung-sploitation called Challenge of the Masters. This one sees Fei-Hung not quite at the height of his abilities (pretty much the exact opposite), and being quite the jerk. He loses at a tournament, and finds himself with a new master, which does not quite work out, and now he must seek revenge using the skills he’s learned. This one is a lot of fun, and a bit tonally different with a nice philosophical side to it, as well as nice top of the line action scenes.
Executioners from Shaolin is a straight up classic. This one involves Pai Mei destroying the Shaolin Temple and killing any survivors of it’s destruction. Those who remain escape on boats hiding as Chinese opera stars including Hze-Kwan who meets the woman of his dreams aboard the ship, soon after they marry and have a child. However, Hze-Kwan has not forgotten the devastation and has begun training to get revenge. Unfortuanately, when he goes to get it, he is killed by Pai Mei. This leaves his son to get it for him, the child, only knows his Mother’s crane technique and must teach himself kung fu from a tattered book to prepare himself to take on the evil Pai Mei! I’ve seen this one quite a few times and enjoy it more each time. The set pieces are fantatic, and the fights especially the finale are over the top and exciting. I do hope sometime soon Arrow gets their hands on the sequel Fist of the White Lotus!
Chinatown Kid
This is a modern film from Shaw, and also a bit of a masterpiece in its own right. This one stars Alexander Fu-Shang as a gangster from China, who runs off to San Francisco to escape from a life of crime, only to end up right back in the dirt. Split between the goodness of a new friend, and the allure and materialism that the western crime world can provide Alexander has to figure out what side he wants to be on. This one is straight up 80’s Asian action with a large focus on guns over kung fu, and it works really well. This one comes with 2 cuts a 90 minute version which was the primary one seen in the U.S. Since release and that feels kind of absurdly different and just wrong, and a full strength 114 minute version that is brilliant.
Five Deadly Venoms/Crippled Avengers
OK, Five Deadly Venoms this is straight up classic Shaw Brothers Kung Fu. Crippled Avengers is known in some territories as the Return of the Five Deadly Venoms, but is basically just the cast returning for a 2nd go-around. Five Deadly Venoms opens with an awesome montage of the 5 members of the Venom Mob each named for a different animal, insect variant (Centipede, Toad, Scorpion, etc) learning their kung fu, before we get into the plot where the master of the house sends his final protege into the world to see if these masked venoms have turned to evil. He will only know them by their kung fu methods, which he knows a mix of. In the midst of this is murder, mystery, and wild and colorful Kung Fu. This film is a must. The other film Crippled Avengers is a wild ride, that while not similar to the former, follows a group of 4 severely handicapped fighters who learn to work together to seek revenge on the Father/Son pair that did them wrong. This one is intense and has just a sheer amazing style, like Five Deadly Venoms it is directed by Chang Cheh.
Heroes of the East/Dirty Ho
Someone giggled.
The final Blu-ray disc in the set includes the over the top action fest Heroes of the East. This one blends romance, comedy, and straight up action as a man in an arranged marriage with a woman from Japan debates the merits of Chinese vs. Japanese martial arts with his wife to be, and finds his future Father in Law sending martial arts assassins to take him down in the Japanese style. This one is a hoot and a half, and is a personal favorite since I saw the DD disc years ago.
Dirty Ho is a fun little entry that sees Gordon Liu starring as a prince who is trying to protect his future position, at the same time track town a thief named Ho. He combines both objectives by tracking Ho down and hiring him as a protector. This is a solid action-comedy, not quite over the top in the Jackie Chan vein, but a solid good time.
The 12 films in Shawscope Volume One are taken from a mix of new 4Kmasters from the original negative and 1080p transfers provided by Celestial, in some cases like Chinatown Kid where variant versions are included that bring together versions of the film that were lost or unseen there are occasional dips in quality, but for the most part these are excellent restorations of some Kung Fu classics across the board with very film like textures, and detail. Do I wish the 4k transfers had UHD options? Yeah, but at this point I’m just happy these are getting released. All the films have HD enabled audio tracks in English and Mandarin for all films, and it comes through crisp and clear. Extras include a huge amount of both new and archival interviews, commentaries, and documentaries across all discs, and 2 Soundtracks CD’s which takes queues from 6 of the films. There is also an extensive booklet of liner notes. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, and BRING ON VOLUME 2!