NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Arrow Blu-ray (December 2021): In one of the most anticipated boxsets of the year, Arrow have transferred twelve 70's Shaw Brothers films to Blu-ray as part of their Shawscope Volume 1 release. These are 1080P Blu-ray presentations of all twelve films, including seven new 2K restorations by Arrow Films from a 4K scan of the original negative of 1972'a King Boxer, The Boxer From Shantung, new 2K restoration of Challenge of the Masters, The Five Venoms, Crippled Avengers and Dirty Ho from the original negative, plus a new 2K restoration of the 115-minute International version of Chinatown Kid from original film elements and the Alternate version. We had reviewed previously The Mighty Peking Man, The Five Venoms and Crippled Avengers and there are some comparisons captures below.

There is one text screen prefacing a presentation:

"When restoring The Boxer From Shantung from the original camera negative, we discovered that the overlays for the opening credits had deteriorated and were now incomplete. As a result, the restored feature presentation on this disc uses the digitally recreated opening credits assembled by Celestial Pictures in 2003. Included on this disc for posterity, here are the credits with the original overlay, presented as per the archived 35mm source materials. "

The only issue I noted was that the International (115 minute) version of Chinatown Kid was in far rougher shape, and cropped, compared to the 90-minutes alternate version. They are not seamlessly-branched and the International version has persistent marks on the right side of the screen - slightly larger than speckles. These are not seamlessly-branched (frame cuts in the shorter version, and the transition would be too jarring etc. - thanks Scott!.) The alternate version is far superior (see comparison capture below.) The films themselves are quite different in a few areas but I liked the "Scarface' representation.

For the most part the image quality is excellent, improving as the films get younger. The ones that had previous BDs transfers are less robust and I would either cite as a draw or give the edge to the Arrow Shawscope Volume 1 1080P. There is some warping seen and the lens effect of those on the outside of the frame appearing slightly distorted (thinner) - is 'CinemaScope Mumps'. This is fully normal as we have seen for years with the film. 

NOTE: We have added 120 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Arrow use a DTS-HD Master mono tracks (24-bit), newly-restored uncompressed Mandarin and English original mono audio for King Boxer, The Boxer From Shantung, Five Shaolin Masters, Shaolin Temple, Mighty Peking Man, Executioners From Shaolin with translated English subtitles for the Mandarin audio, plus English hard-of-hearing subtitles for the English DUB, plus Cantonese mono for Challenge of the Masters. Chinatown Kid has uncompressed original Cantonese audio for the International version, with newly-translated English subtitles, uncompressed original English audio for the International version, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles and only uncompressed original Mandarin audio for the Alternate version (no DUB), with newly-translated English subtitles and Dirty Ho and Heroes of the East - uncompressed Cantonese, Mandarin and English original mono audio for both films. There are a plethora of whiplash-like fighting effects and they come through authentically hollow with modest depth and often animated scores by Yung-Yu Chen (The Vengeful Beauty, The Ghost Lovers, Black Magic 2, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, The Five Deadly Venoms) for King Boxer, The Boxer from Shantung, Five Shaolin Masters, Shaolin Temple, The Mighty Peking Man, Crippled Avengers, The Five Venoms, Executioners from Shaolin, Chinatown Kid to, lastly, Eddie Wang (Clan of the White Lotus, Hex, The Bride From Hell, Killer Constable, Return of the 36th Chamber) for Dirty Ho. The English DUBs are often amusing but fully supportive of the film's serious or comedic tones. Overall the audio sounds like a strong replication of the films without egregious errors like his or dropouts. Arrow offer optional English (SDH) subtitles - for the DUBs - and translated English on their Region FREE Blu-rays.

The Arrow Blu-ray offers commentaries by David Desser, co-editor of The Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema and The Cinema of Hong Kong on King Boxer, by Travis Crawford Mighty Peking Man (also 2021), a new select scene video commentary by co-star Susan Shaw from 2021 on Chinatown Kid for 23-minutes (her picture ion the upper-right corner and optional subtitles (I think she is speaking Cantonese) and a full-length commentary by Terry Brady on the International version of Chinatown Kid - well, he finishes a few minutes before the conclusion. There is a new commentary on The Five Venoms by critic Simon Abrams - who also wrote the liner notes essays for all of the film in the Shawscope Volume 1 boxset. He discusses director Cheh Chang and his collaborations regarding 'Venom' films. It is excellent. Lastly, there is a new commentary on Heroes of the East by Jonathan Clements, author of A Brief History of the Martial Arts.

I also really enjoyed the appreciations by film critic and historian Tony Rayns (45-minutes on King Boxer, 36-minutes on the third Blu-ray discussing director Chang Cheh, a 1/2 hour on Lau Kar-leung on the fifth Blu-ray, and appreciations of both films, Dirty Ho and Heroes of the East, running 1/2 hour, on the eighth Blu-ray disc.) He's always wonderful to hear and his shared knowledge does increase appreciation for these Shaw films. There are also 14 interviews by Frédéric Ambroisine from his 2002-2007 archive with many of the principles including the stars and assistant director John Woo on The Boxer From Shantung (credited as Yu Shen Wu.) These have optional English subtitles. There are segments of Elegant Trails interviews and Cinema Hong Kong: Kung Fu, the first in a three-part documentary, from 2003, on Shaw Brothers’ place within the martial arts genre produced by Celestial Pictures in 2003, featuring interviews with Jackie Chan, Jet Li, John Woo, Sammo Hung, Gordon Liu, Lau Kar-leung, Cheng Pei-pei, David Chiang and many others. It runs 50-minutes and covers the "roots in choreography of Beijing Opera and the Wuxia tradition of honorable solitary fighters to the evolution in film from martial arts (swordplay) to Kung Fu (fists, feet, and sticks)" - taken from IMDb. There are also theatrical trailers (Hong Kong, English, Dutch and German), TV and radio spots, image galleries for all discs. There are two CDs of music from the De Wolfe Music library as heard in six of the films, exclusive to this collection and an illustrated 60-page collectors’ book featuring new writing by David Desser, Terrence J. Brady and James Flower, plus cast and crew listings and notes on each film by Simon Abrams.

Arrow's Shawscope Volume 1 is probably going to win Blu-ray boxset of the year - certainly be high in the voting. Aside from the comical-production of 1977's The Mighty Peking Man, these are all fabulous Wuxia films filled with simple, noble heroes - often embracing extraordinary talents - and scowling evil, contemptuous, villains. Crippled Avengers may be the standout but they are all thoroughly enjoyable. These Shaw Brothers gems in the Arrow boxset are a pure joy. Truly, most fans don't require my endorsement only to tell you that the package completely exceeded by expectations in all areas. Our highest recommendation! We can't wait for Volume 2 and more!

Gary Tooze