Director/s: Lau Kar-leung, Lo Mar, Chang Cheh, Wong Jing, Kuei Chih-hung, Johnnie To
Producers: Shaw Brothers
Starring: Gordon Liu, Lau Kar-Leung, Hsiao Hou, Kara Hui, Ti Lung, Philip Kwok, Lo Meng, Chien Sun, Sheng Chiang, Lu Feng, Phillip Ko Fei, Lo Lieh, Jet Li, Aaron Kwok and many others
Year: 1978+
Country: UK
BBFC Certification: 15
Duration: 1415 mins
Following on from our previously reviewed, 5-star, Volume 1 boxset, this epic Shaw Brothers collection of martial arts titles is an absolute delight, bordering on sensory overload if you are a fan of the genre. The package, a 10-disc boxset with 14 films in 8 Blu-ray discs, plus 2 music CDs, also features numerous extras, interviews and documentaries. It’s a veritable feast of kung-fu, covering some of the more memorable titles from that genre-defining production house of Shaw Brothers.
The films featured in this second collection span from late 1970s to mid 1980s, i.e. towards the end of Shaw Brothers Studio film production. They include: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Return to the 36th Chamber, Disciples of the 36th Chamber, Mad Monkey Kung Fu, Five Superfighters, Invincible Shaolin, The Kid with the Golden Arm, Magnificent Ruffians, Ten Tigers of Kwangtung, My Young Auntie, Mercenaries from Hong Kong, The Boxer’s Omen, Martial Arts of Shaolin, The Bare-Footed Kid.
I won’t deny it was a massive undertaking to review this collection, and although I really enjoyed the experience of watching the films and learning from the bonus features, it’ll be pretentious to do any more than present a quick summary / impression of each film in this anthology. I certainly hope it piques interest and / or curiosity to watch or re-watch some of these classic Kung-fu titles. Enjoy!
Films
The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin (1978)
This is the quintessential Shaw Brothers classic with that iconic opening credit sequence, which shot Gordon Liu into instant stardom. I’ll say it again, the opening credit sequence was da bomb! Director Lau Kar-Leung is on epic form with this film, and no surprise given his impressive body of works which include: Shaolin and Wu Tang, or Return to the 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Mad Monkey Kung-fu, and My Young Auntie (also included in this collection).
Set the era of Fu Manchu versus the Han rebellion, Liu Yude (Gordon Liu) is a poor student caught up in their incessant search for spies, and suffering the loss of his parents in the process. He goes to the Shaolin temple to learn Kung Fu with a heart full of vengeance, but in the process of going through the Temple’s 35 chambers he achieves enlightenment and transforms to become a true Monk bearing the name San De. His mission evolves to teach Kung Fu skills to otherwise lay people in the eponymous 36th Chamber of Shaolin which he created for that very purpose.
Part historic drama, part fiction, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is about the spread of Shaolin Kung-fu from temple based monks-only practitioners to common people in the fight against Qing dynasty Manchurian oppression. Apparently, the hero’s character is actually based on 2 historical figures; one was the son of a fisherman (Yude), and the other an actual monk (San De). Great production values and masterful craft are evident in every aspect of this film, including: the incandescent fight choreography, the Shaolin training sequences through all 35 Chambers, as well as scintillating character evolution. What a masterpiece!
Bonus Features
- Feature commentary by critic Travis Crawford
- Select-scene commentary by film critic and historian Tony Rayns
- Interview with star Gordon Liu, filmed in 2003
- Interview with cinematographer Arthur Wong, filmed in 2006
- Shaolin: Birthplace of a Hero – archive featurette with Gordon Liu
- Elegant Trails – archive featurette with Gordon Liu produced by Celestial Pictures in 2003
- Tiger Style: The Musical Impact of Martial Arts Cinema, a newly filmed overview of Shaw Brothers’ influence on hip hop and other music genres, featuring music historian Lovely Jon
- Cinema Hong Kong: Swordfighting (2003) – 2nd instalment in a three-part documentary featuring interviews with Gordon Liu, Lau Kar-leung, Cheng Pei-pei, John Woo, Sammo Hung, Kara Hui, David Chiang and others
- Alternate opening credits from the American version titled Master Killer
- Trailer Gallery – Hong Kong and German theatrical trailers, plus US TV spot
- Image gallery
Return To The 36th Chamber (1980)
This 36th Chamber sequel is both enchantingly humorous and irreverent without losing any of the high-octane action or moral messaging of the first film, along with some clear parallels in the main character’s arc.
