Shawscope Vol. 4.
Directed by Shan Hua/Meng-Hua Ho/Hsueh-Li Pao/Chih-Hung Kuei/Yuen Chor/Shan Hua/Liu Chia-Yung/Tak-Cheung Tang/Kuen Yeung/Alex Cheung.
Starring Danny Lee, Terry Liu, Bruce Le, Lily Li, Ni Tien, Lo Lieh, Lung Ti, Melvin Wong, James Yi Lui, Lo Meng, Shen Chan, Tony Liu, Jenny Liang, Norman Chu, Yu-Po Liu, David Lo, Ku Feng, Jason Pai Piao, Yung Wang, and Phillip Ko Fai.
SYNOPSIS:
The fourth in Arrow Video’s extensive Shaw Brothers box sets, with a leaning towards horror, sci-fi and fantasy.
It wasn’t that long ago that Shaw Brothers movies were not that easy to get hold of in the UK in any sort of decent print. Yes, you could get a DVD of The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires – their 1974 vampire/kung-fu crossover with Hammer – but other titles were not so easy to find, unless you fancied importing expensive foreign discs. However, thanks to the determination of several boutique labels to give these titles a new life on an HD format, we now get graced with box sets like Arrow’s Shawscope collections, which is now on its fourth volume.
This one does not come without its controversies – as most of these announcements do when hardcore physical media collectors get riled up – but those stem from the fact that some of these titles have been released on Blu-ray before by other labels, meaning that the faithful will likely already have them. This being Arrow Video, though, these movies have been restored to a higher quality with 2K scans and extended scenes that were previously not included, making these versions very different from ones that you may already own.
First up is The Super Inframan from 1975, a title that has been previously available, and what a way to kick this set off. Riffing off the iconic Ultraman, this is a superhero movie that drops you straight into the action and doesn’t let up for the next 90 minutes, as the Demon Princess Elizebub (Terry Liu) awakens and threatens to take over the world, starting with Hong Kong. This forces scientist Professor Liu Ying-Te into creating Inframan (Danny Lee), a superhero with seemingly unlimited skills, to save the world from the glacial demon and her minions of creatures.
Impressed by the success of Ultraman, Shaw Brothers producer Run Run Shaw created Inframan to tap into the same vein of child-friendly heroes battling monsters with lasers, darts, guns, swords and any other weapons that get imaginative kids excited, and if you’ve ever seen Power Rangers then you know exactly what type of action you are in for as The Super Inframan is basically the blueprint for that.
Having been previously released on Blu-ray in the UK, this 2K restoration noticeably improves the image clarity, and with a brand new lossless audio track in Mandarin, Cantonese and English, plus the US theatrical version of the movie, an interview with star Bruce Le, audio commentary and video essay, The Super Inframan is a high energy and extras-packed way to open this set, even if the movie itself is a little repetitive.
But the fun continues on disc two, first with The Oily Maniac from 1976 which sees Danny Lee return (he will pop up a few times in this set) as Shen Yuan, a crippled lawyer who uses crutches to walk, and when he is called to defend a businessman who accidentally kills a man attacking his daughter, he is also given a spell that turns him into the titular slimy monster, complete with superhuman strength and a desire to right the wrongs the local criminal gangs have been causing.
The first, but certainly not the last, delve into horror for this box set, The Oily Maniac is based on an Asian folktale and you could probably say with some certainty that Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufman saw this at some point as it is basically the same plot as The Toxic Avenger. Much like Troma’s movie, The Oily Maniac is pure exploitation and never tries to be anything other than an entertaining good time as Danny Lee repeatedly covers himself in dark green oil and lurches around in a huge rubber costume, and yes, it is all very daft but it hits all the beats that all the best grindhouse classics do – gore, nudity, sex, violence and martial arts – and even steals John Williams’ Jaws theme for its attack scenes – what more could you ask for?
Also on disc two is 1977s The Battle Wizard, and wuxia fantasy is on the cards as Danny Lee plays Prince Tuan Yu, who does not like violence and disobeyed his father’s orders to train in martial arts. However, the prince soon becomes embroiled in a quest involving a snake charmer, a beautiful masked warrior and an old grudge involving his womanising father and his former lover, which all gets very complicated but rest assured, the prince gets tested and his inner warrior comes out.
What also comes out is some cheesy, but fun, 1970s special effects (battle) wizardry, bizarre hybrid creatures that could have come straight out of a Flash Gordon story and, quite simply, one of the weirdest movies that Shaw Brothers put out. However, much like The Super Inframan, this is adrenalised entertainment that barely lets up, although unlike that movie there is plenty of variety as the book-reading prince must take on several different creatures with an assortment of weapons and some magical assistance. It makes very little sense, but by the third or fourth gang fight, does it really matter?
