Now available from Arrow Video
And now for part two of one of the biggest and best box sets of the year:
Clans of Intrigue (aka Chu Liu Xiang) (1977)
Written by Lung Ku and Kuang Ni, and directed by Yuen Chor, Clans of Intrigue is a hard one to review for the fact that it put this viewer to sleep multiple times so it’s hard to say what happened even as it was restarted multiple times. The only notes here are that it’s not that interesting and David Carradine shows up for some reason. Of the many attempts at watching it, the acting is decent, but the story doesn’t keep the attention. The cinematography looks pretty good, and the decor and costume design are good as well.
Jade Tiger (aka Pai yu lao hu) (1977)
From writer Lung Ku and writer-director Yuen Chor, Jade Tiger is a revenge film about a son looking to avenge his father who was beheaded on the night before his wedding. The film here is decently written and directed with decent performances from the cast in terms of acting and fighting, the cinematography looks good, and decor is good as well. This is one of those films that is decent on all fronts and sadly doesn’t stand out enough in a box set like this, but it would stand on its own easily as an entertaining film with good fights and an interesting story.
The Sentimental Swordsman (aka Duo qing jian ke wu qing jian) (1977)
A swordsman with a high sense of justice and a bad drinking habit gets himself into trouble. Written by Yuen Chor and Lung Ku and directed by the former, The Sentimental Swordsman has a story that is a bit on the predictable side of things, and it seems to be something that happens after having watched a slew of Shaw Brothers films (and other martial arts films from that era). Even with the predictability of the story, the film is decently entertaining with some fun fights. The fight choreography here is the highlight of the film and lead cast members Lung Ti and Li Ching are good to watch in this setting.
The Avenging Eagle (aka Leng xue shi san ying) (1978)
Another Shaw Brothers film, another bunch of fun fights. The Avenging Eagle is about a former gang member hunted relentlessly by the minions of his former overlord. The film here is decently written and directed with Hung Chin and Kuang Ni handling the former and Chung Sun handling the latter. The cast is decently talented here and the fights are, once again, fun. However, one fight sequence is shot weirdly, or maybe the negative has decayed, and it could not be salvaged for a good high-definition scan. That being said, it’s just one of those films that is decent, besides that one fight’s image quality, and gives exactly what viewers are expected.
Killer Constable (aka Wan ren zan) (1980)
From writer On Szeto and director Chih-Hung Kuei, this one is decently entertaining with good fights as is the case for most of the films in this set and other Shaw Brothers films. While the fights are good, the rest of the action is good to ok, being on the middle to lower end of decent. The acting works for the material and the cinematography is good, looking like most Shaw Brothers productions. It’s a film with a bit of a generic story about a constable who kills without mercy and for whom this eventually turns against. The film does have some original bits and pieces, but the story feels seen before, something that may not have been an issue back in 1980. As it stands, the film entertains and has a particularly bloody fight with decent work being put in by all departments to create a film that feels like it follows the formula for a Shaw Brothers production.
Buddha’s Palm (aka Ru lai shen zhang) (1982)
Wee! Derek Yee! Happy martial arts film nerd over here. Oh, no, that’s short lived, because why in the h-e-double-hockey-sticks do swastikas start flying around during one of the fight scenes. Yeah, the film is older, but it’s not that old and people knew better in 1982. There may have been a logic to these being present, but it just yanks you out of the film. Of course, this may be used to show how truly evil the bad guys are, but it still feels like it could have been avoided. Considering this and trying to avoid it is difficult, so the film becomes one big question mark as to why. Outside of this, the film is interesting in that it seems to throw everything at the wall, including the kitchen sink, to see what sticks and makes an entertaining film. Other than the questionable use of insignia, the film is entertaining, the fights are good, and it’s always nice to see Derek Yee.
Bastard Swordsman (aka Tian can bian) (1983)
Written by Kuo-Yuan Chang, Chun-Ku Lu, and Rui’an Wen, with Chun-Ku Lu directing as well, the film follows a swordsman who is a master of the Silkworm Style through adventures. The film here has a story this viewer could not fully follow as it lost the attention early on. On the positive side of things, the film looks really good with great use of lighting and cinematography that works well with the lighting and with the scenes it is filming. The film looks and sounds great here, but it sadly takes on too much for its story or perhaps not enough or maybe just an odd amount of story with pacing issues, hard to tell.
This third set of the Shawscope series shows that the more recent Shaw Brothers films have a higher rate of uneven quality with teams that don’t work as well as the earlier ones, but they also bring cast members most folks outside of the martial arts fandom will know and recognize such as Jet Li, Derek Yee, and Andrew Kwok. The image and sound quality here is good with a bit of variation here and there due to the quality of the source material. The extras here are plentiful again with each film getting a feature commentary, a bunch of archival interviews (a favorite feature each time), and a music CD featuring scores from some of the box set’s films.