Trickster Ah Jie tries to help oppressed mill workers by posing as a Shaolin monk but he only succeeds in making things worse for them with dire consequences. Convinced to try and learn the real thing, Ah Jie tries every trick in the book to get into the Shaolin training program, until he is eventually allowed to learn and train whilst also working as a handyman doing odd jobs in the temple, including fixing the roof and erecting bamboo scaffolding.
A more mature and fully trained Ah Jie returns as a real Shaolin monk and proceeds to set things straight with the gangsters, culminating in some fantastic battles, including an incredible showdown with the boss where Ah Jie displays his mastery of construction material or any handy items to do his Kung-fu battle. I’ll never think of bamboo scaffolding in quite the same way.
Bonus Features
- Interview with star Gordon Liu, filmed in 2003
- Citizen Shaw (1980) – Sir Run Run Shaw gives an all-access tour of the Shaw Brothers backlot (including behind-the-scenes footage from Return to the 36th Chamber), remastered in high definition
- Hero on the Scaffolding (filmed in 2003)
- Alternate opening credits sequences for both films
- Trailer gallery – Hong Kong theatrical trailers
- Image gallery
Disciples Of The 36th Chamber (1985)
Directed once again by Lau Kar-Leung, this third instalment of the 36th Chamber story line, features the same trademark kick-ass Kung fu and moral arc for the main character as he transitions from rascal to responsibility.
The focus is very much on mischievous Fang Shiyu, and his brothers Xiaoyu and Meiyu, as they get in trouble with the Manchurian military and through the intervention of their mom (also a famous martial artist), succeed in getting into the Shaolin temple as lay disciples thus escaping harsh punishment. Shiyu is a gifted kung-fu fighter but can’t seem to stay out of trouble, not even in the Shaolin temple where they train under Abbot San De (Gordon Liu) and his 36th Chamber. Shiyu is impatient to use his Kung fu against the oppressive Manchurian officials, even playing truant to attend and taunt them with impunity at their official events, because they are restrained from openly attacking anyone connected to the Shaolin temple,
Fang Shiyu’s insolence eventually leads to expulsion from Shaolin and he heads back to his new Manchurian ‘friend’, only to discover their duplicitous nature when the commander succeeds in poisoning him, and his brothers narrowly avoid the same fate due to a most timely intervention by San De and his monks who then embark on a climactic melee of Shaolin Kung fu versus the Manchurian military. This film is highly polished, albeit with some farcical and frenetic Kung fu fight scenes, as Ah Jie remains cheeky to the very end.
Bonus Features
- Interview with star Gordon Liu, filmed in 2003
- Alternate opening credits sequences for both films
- Trailer gallery – Hong Kong theatrical trailers
- Image gallery
Mad Monkey Kung Fu (1979)
One of Lau Kar-Leung’s more tragicomic movie showcasing his typical out-of-this-world action with near slapstick comedy, and one in which he plays the lead role of Chen, a small-time, itinerant theatrical company lead, with a troupe of actors including his sister. Chen is a capable Kung-fu fighter, but has a drinking problem which leads him to fall into a trap set by a local brothel owner and rival. Chen is framed for a most heinous act, and as punishment his hands are broken, plus his sister agrees to go into servitude for the pimp in exchange for her brothers life.
Downfall complete, Chen struggles to eke out a meagre living with his pet monkey and nephew, but a local gangsters makes life intolerable, kills his monkey and hurts the nephew. He reluctantly agrees to train the nephew in the mad monkey style, which is full of unpredictable acrobatic moves and crotch grabbing tomfoolery with some far too silly hi-jinks for my liking.
