The Arrow Films Blu-ray Thread

[dwk]

On 11/26/2022 at 3:37 PM, OpiumKungFuCracker said:

A real monkey? What is this cannibal holocaust? 

 

[AslanBey]

12 hours ago, Rubber John said:

A bit late to the party, but I just ordered ShawScope Vol. 1 as it was on Sale for £72.
I guess I will have to wait a bit longer for Vol. 2.

 

Yea I'm going to do the same. It is just too expensive with all the other releases coming out. The recent economic situation forces me. It is indeed a good deal with 12 (or 14?) movies for this price, but all at once is too heavy. I'll wait and hope that vol. 2 also gets a discount.

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

9 hours ago, AslanBey said:

Yea I'm going to do the same. It is just too expensive with all the other releases coming out. The recent economic situation forces me. It is indeed a good deal with 12 (or 14?) movies for this price, but all at once is too heavy. I'll wait and hope that vol. 2 also gets a discount.

I’m doin the same thing. 

[lilmanjs]

As much as I love the color blue, the orange box looks striking and better in person. Can't wait to dive into the set tonight.

[ShawAngela]

On 11/29/2022 at 8:56 PM, lilmanjs said:

As much as I love the color blue, the orange box looks striking and better in person. Can't wait to dive into the set tonight.

Blue is my favorite color, but i love this orange box too, it's brilliant, and fits the movies that are inside !

[nahnahnah]

You can get the Shawscope Vol. 2 set for $110 over at DeepDiscount:

https://www.deepdiscount.com/shawscope-volume-two/760137107569

[teako170]

Couple solid extras by Tony Rayns. Very insightful look at filmmaker Kuei Chih-hung who isn’t always mentioned as much as the other bigger directors at Shaw. Died somewhere in America working at a pizza shop that he owned. 

The other informative piece was on the Martial Arts of Shaolin disc. Tony even got a copy of his Cahiers du Cinéma magazine where he interviewed LKL back in ‘84. Never saw the actual magazine before but familiar with the interview. He talks about the backstory there of why LKL and Jet didn’t mix well and what became of that second film he had planned to do.  Good stuff. 

[bickle14]

13 hours ago, nahnahnah said:

You can get the Shawscope Vol. 2 set for $110 over at DeepDiscount:

https://www.deepdiscount.com/shawscope-volume-two/760137107569

I've been patiently waiting for a 15% coupon to be active an able to be used on it.

[KUNG FU BOB]

There's so much talk about shipping, set costs, and packaging in this thread, but in comparison it seems precious little about the actual contents! I get it, shipping and these sets aren't cheap, but I'd love to hear more feedback from those that got it and what they think. If you're seeing any of the films for the first (or even 50th time) please share your thoughts on them.

First I'll join in and add my two cents about the packaging...

 

On 11/29/2022 at 2:56 PM, lilmanjs said:

As much as I love the color blue, the orange box looks striking and better in person. Can't wait to dive into the set tonight.

21 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

Blue is my favorite color, but i love this orange box too, it's brilliant, and fits the movies that are inside !

It's true that if I had my way, pretty much all Blu-Ray releases would be the same size height-wise, with box sets simply being wider (Second Site's DAWN OF THE DEAD set) so they'd all look nice and orderly on my shelves. I do have some really cool, atypically sized sets that I appreciate (GAMERA!), but in a perfect world... yada yada yada. Clearly that's not happening, so I try to embrace it. When I first heard about the Shawscope Vol. 1 set's size I was not thrilled (my disapproval and digital tears are saved earlier in this thread), but once I had the set in hand (well, hands, plural, due to its size and weight ) that all changed. It's gorgeous! The blue looked perfect, only surpassed (to my surprise) by the orange of Vol. 2 (I hear you moaning @ShaOW!linDude ). The book is elegant with lush reproductions of newly commissioned artwork (thumbs up to Arrow for this). The art pieces range from outstanding to... . But I still prefer this creative approach to a bunch of Photoshopped nonsense.

