Shawscope Volume Three (Shaw Brothers) (Arrow)

[cooey]

Shawscope Volume Three Blu-ray Zavvi

Release date: 25th November, 2024



Titles

[Show spoiler]
One-Armed Swordsman trilogy
Lady Hermit
Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan
The 14 Amazons
The Magic Blade
Clans of Intrigue
Jade Tiger
The Sentimental Swordsman
Killer Constable
The Avenging Eagle
Buddha’s Palm
Bastard Swordsman

Before Hong Kong’s mightiest film studio mastered the art of the kung fu film, Shaw Brothers hit box office gold with a very different kind of martial arts cinema, one that channelled the blood-soaked widescreen violence of Japanese samurai epics and Italian spaghetti westerns into a uniquely Chinese form: the wuxia pian. With their enthralling tales drawn from historical myth and legend of sword-wielding (and often gravity-defying) noble heroes, the wuxia films housed in this next instalment of Arrow Video’s best-selling Shawscope series demonstrate the sweeping stylistic evolution of the genre, from the righteous stoicism of the late-60s Mandarin period, right through to the wild-and-weird anarchism of the early-80s Cantonese explosion.

The iconic One-Armed Swordsman trilogy, directed between 1967 and 1971 by wuxia cinema godfather Chang Cheh, made household names of stars "Jimmy" Wang Yu and David Chiang and set the gory template for many of the films to come. Contrary to Chang’s tales of loyal brotherhood, many wuxia films focused on female protagonists, three very different examples of which we see next: Ho Meng-hua’s Lady Hermit, with the great Cheng Pei-pei (Come Drink with Me) as a virtuous swordswoman called upon to stop a vicious warlord; Chor Yuen’s scandalous Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan in which the titular lady of the night masters every deadly skill she can to get revenge on those who enslaved her; and Cheng Kang’s all-star epic The 14 Amazons, in which Shaws’ finest starlets play the real-life women of the Yang dynasty, avenging their fallen menfolk in battle. Next, Chor Yuen adapted several beloved novels by consummate wuxia storyteller Gu Long to the big screen, four of which are collected here: The Magic Blade, Clans of Intrigue, Jade Tiger and The Sentimental Swordsman, all starring the redoubtable Ti Lung. As kung fu overtook wuxia at the box office, the genre evolved into unexpected new directions, with its chivalrous knights-errant replaced by conflicted antiheroes, as seen in Sun Chung’s breathlessly exciting The Avenging Eagle and Boxer’s Omen goremeister Kuei Chih-hung’s fatalistic masterpiece Killer Constable. Finally, just when it seemed the wuxia film had nowhere left to turn, Eighties excess reigned supreme in the special-effects-soaked, fourth-wall-breaking fantastical delights of Taylor Wong’s Buddha’s Palm and Lu Chun-ku’s Bastard Swordsman.

Back with all-new exclusive restorations and hours of insightful bonus material, if you thought the previous two Shawscope sets showed the Shaw Brothers studio at its strongest, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY COLLECTION CONTENTS

- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of all fourteen films, including thirteen new 2K restorations by Arrow Films from the original negatives, and a new 4K restoration of One-Armed Swordsman by Celestial Pictures
- Original uncompressed Mandarin mono, plus Cantonese and/or English (where applicable) lossless mono options
- Newly translated English subtitles for each film
- Illustrated 60-page collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by David West, Jonathan Clements and Dylan Cheung, plus cast and crew listings and notes on each film by Ian Jane
- New artwork by Tony Stella, Ilan Sheady, Tom Ralston, Jolyon Yates, Kung Fu Bob and Chris Malbon
- Hours of illuminating bonus features, including feature commentaries on each film, several cast-and-crew interviews from the Frédéric Ambroisine Video Archive, and the rare alternate Korean cut of Killer Constable
- Exclusive CD of music from the De Wolfe Music Library, as heard in The Avenging Eagle and other Shaw Brothers classics

Credit to Beckstreaker in the Arrow US thread for the leak from UnobstructedView

[Foggy]

Still need to get vol. 2.

[GlacierTuba]

Own 1 and 2 so have to get this...........when heavily discounted........and not from Arrow directly.

[cooey]

I haven't got either volume so will be passing on this one too

[navydavey]

Very solid set of titles, only a couple of cross overs with old 88 Films releases so it will be nice to get the new remasters (sans frame cuts I assume), it does make me wonder what 88 Films has managed to get for their future continuation of their Shaw Bros line though.

Personally I'm also glad this isn't a horror themed set as I would rather they release any horror boxsets as a separate Shaw Brothers line instead of mixing them in with the current three volumes of mostly martial arts themed sets.

I know The Boxer's Omen was in volume two but hopefully that will get a solo release at some point so people can grab that if they want it alongside any future Shaw Brothers horror collections.

[tomblu]

Looks good, I'm about 50% of the way through the 2nd box. Don't think I can see myself paying full price for it though, I got the first one for £25 on one of the amazon deals (price error?) and paid £60-ish for the second one. So most likely will pick this one up on a sale with a HMV code (hopefully). They are good value for money even at full price, but given the first two have been heavily discounted, unless you are desperate for them, waiting for a sale can really pay off.