Both movies on that disc come with audio commentaries but no other special features, and the same applies to disc three, which contains the heavy-hitting double-whammy of Black Magic and Black Magic 2. Originally from 1975, Black Magic sees Shaw Brothers fully embracing horror to cash-in on the likes of Hammer, who were in something of a decline at this point, and stars Ku Feng as black magician Shan Jianmi, who excels in casting love spells for various locals who ask for his help. Unfortunately, his magic works a little too well and when he has designs on one of his customer’s objects of desire, all manner of crazy potions and spells get cast as people fall in and out of lust.
As the movie was so successful, Shaw Brothers followed it up in 1976 with Black Magic Part 2, which was subtitled Revenge of the Zombies (and renamed as that for its run on 42nd Street in New York) and sees doctor Chi Chung Peng (Lung Ti), his wife Qi Ling (Ni Tien) and two friends come up against Kang Cong (Lo Lieh), a youthful-looking black magician who is really 80 years-old and remains looking so young by drinking human breast milk, and as the scientists try to prove the weird goings-on around them have a basis in scientific fact, Cong tries to prove them wrong with his ancient spells and ability to create zombies.
To be honest, both movies are very silly but when they give you what you came for they are totally mental and tremendous fun. However, they both – the first one more than the second – suffer with pacing issues that mean they lag a lot over their 90-minute-plus runtime, which is about 10 minutes too long for movies of this ilk.
Nevertheless, horror is what you want and horror is what you get (sort of), and although both movies have some crazy special effects to create their monsters, the budgetary limitations haven’t helped them age particularly well. The 2K scans do a lot of the heavy lifting, and whilst you can see the joins thanks to very tidy images, the backgrounds, costumes and general picture quality are a vast improvement on any previous scans you may have seen. Each movie comes with an audio commentary – critics James Mudge for the first movie and Samm Deighan for the sequel – which vastly improves the experience of watching them, as they help keep you focused when the action slips, but with no other extras there is very little else going on with these two films. Both are worth watching once as they are notable titles in the Shaw Brothers catalogue, and their horror movies do generate a certain atmosphere and tone which is very addictive if grindhouse-style nonsense is your particular catnip, but as far as entertaining movies go there are others in this set that blow these away.
One of them being Hex from 1980. In this one, the frail Chan Sau Ying (Ni Tien) is married to the abusive Yeung Chan (Yung Wang) and when his violence goes too far, she and her new housemaid drown him whilst trying to protect themselves. They dump his body in a nearby pond but it isn’t long before Yeung Chan has been spotted again, the two women believing his ghost has come back for revenge.
There is a bit more to it, but essentially Hex has a very similar plot to French classic Les Diaboliques, albeit with a bit more Shaw Brothers style to it. For most of its running time it is a spooky melodrama that keeps threatening to burst out into something truly weird and exciting, but never quite gets there.
That is, until the final 15 minutes and then everything goes crazy, with the promise of black magic exploitation finally fulfilled and we get an extended exorcism scene involving a naked female demon and an old witch. Does it thematically tie-in with the bulk of the previous 90-odd minutes? No, not really, but it makes the slower, plot-based stuff worth sticking with, as if somebody realised at the last minute there was very little in the way of excitement going on, and for that we should be very grateful.
This version comes with no extras whatsoever, but the picture quality is much improved over any previous releases, and despite it not being the most colourful movie in this set, that image polish pays off in the final act, much like with the script.
Also on this disc is Bewitched, from 1981. Sticking with horror, Bewitched sees police detective Bobby Wong (Melvin Wong) investigating the death of a young girl whose body was found with a large metal spike hammered into her head. Suspicion falls on the father, and a tale of a wronged lover and black magic unfolds, resulting in Detective Wong seeking a priest to exorcise the demons that are responsible for driving folk mad.
A fairly straightforward plot but Bewitched does suffer from the crime of being too long, running at 107 minutes and being padded out fill that time. However, there are moments that elevate it, such as the dead girl having the metal spike pulled from her head within the first few minutes, and the exorcism stuff is hilariously manic and, occasionally, very bloody. Much like with Hex, the human drama stuff is a little overdone and we spend far too long with the accused father and his relationship with the Thai woman who puts a curse on him. Yes, it is setting up what the second half of the movie is about, but a bit of editing wouldn’t have gone amiss. Nevertheless, when the fun stuff starts Bewitched is enjoyably bonkers and manages to create a suitably dark and gruesome atmosphere, but next to Hex it feels too messy and it never really gathers the same momentum.
