{"id":45878,"date":"2024-12-19T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T05:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=45878"},"modified":"2024-12-18T00:24:32","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T05:24:32","slug":"shawscope-volume-two-released-fall-2023-arrow-video-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/19\/shawscope-volume-two-released-fall-2023-arrow-video-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Shawscope Volume Two – Part 2 (released fall 2023) [Arrow Video]\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now available from Arrow Video\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

And now for part two!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ten Tigers of Kwangtung (aka Guangdong shi hu xing yi wu xi) (1980)<\/span>
\nThis film has two stories about the Ten Tigers, their lives, and their disciples. Not a favorite here, it\u2019s still one that deserves to be included. Written by, you guessed it, Cheh Chang and Kuang Ni and directed by Cheh Chang, this one has a large cast, brings a lot of the story to the screen and feels like it gets lost in the process, somewhere between the large cast and the multiple stories. There is some good of course and the cast does as best they can to bring this film to life and make the most of it. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My Young Auntie (aka Zhang bei) (1981)<\/span>
\nA newly widowed young lady must protect her late husband\u2019s assets while facing accusations of gold digging. Written and directed by Chia-Liang Liu, this one takes a turn in the traditional Shaw Brothers films and brings a lead that is not only a lady, but a kickass one at that. Granted, kickass ladies are a regular occurrence for this studio, but for her to have this big of a part and be central to the story while not being a damsel in distress is something they didn\u2019t do nearly enough of. Kara Ying Hung Wai is fantastic in this film along with the rest of the cast. While she shines and stands out, the other cast members do well, and everyone gets to show their fighting skills. The film is entertaining and fun with a strong leading lady.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mercenaries from Hong Kong (aka Lie mo zhe) (1982)<\/span>
\nA lady hires a group of mercenaries and sends them to Cambodia to find her father\u2019s killer. Written and directed by Jing Wong, this entry in the set brings a new style of story and filmmaking, going in the more modern mercenary types and giving a story with lady as the boss. The writing and direction are decent, the acting works, and the fights and action sequences are exciting and entertaining. The cast here has many familiar faces for martial arts fans including Phillip Ko and Yue Wong. This film helps showcase that the Shaw Brothers produced more than one type of film while keeping the style close enough to fit in the set.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Boxer\u2019s Omen (aka Mo) (1983)<\/span>
\n\u00a0A supernatural entry in this set, The Boxer\u2019s Omen brings back Phillip Ko as its lead with writing from Chih-Hung Kuei and On Szeto and direction from Chih-Hung Kuei. In this film, Ko plays a man who goes to Thailand to avenge his brother who died in a fight against a corrupt local fighter (sounds familiar… Kickboxer anyone?). Once there, he finds more than he was aiming for and ends up dealing with the supernatural, black magic, and Buddhism. This film is interesting and comes off as a fun inclusion for those with a more horror-fan brain and preferences. It\u2019s entertaining, the story mostly works, the fights are well done, and the film as a whole goes by fairly quickly. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Martial Arts of Shaolin (Nan bei Shao Lin) (1986)<\/span>
\nFrom director Chia-Liang Liu comes the first entry in this set with a name most US audiences will recognize (film fans were familiar with many names before, but this one is a big one for general audiences): Jet Li. His presence at the time as not a miracle, but a logical choice and nowadays it\u2019s also logical but almost surprising. His work here is solid and he shows his skills off quite well within the story he has from the script by Yang-Ping Shi and Yeung-Ping Sze. This film is fun and the fights work well, the storytelling is engaging and the performances work within the universe of the Shaw Brothers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bare-Footed Kid (aka Chik geuk siu ji) (1993)<\/span>
\nThe most recent entry in this set and the last of the bunch here is The Bare-Footed Kid, a film written by Nai-Hoi Yau and directed by Johnnie To, Patrick Leung, and Johnny Mak, so it should appeal to a wide audience with familiar names and credits to these names. In this film, an orphan with some skills is eyed by the competition who has offers to make him. The cast is led by Aaron Kwok who is great to watch in a semi-early (ok, he did a ton before, but he\u2019s done even more since) performance. Joining him is the lovely Maggie Cheung who gives a great performance as well. The cast as a whole works quite well and the leads do fun, entertaining work. The acting, writing, direction, and fight choreography are all quite on point here and it gives the box set a solid film to close on. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As is tradition with these massive box sets and how Arrow Video does their releases, this one is packed with extras including 2 discs of music from the films, a great booklet, and so many features a film nerd could disappear for a long while watching them all. Favorites in this set, besides the music discs and the booklet, are all the archival interviews including one with Gordon Liu from 2003 and one Sze Yeung-ping from 2004. The set also has a ton of new interviews, new commentaries, trailers from back in the day, photo galleries, and a ton more. Seriously, there is so much on here, it\u2019s hard to pick favorites. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now available from Arrow Video\u00a0 And now for part two!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[58,302,631,824],"class_list":["post-45878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collectors-den","tag-action","tag-drama","tag-martial-arts","tag-re-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45878"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45881,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45878\/revisions\/45881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}