Unfortunately, things take a dark turn with the loss of Chen’s sister as she sacrifices herself to save the nephew who returns with Chen for a final show down with the brothel owner and his thugs. Great entertainment with good twists and turns.
Bonus Features
- Commentary by Frank Djeng and Michael Worth – commentary on Mad Monkey Kung Fu by martial arts cinema experts
- Tony Rayns on Mad Monkey Kung Fu – by film critic and historian Tony Rayns
- Interview with actor Hsiao Hou, filmed in 2004
- Shaw in the USA – How Shaw Brothers broke America featuring Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali, authors of These Fists Break Bricks
- Trailer gallery – Hong Kong and US theatrical trailers
- Image gallery
Five Superfighters (1979)
An interesting little film with some inexplicable plot holes that do not deter it from being a lovely romp of a Kung-fu skills master classes.
A skilled Kung-fu assassin goes into town and proceeds to beat up local Kung-fu students and masters in their schools. Three of the students manage to escape and decide to part ways and seek to acquire equally deadly Kung fu skills in order to return and defeat the assassin, plus avenge their now destitute master.
They encounter three separate kung fu masters from whom they learn three superior styles including: the Deadly Kick style (from a Kung-fu widow) , The Crane style (from a drunken immortal), and the deadly fisherman staff (from a fisherman style kung fu expert). Meanwhile their master, all alone and depressed takes to drinking and quarrelling, once even challenging his sole benefactor to a fight, until the students return 6 months later. They come to the aid of their master and proceed to roundly trounce the assassin with their newly acquired skills in deadly combinations of flair and kung fu wizardery.
Features Bonus
- Shaw in the USA, a brand new featurette on how Shaw Brothers broke America featuring Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali, authors of These Fists Break Bricks
- Trailer gallery – Hong Kong theatrical trailer and UK VHS promo
- Image gallery
The Kid With The Golden Arm (1979)
Director Chang Cheh’s film is one of several made with the crew of skilled actors and Kung-Fu experts famously known as the Venom Mob. The Kid with the Golden Arm is one of four movies in this collection (including Invincible Shaolin, Magnificent Ruffians and Ten Tigers of Kwangtung) featuring the venom mob stalwarts, Lo Meng (as Golden Arm kid), Chien Sun, Philip Kwok, Sheng Chiang, and Lu Feng.
In this story, Golden Arm’s gang, the notorious deadly valley, are out to rob a shipment of gold meant meant for famine refugees, and Hu Wei’s (Chien Sun) security firm is tasked with protecting the shipment, along with four specially recruited deputies of: Silver Spear (Lu Feng), Heroine Leng, plus Long Axe and Short Axe (Sheng Chiang). Local Sheriff, Hai Toh (Philip Kwok) takes on responsibility for ensuring the gold is safe and that deadly valley won’t succeed, but a major plot twist at the end reveals both Hu Wei’s greed and a treacherous alliance!
Bonus Feature:
- Interview with action director Robert Tai, filmed in 2003
- Poison Clan Rocks The World, a brand new visual essay on the Venom Mob written and narrated by author Terrence J. Brady
- Alternate “continuity” cut of The Kid With The Golden Arm, presented via seamless branching
- Alternate and textless title sequences for The Kid with the Golden Arm
- Trailer Gallery – Hong Kong theatrical trailer (audio only) and US TV spot for The Kid with the Golden Arm
- Image Gallery
Invincible Shaolin (1978)
Another classic Chang Cheh helmed film, featuring the renowned Deadly Venom crew in a tale of anguish, betrayal, and general knock-you-socks-off Kung fu action.
Three Northern Shaolin masters from Shongshan are invited to instruct the soldiers of General Pu (Wang Lung-Wei), an imperial general with a nefarious plot to pit the North and South Shaolin Temples against each other. He very nearly succeeds after killing three of the Southern Shaolin masters and framing their deaths on the Northern masters – ostensibly because they had a brief scuffle during their initial introduction meeting to showcase their individual prowess.