The movies look the best I've seen them, and I've seen lots of versions of some of these, and some I've viewed countless times. I only had a chance to watch a few of the films and a handful of the extras on Vol. 1, and now the same for Vol. 2, but I am an extremely happy Shaw Brothers fan!

On Vol. 2, I put on disc one with THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN and listened to the audio commentary by my friend Travis Crawford. It's a good one, but extremely strange as I've known him for decades and he recently passed away (on July 19th, 2022, a couple days before his 52nd birthday). We chatted a few months before he died about all the exciting stuff he was working on, and now... he didn't even get to see a lot of it get released before he was gone. At one point he mentions a film he hasn't seen that he'll have to track down and I thought "Oh, I have that and can lend it to him" before catching myself. What a strange experience; feeling proud and happy that he got to contribute to this classic film while simultaneously knowing this (and other features and AC's) is the only way I'll ever hear his voice again. I'd like to tell you all a bit more about him and how he contributed to and promoted Asian (and much more) cinema in the USA, and I hope to do so soon. But for now I'll simply mention that it was because of Travis that me, my wife, best friend Hector (who is also now gone), three "little brothers", my Sensei, and a bunch of friends and fellow martial arts classmates got to see this film (and a bunch of other SB gems) in the theater on the big silver screen. Memories that I shall forever cherish.

After it ended, since I was still working and had not had enough of the Shaolin goodness, so I put the film back on with Tony Rayns "Select Scene Commentary". I love how Arrow did this... Sometimes while listening to an AC there are big gaps where no one is saying anything (GOODFELLAS has a long one where I kept thinking "Is that it? Is it over?" before it started again) and it can be very annoying. Well Arrow set up theirs so that only the parts of the film where Mr. Rayns is speaking play- around 1:14 of the film's 1:56 running time. I've seen/heard this done before; the DVDs and Blu-Rays of TRUE ROMANCE were also set up this way for their Select Scene Commentaries. Rayns is full of great info and I highly recommend that fans of the film give this a listen.

The other night I was in the mood for MERCENARIES FROM HONG KONG which I've only seen once, way back when I first bought the R3 IVL/Celestial DVD in the early 2000's. It's on the same disc as THE BOXER'S OMEN which I am jonesing to re-watch, but I'm waiting until I can check it out with my son as I think he's going to be a big fan of this gonzo flick. However, when I put the disc in my PlayStation 5 it came up on my screen as MAGNIFICENT RUFFIANS / TEN TIGERS OF KWANGTUNG (unlike most Blu-Ray players that automatically load whatever disc you put in them, the PS5 tells you the name of the disc you insert then lets you decide if you want to start playing it). I immediately took it out thinking that I must've pulled the wrong disc from the set. Nope. The disc's label said MERCENARIES FROM HONG KONG / THE BOXER'S OMEN. I was so bummed. Not only was I looking forward to watching those films, but I wondered how much of a hassle it was going to be to get a replacement, how long I'd have to wait, and if lots of other people were about to discover they had the same problem. I switched to watching a different film that night, but the next day on my lunch-break I decided to check all the discs to see if there were any other problems. Everything else was labeled correctly and I sampled each movie; all played perfectly. But to my surprise and delight the MERCENARIES FROM HONG KONG / THE BOXER'S OMEN disc did have the correct films on it! It simply showed up on the load screen with the other titles when asking if I wanted to play the disc. What a relief. So if anyone else sees this, don't panic, just push "play" as the proper films are on there. Has anyone else noticed this weird little error?