This one comes with an audio commentary by James Mudge but nothing else and, as with Hex, it has been released on Blu-ray before and has been noticeably tidied up for this box set. So, despite their flaws, the movies on disc four make for a decent double-bill of Shaw Brothers horror high jinks, but where will Shawscope take us next?
Back to the well, as it were, by revisiting Hex, albeit in name only as 1980s Hex vs. Witchcraft has nothing to do with the previous title. In fact, it has more to do with the Robin Askwith sex comedies of the 1970s as compulsive gambler Cai Tou (James Yi Lui) is offered the chance to have all of his debts paid off by Triad leader Brother Nine (Shen Chan) if Cai Tou will let him spend the night with his beautiful wife. Things go wrong, of course, and Brother Nine offers the chancer the choice of suicide or have his thugs murder him.
Not much of a choice, but now his wife has left him and with 24 hours to make his decision, Cai Tou accepts an offer from an old man to marry his daughter’s ghost in exchange for a house and excessive cash payments. He’d be silly to refuse, right?
On the same disc is Hex After Hex, a direct sequel which sees bodybuilder Tsang Ma Su (Lo Meng) – who was a neighbour of Cai Tou in Hex vs. Witchcraft – being offered a bag of gold and more to follow by the same old man if he marries the ghost of his daughter. Initially refusing, the ghost then possesses the recently deceased body of his neighbour’s girlfriend and Tsang Ma Su falls in love, with good fortune coming his way as his new love uses her powers to get him out of the fixes he finds himself in.
The bulk of the plot – or what there is of one – concerns Tsang Ma Su’s ruthless boss, a property owner, and trying to make him see the error of his ways, and like Hex vs. Witchcraft it does have the feel of a 1970s sex comedy, but there is a little bit of the supernatural going on, which that movie lacked, although it is extremely padded out.
Both of these movies have nothing to do with the original Hex but they are all made by the same director so, in a move similar to what the Italians did with the Demons and Zombi franchises, Shaw Brothers stuck the Hex name on them to help sell them. Unfortunately, without the more serious occult tone that first movie had, both movies just fall back into (unfunny) comedy skits that don’t really connect to anything more cohesive in regards to an overall plot. Hex After Hex is the better of the two, as the goofiness is toned down a bit and the sub-plot with the evil boss is quite amusing, even if it feel like an episode Terry and June with a bit of extra swearing, but at over 100 minutes each, both movies are too bloated to be engaging, not funny enough to work as comedies and lacking anything other than a green-lit woman in a skull mask to qualify as horror. That said, if extended scenes of naked disco dancing are your thing then Hex vs. Witchcraft has you covered, but that is really the highlight of that movie, if you can call it a highlight. Hex After Hex, however, does contain a weird Star Wars parody featuring a ghost Yoda and Darth Vader with silver wings on his helmet (and a green lightsaber!), so make of that what you will.
Disc number six sees a return to period fantasy epics, the first of which is Bat Without Wings from 1980, and if George Lucas didn’t sue Shaw Brothers for ripping off Star Wars in Hex After Hex then Gene Simmons from KISS should have for this as the main villain has the same greasepaint makeup as the bass-playing demon. Come to think of it, it is Gene Simmons so he probably did sue.
Anyway, in Bat Without Wings the Gene Simmons lookalike is a notorious fiend who disappeared after a huge battle five years ago. Upon his return he kidnaps a beautiful village girl, forcing her fiancé and a fellow swordsman to go to her rescue, facing all sorts of traps and villains as they make their way through the underworld.
It all sounds rather fun on paper, and director Yuen Chor does manage to create a suitably spooky atmosphere with some creative lighting choices and wonderful looking sets, but Bat Without Wings unfortunately never lives up to its promise and is quite a chore to sit through as our intrepid heroes go from swordfight to swordfight with Gene Simmons… sorry, The Bat (as he is known) occasionally popping up. Had they actually cast Gene Simmons and maybe had a musical number or two it might be worth sticking with for some camp value, but aside from The Bat exhibiting something of a vampiric personality, which adds a little spice, whenever he is not onscreen the rest of the cast just seem to be going through the motions to get to the next set piece with very little substance.
However, movie number two on this disc is 1981s Bloody Parrot and, fortunately, puts things right again as this movie covers pretty much all bases when it comes to exploitation. Beginning with a plot involving the theft of the Emperor’s treasure, lone swordsman Ye Ting Feng (Jason Pai Piao) is accused of the crime but in trying to prove his innocence he gets involved in a search for the titular bird, which can grant wishes if you see it and is said to be able to bring the dead back to life. This leads our hero to a brothel where high-class sex worker Xue Nu (Jenny Liang), who is obsessed with the legend of the Bloody Parrot, gets possessed by the sexy mural painted on her wall, as every witch, zombie and demon follows Ye Ting Feng on his quest.