In addition to the usual top notch Kung fu, This film features some truly amazing training techniques including Lo Meng’s (as Chu) mantis style Kung-fu, Chiang Shengs’s butterfly pole, and of course, Philip Kwok’s Whirlwind Kicks style, among others. It also delivered some climactic fight sequences complete with gruesome deaths galore.
Bonus Features:
- Interview with action director Robert Tai, filmed in 2003
- Poison Clan Rocks The World, a brand new visual essay on the Venom Mob written and narrated by author Terrence J. Brady
- Trailer gallery – Hong Kong theatrical trailer for Invincible Shaolin
- Image gallery
Magnificent Ruffians (1979)
Master Yuan Ying-Fei (Lu Feng) aka The Golden Sword rules the town but is bored without anyone to test his inherited skills and sword from his father, the legendary Golden Sword. For diversion Yuan challenges anyone even with minimal Kung-fu to fight against his golden sword skills, often killing them in the process. The ever acquisitive Yuan goes after Guan Ah-Yun’s family bureau business, but Guan (played by Meng Lo) is not afraid to refuse him, but he can’t attack Guan having fallen for Guan’s sister (An-Li Liao) whom wants nothing to do with him.
When three Kung-fu skilled ruffians and a vagabond arrive in town, taking turns “eating for a beating”, Yuan sees a way to create conflict and win Miss Guan by befriending and pitting them against her brother. This results in tragedy when Guan is killed by an exploding pole planted by Yuan and his sidekicks, and the subsequent suicide of Guan’s mother and sister, leads to a final showdown between the two surviving ruffians and Yuan Ying-Fei.
The Epic final combat pits Yuan’s Golden Sword techniques against Deadly pole and Sheng Chiang’s (as He Fei) twin swords – the masterful choreography of deadly techniques creates a veritable masterpiece of the Kung-fu fight genre.
Bonus Feature:
- Rivers and Lakes – a great documentary of the Shaw Brothers’ depiction of Chinese myth and history, written by Jonathan Clements
- Trailer Gallery – Hong Kong (audio only) and German theatrical trailers for Magnificent Ruffians
- Image Gallery
Ten Tigers Of Kwangtung (1979)
The last of Chang Cheh’s classic Venom Mob offerings in this collection features an all star cast that also includes Tung Li and Alexander Fu Sheng, among others. In this story, we get an interplay of parallel stories about the original rebellious ten tigers and the current offspring and young disciples.
The film starts with a Casino scene where six Young friends are getting drunk and increasingly rowdy, but they are unknowingly being stalked by a vengeful youth and his uncle who claims the lads father was killed by their parents and original 10 Tigers of Kwangtung. The lad and uncle plan to systematically hunt and kill them off one by one, which they actually start to do, until their victims get wind of this and counter with a devastating attack on the pair.
Along the way they learn of their parents exploits asnt he 10 tigers with regular flashbacks that tell their story and noble purpose. Although the storyline
Very bloody and gruesome especially death scene at the end – flying double kick decapitation of the uncle.
Bonus Features
- Brand new audio commentary on Ten Tigers of Kwangtung by filmmaker Brandon Bentley
- Interview with star Chin Siu-ho, filmed in 2003
- Rivers and Lakes, a brand new video essay on Shaw Brothers’ depiction of Chinese myth and history, written and narrated by Jonathan Clements, author of A Brief History of China
- Textless title sequences
- trailer Gallery – Hong Kong trailers (Mandarin and Cantonese audio options) and US TV spot for Ten Tigers of Kwangtung
- Image gallery
My Young Auntie (1981)
An old man about to die marries his young female student, Cheng Tai-Nan (played by Kara Hui), in other to prevent his villainous nephew from automatically inheriting his estate which he would rather bequeath his favourite nephew, Ching Chuen (played by Lau Kar-Leung). Tai-Nan’s position as a widow places her above the nephews in the family hierarchy to the chagrin of slighted nephew, Yung-Sheng.