When I switched discs after the problem I decided on INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN. Damn, it looked so good , and of course it was as entertaining as ever. Excellent English subtitles too. It was late when it ended and I was tired, but the feature POISON CLAN ROCKS THE WORLD, a featurette by our own @teako170, was there on the menu and I couldn't resist taking a quick peek before lights out. Yeah, once it began there was simply no turning it off! Terry's passion and research make this 27 minutes of pure enjoyment. Really great stuff, and with clips used to illustrate his narration in not only appropriate, but often very clever ways. I loved it. Terry and Linn were the first forum members I ever met in person on the same day I shook Lo Meng's hand way back in 2007, and he's been a friend ever since. So hearing him on this set talking about what we all love and dropping some interesting knowledge was a joy.

 

3 hours ago, teako170 said:

Couple solid extras by Tony Rayns. Very insightful look at filmmaker Kuei Chih-hung who isn’t always mentioned as much as the other bigger directors at Shaw. Died somewhere in America working at a pizza shop that he owned. 

The other informative piece was on the Martial Arts of Shaolin disc. Tony even got a copy of his Cahiers du Cinéma magazine where he interviewed LKL back in ‘84. Never saw the actual magazine before but familiar with the interview. He talks about the backstory there of why LKL and Jet didn’t mix well and what became of that second film he had planned to do.  Good stuff. 

Right on! Looking forward to this.

I also checked out Frederic Ambroisine's interviews with Gordon Liu and Arthur Wong. I can't overstate how fantastic these are. Watching them brings me the same kind of joy I felt as a kid opening Christmas presents.

[saltysam]

I've watched the three 36th Chamber moves so far, the frst looks great and is a classic, the 2nd and 3rd are much lesser movies but look decent enough and are entertaining. probably be into the new year before i get through the rest.

[teako170]

3 hours ago, KUNG FU BOB said:

Terry and Linn were the first forum members I ever met in person on the same day I shook Lo Meng's hand way back in 2007, and he's been a friend ever since. So hearing him on this set talking about what we all love and dropping some interesting knowledge was a joy.

Me and Bob doing our first selfie together, Lol. Sorry Bob, only photo I have of us from that day.

 

[panzer]

5 hours ago, KUNG FU BOB said:

The other night I was in the mood for MERCENARIES FROM HONG KONG which I've only seen once, way back when I first bought the R3 IVL/Celestial DVD in the early 2000's. It's on the same disc as THE BOXER'S OMEN which I am jonesing to re-watch, but I'm waiting until I can check it out with my son as I think he's going to be a big fan of this gonzo flick. However, when I put the disc in my PlayStation 5 it came up on my screen as MAGNIFICENT RUFFIANS / TEN TIGERS OF KWANGTUNG (unlike most Blu-Ray players that automatically load whatever disc you put in them, the PS5 tells you the name of the disc you insert then lets you decide if you want to start playing it)

This gave me a minor heart attack as well! My Sony 4k player displays the disc name and I had to a double take because it was the second or third time I had put the disc in the player (by this point I'd seen both movies on the disc and was just watching special features).

By the way, I loved your art for Mad Monkey Kung Fu! The amount of care Arrow has put into both the Shawscopes has me super excited for what's to come. So many great artists and contributors. Haven't had much time to listen to the commentaries on either set but I did make sure to listen to David Desser's on King Boxer since I loved the essay he wrote on Hong Kong cinema's penetration into the US in 73 from The Cinema of Hong Kong History, Arts, Identity. This is a topic that interests me greatly, and the video essay from Hendrix and Poggiali just made really want to read their book. Also want to mention the Tony Rayns interviews as well since it's amazing how he condenses so much info in short ~20 minute pieces.

[AlexanderFu]

One thing that bothers me about Vol's 1 & 2 is with all the commentaries and interviews/extras, there hasn't even been a sniff of a mention of lo Lieh. Kara Hui didn't even mention him in the Mad Monkey Kung Fu interview clip. I wish someone would talk about him for an hour or two. he was one of the best and most prolific actors in the genre. he barely gets a mention and I think it's a shame. 

 

Other than that, I really like them! 