Totally nuts and delivering on everything you would want from this sort of movie, Bloody Parrot tips its hat on more than one occasion to Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead as when Xue Nu – who spends most of the movie topless – gets possessed she is white-eyed, blue-skinned and highly energetic as she throws herself around, cursing anyone who gets near her and generally being quite terrifying, but in an amusing way. Not much of the movie makes sense but when the energy is this kinetic and relentless it doesn’t really matter, and the sex and violence keep coming right up until the final frames, making Bloody Parrot quite exhausting but a whole heap of fun. Add to that some spook-tacular neon green and pink lighting, a likeable hero and the vague sense of a quest with a beginning, a middle and an end then Bloody Parrot is a much-needed shot of 1980s black magic/wuxia/sex comedy adrenaline after the previous few movies in the set. Both movies on this disc also come with an audio commentary by critic Samm Deighan, which help heighten the experience, and with no previous UK Blu-ray release to compare to these are fantastic looking prints, but there are no other extras on the disc.
Unfortunately, disc seven does not continue the quality as the next movie is The Fake Ghost Catchers, and the title pretty much tells you all you need to know as there are a couple of con men who create fake seances in order to convince grieving widows to part with their cash in order to speak to their departed loved ones, who is really the younger lackey in a mask. Said lackey and his naive cousin soon get involved in a corruption scandal and, wouldn’t you know it, it turns out that ghosts really do exist and they end up being haunted by one.
It’s a mad-cap comedy with a few spooky scenes, but it goes on for far too long for a movie with no real plot so what you end up with are several well-choreographed fight scenes, a few slapstick gags and a couple of chucklesome moments when the two young men realise that the tricks one of them has been pulling to get cash out of grieving widows are not tricks and the thunder and lightening really is the undead. It is very silly and doesn’t hold your attention for all that long, with the repetitive action scenes looking good but ultimately not being that interesting.
And pretty much the same could be said for 1983s Demon of the Lute, in which an ancient lute-demon named Chin Mo has materialised on Earth to cause chaos. The only way to destroy Chin Mo is with a magical bow and arrow, and so a rag-tag band of heroes must seek out the weapon and destroy the beast.
Which sounds all well and good but, as with The Fake Ghost Catchers, there really isn’t a lot here to keep you engaged for the 106-minute running time. However, the movie is dressed up like a rock n’ roll fantasy sword-and-sorcery epic but with a tone that is very much aimed towards younger audiences, so you would think there would be a lot to get excited about – and there are some funny and enjoyable moments to be had – but there just isn’t enough meat on the bone to back up the endless wuxia sword fights, impressive as they are, and so after about 30 minutes the novelty has worn off. At least the rock soundtrack is quite cool and it is bright and vibrant to look at, and this one does come with an audio commentary by martial arts cinema expert Frank Djeng which does help hold your interest, but despite the childish insanity of it, Demon of the Lute is a bit… annoying.
But it is back to the horror on the next disc, as first up we have Seeding of a Ghost, one of the better-known titles in the Chinese black magic cycle. Here, cab driver Chau Tang (Phillip Ko Fai) accidentally runs over a black magic priest in his cab, with the priest placing a curse on Chow. Meanwhile, Chow’s wife is having an affair and after having a row with her lover she is pursued, raped and murdered by two hooligans, so a distraught Chow goes to see the priest to lift the curse and return his wife to the land of the living.
Returning to the dark and creepy atmosphere conjured up in Hex, Seeding of a Ghost is a hugely enjoyable occult chiller that has the air of comic absurdity about it but it never goes totally manic, although some of the practical corpse effects near the end haven’t aged particularly well. Nevertheless, the plot is strong and the movie covers all bases when it comes to genre cornerstones, including exploding stomachs, protruding spines, full-frontal nudity, clueless cops, some hilarious Baywatch-esque slow-motion topless running on a beach and a black magic priest who might as well be Yoda if Yoda read Dennis Wheatley novels. It all makes for a fun and entertaining horror romp that doesn’t really get going for the first 40 minutes – as that is all the setup for getting Chow’s wife killed – but once Chow goes to the priest for vengeance, all bets are off.
Coming backed with an audio commentary by James Mudge, Seeding of a Ghost has been released on Blu-ray in the UK before but this 2K restoration gives it a new life, showing off more detail than before, although – as is the curse of HD – some of the practical effects lose a little of their magic as you can see the joins. Still, at least they are practical and the less-refined look is in keeping with the slightly weird vibe of the movie.