This sets up Tai-Nan’s primary mission deliver the inheritance to its rightful owner, in a journey fraught with peril as livid Yung-Sheng sizes every opportunity to throw a spanner in the works. However, Tai-Nan is more than capable of looking after herself and repeatedly deploys her considerable Kung-fu skills to put all adversaries in their place. However, she hasn’t reckoned with the return of Cheng-Chuen’s scholar son, Yu Tao (played by Hou Hsiao), with whom she gets into all sorts of trouble along with some sexual tension as he is much closer to her in age.
As with other Lau Kar-Leung films, there is a lot of farcical, physical comedy alongside some slick high-kicking Kung-fu which Kara Hui delivers with aplomb, and making it difficult to believe this was her first major movie with Lau Kar-Leung. The final showdown is setup when the title deeds and other inheritance paperwork are stolen by Yung-Sheng, so Tai-Nan and Yu Tao work together to whip his father and uncle into fighting shape to retrieve the papers. Funny, nice little film.
Bonus Features
- Select-scene commentary by film critic and historian Tony Rayns
- Interview with star Kara Hui, filmed in 2003
- Cinema Hong Kong: The Beauties of the Shaw Studios – the final instalment in the three-part documentary produced by Celestial Pictures in 2003
- Alternate standard-definition VHS version
- Alternate opening credits
- Trailer Gallery – Hong Kong theatrical trailer
- Image Gallery
Mercenaries From Hong Kong (1982)
Wong Jing’s film is an early 80s contemporary action drama, complete with thrills, spills and bike/car chases, punctuated with a few martial arts fight scenes. However, unlike the previous Shaw Brothers films in this collection, it also features guns, bombs plus nudity and sex scenes, perhaps in homage to similar action flicks of that decade.
Jump-suited Luo Li (Ti Lung) is a Vietnam vet gun-for-hire who is sought out by wealthy He Ying (Candice Yu) for a mission to Cambodia to capture the assassin that killed her Industrialist father. Luo-Li picks a six-man team for the hazardous mission worth a million dollars each. The team is made up of Shaw Brothers stars cast in contemporary action character roles including the: mad killer, bomb expert, marksman, mechanic and troublemaker.
Predictably, the ensuing action is a mix of Rambo 2 and The A team in an Inglorious Bastards style suicide mission presented in the usual Shawscope widescreen format. However, the tragic mission outcomes, (with the deaths of most of Luo’s team and a double twist that reveals He Ying’s villainous ambition and treacherous best friend), are atypical of the genre. A true Shaw Brothers experiment.
Bonus Features:
- Interview with Mercenaries from Hong Kong action director Tong Kai, filmed in 2009
- Trailer Gallery – Hong Kong theatrical trailer
- Image Gallery
The Boxer’s Omen (1983)
Produced by Wong Ka Hee and directed by Kuei Chih-Hong, this 80s contemporary, supernatural, Thai boxing, revenge, horror film with adult themes is a mixed bag of the totally unexpected. it is a wholesale excursion into black magic, psychedelia and experimental film-making, with bags of gore, some sex and nudity thrown in alongside Taoist symbolism and spiritualism for good measure.
Chan Hung (Philip Ko) seeks to avenge his brother injured by brutal Thai boxer Bu Bo (Bolo Yeung) in a major martial arts tournament. He is haunted by a supernatural, ghostly presence from the Taoist Temple which turns out to be the essence of Chin Chiu, a great monk poisoned by evil black magician, Makusa, and who now seeks revenge through his reincarnated twin in the person of Chan hung. The stakes are high because Chin Chiu’s preserved body will decompose and die, along with Chan Hung if they don’t defeat the newly resurrected and blood-thirsty Makusa who is out to finish the job he started by every diabolical means necessary.
The rest of the film is filled with some seriously weird stuff, too bizarre to even describe with any justice, which must be seen to be believed all gagging and retching notwithstanding! First, Chan Hung must become a monk to undertake the mission and avenge his brother; he has to overcome his lust, cue graphic sex scenes, and a constant barrage of psychic, physical / metaphysical attacks by Makusa. Then follows a stomach churning gorefest of: vomit, rotten bodies, maggots, poisonous creatures, dead alligators and reanimated female corpses, accompanied by a kaleidoscope of: early special effects and animatronics, camera angles and lighting, eerie locations, music and general ickiness. This was a very different kind of film, and still very much so even to this day.