[Django]

I've been digging into the new set and the extras I've gone through so far is pure gold, it enriches the whole experience of being a fan. To go from having had these films on different versions and formats of varying quality to have an actual, definitive archivaI product with all possible trailers, TV spots, posters, lobby cards and information on all films is really amazing.. Yesterday I watched the extra "Shaw in the USA" which was so much fun and informative.

🙏🙏🙏

[nahnahnah]

Shawscope Vol 2 available for $96 at Walmart:

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Shawscope-Volume-Two-Blu-ray/1735974341?athbdg=L1100&irgwc=1&sourceid=imp_TsT0AByl6xyNULi2KuxQ3UlNUkAxld2hrSLLx00&veh=aff&wmlspartner=imp_1808408&clickid=TsT0AByl6xyNULi2KuxQ3UlNUkAxld2hrSLLx00&sharedid=&affiliates_ad_id=724316&campaign_id=9383

[venom10463]

2 hours ago, nahnahnah said:

Shawscope Vol 2 available for $96 at Walmart:

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Shawscope-Volume-Two-Blu-ray/1735974341?athbdg=L1100&irgwc=1&sourceid=imp_TsT0AByl6xyNULi2KuxQ3UlNUkAxld2hrSLLx00&veh=aff&wmlspartner=imp_1808408&clickid=TsT0AByl6xyNULi2KuxQ3UlNUkAxld2hrSLLx00&sharedid=&affiliates_ad_id=724316&campaign_id=9383

Just ordered... 94 now.

Edited December 6, 2022 by venom10463

[ShawAngela]

On 12/6/2022 at 5:06 PM, nahnahnah said:

Shawscope Vol 2 available for $96 at Walmart:

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Shawscope-Volume-Two-Blu-ray/1735974341?athbdg=L1100&irgwc=1&sourceid=imp_TsT0AByl6xyNULi2KuxQ3UlNUkAxld2hrSLLx00&veh=aff&wmlspartner=imp_1808408&clickid=TsT0AByl6xyNULi2KuxQ3UlNUkAxld2hrSLLx00&sharedid=&affiliates_ad_id=724316&campaign_id=9383

When I click on your link, it shows 123,57 USD...

[venom10463]

7 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

When I click on your link, it shows 123,57 USD...

It was sold by a third party (deepdiscountdvd) seller. They were six left when I ordered yesterday and all were sold within an hour.

[ChillyChong]

Seems common sense goes out of window when Shaw Brothers is concerned. Took a backpack of movies to trade for movie store. Saw they have Scope vol 2 factory sealed on just arrived pile. I already had in hand On The Run, Rightning Wrongs, Dr Lamb, Odd Couple and Dreadnaught all movies never seen before. Took them back to shelf and said to cashier I take Scope2...it was 200€, but because of trade credit had to dig pocket for €25. Took a look at book, Legacy of Shaw Studio, Ni Kuang and Lau Kar Leung articles make a good bedtime reading. But NOW it`s time to enter into 36th Chamber of Shaolin.

 

Odd, you can`t switch audio after film has started but have to go back to menu.Not unique thing but very rare.

Edited December 8, 2022 by ChillyChong

[Yggdrasil]

15 hours ago, ChillyChong said:

Seems common sense goes out of window when Shaw Brothers is concerned. Took a backpack of movies to trade for movie store. Saw they have Scope vol 2 factory sealed on just arrived pile. I already had in hand On The Run, Rightning Wrongs, Dr Lamb, Odd Couple and Dreadnaught all movies never seen before. Took them back to shelf and said to cashier I take Scope2...it was 200€, but because of trade credit had to dig pocket for €25. Took a look at book, Legacy of Shaw Studio, Ni Kuang and Lau Kar Leung articles make a good bedtime reading. But NOW it`s time to enter into 36th Chamber of Shaolin.

 

Odd, you can`t switch audio after film has started but have to go back to menu.Not unique thing but very rare.

I'm always changing the audio to get that more distinct sound trying to match the lip movements. I prefer Canto as opposed to Mando as it sounds too scratchy.