Also on this disc is Portrait in Crystal from 1983. In this one we straddle horror, fantasy and wuxia again in a very vibrant and atmospheric setting as we are told a legend about sculptures carved out of ancient crystal coming to life if a drop of human blood touches them, so you can guess what happens next.
Yes, a sculpture of a female warrior is carved and the artist responsible cuts himself on his ultra-sharp blade, bringing to life this crystal warrior who goes on the rampage. It is a beautiful movie to watch as the wuxia action is set to a background of smoky forests lit with green and pink neon, and at only 82 minutes long it is the shortest movie in this set. However, after the initial setup, Portrait in Crystal becomes a mess as too many characters are introduced and it is very confusing trying to work out who is who and what relation they are to each other. Luckily, the action is superb, the effects cheap but effective – they do like their exploding stomachs at Shaw Brothers – and it is never boring, but when it does slow down a bit to catch its breath you are still none the wiser as to what is actually going on and what the point of it all is, so if you just sit back and enjoy the spectacle then Portrait in Crystal is a fun ride, but don’t look too deeply into it as that path leads to total confusion.
Disc nine contains only one movie, that being Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, also from 1983, and if you thought that this collection of movies had been a bit mad so far then Arrow Video have topped it off with the sort of insanity that makes you question what was going through the filmmaker’s minds when they made it.
At its heart, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is a science fiction tale about aliens abducting women and a weary police detective who wishes to exploit the situation and maybe make a name for himself. That is the basic framework of the plot – if you can call it that – but add in several comedy skits, the policemen having to dress up as women so the aliens will take them, a Star Wars rip-off more blatant and silly than the one in Hex After Hex – and that’s saying something – and a pastiche on Marilyn Monroe’s famous skirt-lifting scene from The Seven Year Itch, along with the tonal shifts that normally come with these sort of chaotic action pieces and you have one huge mess of a movie.
Granted, some of the humour hits – because who wouldn’t find a floppy lightsaber funny? – but this nonsense goes on for over 90 minutes and becomes a drag to sit through as you realise there is very little actually happening that relates to the previous scene you have just watched. It is sort of fun, and it does look fantastic as most Shaw Brothers movies do, but in what was supposed to be a big career move for director Alex Cheung the movie did not do well critically – despite reasonable box office returns – and his reputation never really recovered, despite making several movies after this one that found favour with audiences.
As there are no other movies on this disc, you do get some extras in the shape of an audio commentary by Frank Djeng, a new interview with director/co-writer Alex Cheung, a newly filmed appreciation by film scholar Victor Fan and a trailer, all of which are worth checking out for, despite Twinkle Twinkle Little Star being a mess, it is one that needs to be seen if only to be sure that some of these ideas were committed to camera. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but cult movies are what you go to Arrow Video for and this one certainly fits the description.
All of which leaves disc number ten, which consists of bonus material that the two-movie discs did not have room for, namely a 1972 French TV feature about Shaw Brothers and several video essays and appreciations from such notable academics as Kim Newman, Leon Hunt, Luke White, Wayne Wong and Victor Fan, all of which may persuade you to think differently about some of the lesser movies here, but all are worth your time.
And that is Shawscope Vol. 4. Is it the best Shaw Brothers box set Arrow Video have put out? Maybe, depending on your taste for genre-bending mash-ups, but it is certainly the most diverse and interesting. The best movies here – Hex, The Oily Maniac, Seeding of a Ghost – have all had UK Blu-ray releases before so there is an argument for whether double-dipping is worth it, and the answer is a cautious yes as these restored prints do look better than they ever have before, but the lack of extras for those titles may not be enough to persuade those who already have them. Of the rest, Bloody Parrot and Portrait in Crystal are the main highlights, although all of the movies have something to offer (except Hex vs. Witchcraft, which is terrible) but tread carefully if you are not fully versed in Shaw Brothers and their output because diversity in the box set’s content also means inconsistency in its entertainment value. Still, it’ll be fascinating to see what they come up with for Volume 5.
The Super Inframan – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
The Oily Maniac – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
The Battle Wizard – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Black Magic – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Black Magic Part 2 – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Hex – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Bewitched – Film: ★/ Movie: ★ ★ ★
Hex vs. Witchcraft – Film: ★ / Movie: ★
Hex After Hex – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Bat Without Wings – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Bloody Parrot – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
The Fake Ghost Catchers – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Demon of the Lute – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Seeding of a Ghost – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Portrait in Crystal – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Chris Ward