Bonus Features:
- Brand new commentary on The Boxer’s Omen by critic Travis Crawford
- Newly filmed appreciation of filmmaker Kuei Chih-hung by film critic and historian Tony Rayns
- Additional footage from Mandarin VHS version of The Boxer’s Omen
- Trailer Gallery – Hong Kong theatrical trailer
- Image Gallery
Martial Arts Of Shaolin (1985)
According to the publicity notes: “Lau Kar-Leung directs the last major Shaw production, Martial Arts of Shaolin, filmed in mainland China with a hot new talent named Jet Li in the lead role.” Says it all really.
Set in ancient China, Zhi Ming (Jet Li) trains at the Northern Shaolin temple to avenge the death of his father at the hands of a nefarious magistrate, He Sao. A young Li excels as the cheeky Shaolin martial artist who also trains some young kids on the side as he bides his time for revenge. His opportunity comes with the colourful pageantry in celebration of He Sao’s birthday, but he is thwarted by another pair of assassins, (Si Ma and Xiao Wei from Southern Shaolin) intent on the same mission, which leads to chaos and they team up to escape the failed mission. It turns out that both Si Ma and Zhi Ming (unknowingly betrothed at birth) had lost their parents to He Sao.
Zhi Ming flees to Southern Shaolin temple to escape punishment and complete his mission with his new team mates, but Si Ma is captured by He Sao and headed to the capital on his boat, so he and Xiao Wei have to fight against enormous odds to rescue her. They are unexpectedly aided by both sets of Shaolin monks in an epic fight scene until He Sao escapes to land, and the ultimate show down, with the heroes and a mantis style expert Shaolin master. Wow!
Bonus Features:
- Commentary on Martial Arts of Shaolin by Jonathan Clements
- Martial Arts of Shaolin by film critic and historian Tony Rayns
- Interview with Martial Arts of Shaolin screenwriter Sze Yeung-ping, filmed in 2004
- Unrestored Version – Alternate standard-definition version of Martial Arts of Shaolin
- Trailer Gallery – Hong Kong and Japanese theatrical trailers for Martial Arts of Shaolin, plus trailers for the preceding Shaolin Temple films starring Jet Li
- Image Gallery
The Bare-footed Kid (1993)
Director Johnnie To’s remake of a Chang Cheh classic is expertly done with great flair in this early 90s Shaw Brother’s offering. The story of a poor, barefoot kid (Kuan, played by Aaron Kwok) newly arrived in a city to start work with the friend (Tuan, played by Ti Lung) of his dead father, in a mill run by Miss Ho (Maggie Cheung).
This is a town where poor people fight in Kung-fu tournaments organised by corrupt official Ke Hu Pu. Tuan Ching-Yun is a man with secrets which he wants to keep hidden, but between the arrival of Kuan Feng-Yao (Kwok), his feelings for Miss Ho, and a newly appointed magistrate eager to clean up the town with the help of the head-teacher and father of Kuan’s love interest, it is inevitable that all hell was bound to break loose.
Kuan is skilled in kung-fu and eager to help Tuan and Miss Ho when Ke Hu Pu’s thugs steal the title deeds to her spinning mill, but his rash action to retrieve them leads to calamity as ke hu’s goons set fire to the mill and he is asked to leave. Kuan fights and wins the kung-fu tournament, becoming the new champion and enforcer for Ke Hu Pu who is tricks and frames him for the murder of the headteacher in order to control him. Tuan Chin’s secret is revealed by a drunken Kuan – he used to be a rebel – to tragic consequence leading to his death. A guilt-ridden Kuan finally realises the skuldggery of his evil patron and faces Ke Hu Pu in a bloody showdown. Great film with fantastic action and story line.