It was only in October this year after listening to Mike & Arnes' commentary on some of their flicks, that I discovered that the films were filmed without sound and dubbed in post. Why it took me 25 years to figure that out, I'll never know. Always irked me that audio was out of snyc. 

Thank god that didn't happen in western movies. My 'Carry On movies would be ruined, as well as Terminator, Goonies, Close encounters, Quatermass and the pit. Even Lone wolf & Cub series was filmed in '72 with snyc aound.

Let's just say every film from all countries excluding Chinese territory. I just can't figure out why it was just easier to dub it later for the Chinese. 

[lilmanjs]

54 minutes ago, Yggdrasil said:

I'm always changing the audio to get that more distinct sound trying to match the lip movements. I prefer Canto as opposed to Mando as it sounds too scratchy.

It was only in October this year after listening to Mike & Arnes' commentary on some of their flicks, that I discovered that the films were filmed without sound and dubbed in post. Why it took me 25 years to figure that out, I'll never know. Always irked me that audio was out of snyc. 

Thank god that didn't happen in western movies. My 'Carry On movies would be ruined, as well as Terminator, Goonies, Close encounters, Quatermass and the pit. Even Lone wolf & Cub series was filmed in '72 with snyc aound.

Let's just say every film from all countries excluding Chinese territory. I just can't figure out why it was just easier to dub it later for the Chinese. 

A lot of actors and actresses they used didn't speak the same dialect of Chinese was the most obvious case for a lot of Hong Kong cinema at the time.

[Yggdrasil]

3 hours ago, lilmanjs said:

A lot of actors and actresses they used didn't speak the same dialect of Chinese was the most obvious case for a lot of Hong Kong cinema at the time.

Not to mention Korean actors like Hwang Jang Lee.

[KUNG FU BOB]

7 hours ago, Yggdrasil said:

I'm always changing the audio to get that more distinct sound trying to match the lip movements. I prefer Canto as opposed to Mando as it sounds too scratchy.

It was only in October this year after listening to Mike & Arnes' commentary on some of their flicks, that I discovered that the films were filmed without sound and dubbed in post. Why it took me 25 years to figure that out, I'll never know. Always irked me that audio was out of snyc. 

I just can't figure out why it was just easier to dub it later for the Chinese. 

You aren't the only one... I remember when it was announced that Celestial/IVL were releasing the Shaw Brothers films, lots of people saying "We'll finally be able to see these films in their proper language (they were right) with everyone's real voices/all audio in sync with actor's mouths (they were wrong)." Even hearing the tracks in Cantonese or Mandarin, the actual actors rarely dubbed their own voices. There were voice actors that did this job, with certain ones frequently dubbing the same actors from film to film.

As for the "why?"... Since the studios knew they were going to have to dub the films for different markets, they decided it was easier to dub all the languages at once, thus saving time (which is money) and (literal) money by not setting up all the equipment to record sound. Plus, I've read and heard filmmakers say in interviews that Hong Kong is an extremely noisy place, and it would be extremely difficult to record usable audio on set or on location. POLICE STORY 3 was one of the first films to record with sync sound.

[Red Lion]

Both Hong Kong and italian movie industries were the same with no sync sound and being dubbed afterwards. Part of the reasons as stated was that yes hong kong and italy were very noisy places and also multiple languages/dialects being used by cast and crew however i think the bigger part was that they were using very outdated equipment and dont think they had suitable sound recording equipment for live sound. It meant they could churn films out very quickly with no attention paid to an actor fluffing lines and multiple retakes. Would hate to have had less of these movies just so the actors could deliver thier lines properly. Lol

[Kevin Chan]

Before Police Story 3 (1992), I know that Black Cat (1991) was filmed half with sync sound and one scene in Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon (1990) was filmed in sync sound. And boy, those scenes were noisy. It took a long time until Hong Kong movies were watchable in sync sound, IMO. They had bad microphones up until the early 2000s, or they had no idea on how to position and where to point them during filming.