Hope they are going to print the same number of copies as vol. 1 and vol. 2.

The green colour does look nice, I suppose it might be a bit more dull in person though.

[dc766]

I can't remember on which interview/podcast it was but James Flower did say this would be a lower print run as they overestimated the previous 2.

[Markgway]

Still waiting for mini-box editions of Volume 2.

[Liersi]

Good selection, though it's odd to see Magic Blade, Sentimental Swordsman and Bastard Swordsman without their sequels. Glad to see they went all-in on their unique selling point, their in-house restorations. One out of fourteen. Looking at the global market, most of these have had some kind of release in the HD era, but all of them stand to be improved over their Celestial versions. Now we just need to find out which one of these isn't an in-house restoration.

[bongozoid]

Originally Posted by Liersi

Good selection, though it's odd to see Magic Blade, Sentimental Swordsman and Bastard Swordsman without their sequels. Glad to see they went all-in on their unique selling point, their in-house restorations. One out of fourteen. Looking at the global market, most of these have had some kind of release in the HD era, but all of them stand to be improved over their Celestial versions. Now we just need to find out which one of these isn't an in-house restoration.

It says it right there - One-Armed Swordsman is from a 4K scan by Celestial.

[cooey]

Arrow link and release date added to OP

[MegatronX]

Just pre-ordered from Arrow and got a free MAGNIFICENT DOLL blu-ray with it!

[MegatronX]

Originally Posted by Liersi

Good selection, though it's odd to see Magic Blade, Sentimental Swordsman and Bastard Swordsman without their sequels. Glad to see they went all-in on their unique selling point, their in-house restorations. One out of fourteen. Looking at the global market, most of these have had some kind of release in the HD era, but all of them stand to be improved over their Celestial versions. Now we just need to find out which one of these isn't an in-house restoration.

Which sequels did MAGIC BLADE have? I think Ti Lung's character is in DEATH DUEL, but Shout has that one stateside.

[Ben_C]

Day one. Will probably wait and watch the set over Chrimbo though. Previous years I’ve ploughed through the Zatoichi, Godzilla and an earlier Shawscope set, and it’s always nice to have sets like these to devour when there’s plenty of available time for movie marathons.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Ben_C

Day one. Will probably wait and watch the set over Chrimbo though..

I've never head that word before, had to google it.

[cooey]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I've never head that word before, had to google it.

It's because it's a stupid word Almost as bad as when people keep saying they've been to their local chazza

[Ben_C]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I've never head that word before, had to google it.

Don’t really know why I called it that to be honest, it’s such a naff word.

[cooey]

From Arrow -

Back for Volume 3 with all-new exclusive restorations and hours of insightful bonus material, if you thought the previous two Shawscope sets showed the Shaw Brothers studio at its strongest, you ain’t seen nothing yet. To celebrate the launch, secure Volume 2 at 50% off for one week only when you pre-order Volume 3!

[grim_tales]

Some good titles in there As Mark says, still waiting for a cut down box of Volume 2 but hopefully it's not far behind.

All 3 One Armed Swordsman films were entertaining, Killer Constable was excellent and Intimate Confessions is like a period version of Naked Killer - almost

[Broomey]

I will wait till someone deciphers this massive paragraph cant be bothered getting a pen, paper and trying to working out exactly what is in this set!

Its really not good marketing. They Should list each film separately or at least highlight every film name. I do not even know how many films are in the set.

The iconic One-Armed Swordsman trilogy, directed between 1967 and 1971 by wuxia cinema godfather Chang Cheh, made household names of stars ""Jimmy"" Wang Yu and David Chiang and set the gory template for many of the films to come. Contrary to Chang's tales of loyal brotherhood, many wuxia films focused on female protagonists, three very different examples of which we see next: Ho Meng-hua's Lady Hermit, with the great Cheng Pei-pei (Come Drink with Me) as a virtuous swordswoman called upon to stop a vicious warlord; Chor Yuen's scandalous Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan in which the titular lady of the night masters every deadly skill she can to get revenge on those who enslaved her; and Cheng Kang's all-star epic The 14 Amazons, in which Shaws' finest starlets play the real-life women of the Yang dynasty, avenging their fallen menfolk in battle. Next, Chor Yuen adapted several beloved novels by consummate wuxia storyteller Gu Long to the big screen, four of which are collected here: The Magic Blade, Clans of Intrigue, Jade Tiger and The Sentimental Swordsman, all starring the redoubtable Ti Lung. As kung fu overtook wuxia at the box office, the genre evolved into unexpected new directions, with its chivalrous knights-errant replaced by conflicted antiheroes, as seen in Sun Chung's breathlessly exciting The Avenging Eagle and Boxer's Omen goremeister Kuei Chih-hung's fatalistic masterpiece Killer Constable. Finally, just when it seemed the wuxia film had nowhere left to turn, Eighties excess reigned supreme in the special-effects-soaked, fourth-wall-breaking fantastical delights of Taylor Wong's Buddha's Palm and Lu Chun-ku's Bastard Swordsman.