Bonus Features:
- Commentary on The Bare-Footed Kid by Frank Djeng of the NY Asian Film Festival
- The Bare-footed Kid by film critic and historian Tony Rayns
- Alternate Opening Credits
- Trailer Gallery: Hong Kong theatrical trailer and UK VHS promo for The Bare-Footed Kid
- Image galleries for both films
PR Materials
ACTION-PACKED CHRISTMAS RELEASE FROM ARROW VIDEO 
The second volume of films from the astounding Shaw Brothers studio
Arrow Video is proud to announce a November release of a Limited Edition Blu-ray box set of films by the legendary Shaw brothers, Run Run and Runme, pioneers of revolutionary Hong Kong action films of the 1970s.
This sophomore collection – Shawscope Volume Two – by Arrow Video, picks up where the hugely popular Volume One left off, drawing together many of the best films from the final years of the Shaw Brothers studio, proving that while the end was nigh, these merchants of martial arts mayhem weren’t going to go out without a fight! Armed with stunning special features and ravishing new restorations, this box set is even bigger and bolder than the last one.
The fourteen films include Lau Kar-leung’s instant classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and its two sequels, dazzling action comedy Mad Monkey Kung Fu, the Venom Mob in Invincible Shaolin, The Kid with the Golden Arm, Magnificent Ruffians and Ten Tigers of Kwangtung; Kara Hui in My Young Auntie; wild shoot-‘em-up Mercenaries from Hong Kong; the spectacularly unhinged black magic meltdown The Boxer’s Omen; Jet Li in Martial Arts of Shaolin; and The Bare-Footed Kid.
Watch the trailer reel
Shawscope Volume Two On Limited Edition Blu-ray 21 November
We begin with kung fu master Lau Kar-leung’s instant classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, in which his adoptive brother Gordon Liu achieved overnight stardom as the young man who unexpectedly finds spiritual enlightenment on the path to vengeance; Lau and Liu followed the original with two comically inventive sequels, Return to the 36th Chamber and Disciples of the 36th Chamber, both included here. Already established as a genius at blending dazzling action with physical comedy, Lau himself plays the lead role in the hilarious Mad Monkey Kung Fu, coupled here with Lo Mar’s underrated Five Superfighters. Next, we once again meet Chang Cheh’s basher boy band the Venom Mob in no less than four of their best-loved team-ups: Invincible Shaolin, The Kid with the Golden Arm, Magnificent Ruffians and culminating in the all-star Ten Tigers of Kwangtung, co-starring Ti Lung and Fu Sheng. After Lau brings us perhaps his best high-kicking comedy with My Young Auntie, a playful star vehicle for his real-life muse Kara Hui, we see Shaw Brothers fully embracing Eighties excess in our strangest double feature yet: Wong Jing’s breathtakingly wild shoot-‘em-up Mercenaries from Hong Kong, and Kuei Chih-hung’s spectacularly unhinged black magic meltdown The Boxer’s Omen. Last but certainly not least, Lau Kar-leung directs the last major Shaw production, Martial Arts of Shaolin, filmed in mainland China with a hot new talent named Jet Li in the lead role; it is paired in this set with The Bare-Footed Kid, a reverent remake of a Chang Cheh classic with Johnnie To (Running Out of Time) in the director’s chair and Lau back on fight choreography duties, in arguably the ultimate filmed tribute to Shaws’ everlasting cinematic legacy.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY COLLECTION CONTENTS
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of all fourteen films, including nine new 2K restorations by Arrow Films
- Illustrated 60-page collectors’ book featuring new writing by David Desser, Jonathan Clements, Lovely Jon and David West, plus cast and crew listings and notes on each film by Simon Abrams
- New artwork by Mike Lee-Graham, Chris Malbon, Kagan McLeod, Colin Murdoch, “Kung Fu” Bob O’Brien, Lucas Peverill, Ilan Sheady, Tony Stella, Darren Wheeling and Jolyon Yates
- Hours of never-before-seen bonus features including several cast and crew interviews from the Frédéric Ambroisine Video Archive
- Two CDs of music from the De Wolfe Music library as heard in several of the films, exclusive to this collection
Retail Price: £169.99/15 certificate/1415 mins/Lang: Mandarin, Cantonese, English/English subs/Colour/10 discs (8 Blu-rays, 2 CDs)
SHAWSCOPE: VOLUME TWO – LIMITED EDITION
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