Shawscope Volume One
After an undisputed reign at the peak of Hong Kong’s film industry in the 1960s, Shaw Brothers (the studio founded by real-life brothers Run Run and Runme Shaw) found their dominance challenged by up-and-coming rivals in the early 1970s. They swiftly responded by producing hundreds of the most iconic action films ever made, revolutionising the genre through the backbreaking work of top-shelf talent on both sides of the camera as well as unbeatable widescreen production value, much of it shot at ‘Movietown’, their huge, privately-owned studio on the outskirts of Hong Kong.
This inaugural collection by ARROW presents twelve jewels from the Shaw crown, all released within the 1970s, kicking off in 1972 with Korean director Chung Chang-wha’s King Boxer, the film that established kung fu cinema as an international box office powerhouse when it hit Stateside cinemas under the title Five Fingers of Death. From there we see Chang Cheh (arguably Shaw’s most prolific director) helm the blood-soaked brutality of The Boxer from Shantung and two self-produced films in his ‘Shaolin Cycle’ series, Five Shaolin Masters and its prequel Shaolin Temple, before taking a detour into Ho Meng-hua’s King Kong-inspired Mighty Peking Man, one of the most unmissably insane giant monster films ever made. Chang’s action choreographer Lau Kar-leung then becomes a director in his own right, propelling his adoptive brother Gordon Liu to stardom in Challenge of the Masters and Executioners from Shaolin. Not to be outdone, Chang introduces some of Shaw’s most famous faces to the screen, including Alexander Fu Sheng fighting on the streets of San Francisco in Chinatown Kid and, of course, the mighty Venom Mob in The Five Venoms and Crippled Avengers. Finally, Lau and Liu successfully meld high kicks with humour in two of their masterworks, Heroes of the East and Dirty Ho, also featuring such fan favourites as Wong Yue, Hsiao Hao and Kara Hui.
From kickass kung fu killers to crazy kaiju knockoffs to culture clash comedies, this carefully curated and gorgeously presented selection of all-time Shaw Brothers classics merely represents the tip of the iceberg of the studio’s rich output, making it both an ideal starting point for newcomers and a treat for hardcore fans alike.
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Movie + 4 extrasHeroes of the East
Movie + 4 extras
1978 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chia-Liang Liu
Decades after World War II, the Japanese were almost always portrayed as villains in Hong Kong cinema, but one of the first films to buck the trend was Lau Kar-leung’s Heroes of the East, which pits Japanese and Chinese martial arts against one anoth...
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Movie + 2 extrasDirty Ho
Movie + 2 extras
1979 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chia-Liang Liu
After the international success of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, star Gordon Liu and his director brother Lau Kar-leung drew upon the Chinese legend of the imperial prince travelling in secret amongst the common people for what many argue to be their ...
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Movie + 3 extrasThe Five Venoms
Movie + 3 extras
1978 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang
After over a decade of discovering some of the hottest talents in Hong Kong action cinema, director Chang Cheh outdid himself with the formation of the all-powerful posse of kung fu experts known to fans as the Venom Mob. Though the members of the group ...
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Movie + 5 extrasThe Boxer from Shantung
Movie + 5 extras
1972 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang, Hsueh-Li Pao
By 1972, Chang Cheh was already Shaw Brothers’ most prolific and well-known director with a plethora of box office hits (including the One-Armed Swordsman franchise) to his name and renowned for discovering the hottest young talents to star...
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Movie + 3 extrasFive Shaolin Masters
Movie + 3 extras
1974 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang
After directing a non-stop string of box office hits for Shaw Brothers, the studio gave Chang Cheh his own mini-studio (Chang’s Film Co) and the freedom to produce his own martial arts masterpieces, escaping the usual Hong Kong studio backlot to shoot in...
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Movie + 3 extrasChallenge of The Masters
Movie + 3 extras
1976 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chia-Liang Liu
After masterminding the spellbinding martial arts choreography on dozens of Shaw Brothers’ biggest hits, Lau Kar-leung became an extraordinary director in his own right. His second film, the thrilling and deeply personal Challenge of the Masters, dra...
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Movie + 3 extrasCrippled Avengers
Movie + 3 extras
1978 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang
After achieving instant icon status as the stars of The Five Venoms, the Venom Mob collaborated with director Chang Cheh once again in their most unhinged and spectacular effort yet, Crippled Avengers, which also saw the return to Shaw Brothers of kung f...
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Movie + 3 extrasChinatown Kid
Movie + 3 extras
1977 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang
One of director Chang Cheh’s most inarguable talents was discovering new on-screen talent and catapulting them to stardom, and few stars shone brighter than the cheeky, handsome Alexander Fu Sheng. A very contemporary deviation from the usual period sett...
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Movie + 8 extrasThe Eight Diagram Pole Fighter
Movie + 8 extras
1984 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chia-Liang Liu
After one of its lead actors (cherub-faced action icon Alexander Fu Sheng) unexpectedly died midway through production, master director Lau Kar-leung (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin) retooled his latest martial arts epic, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, as ...
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Movie + 8 extrasKing Boxer
Movie + 8 extras
1972 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chang-hwa Jeong
Already firmly established as the most successful film studio in Hong Kong, Shaw Brothers’ worldwide commercial breakthrough would not come from one of their lavish epics, but instead from King Boxer, a lean, mean and bloody B-movie by a Korean dire...
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Movie + 2 extrasExecutioners from Shaolin
Movie + 2 extras
1977 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chia-Liang Liu
Having choreographed the action for many of Chang Cheh’s ‘Shaolin Temple’ films, director Lau Kar-leung used his inimitable talents and deeply-felt understanding of kung fu history to create his own idiosyncratic take on the same historical legends i...
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Movie + 7 extrasCome Drink With Me
Movie + 7 extras
1966 • Hong Kong • Directed by King Hu
Years before Shaw Brothers’ kung fu films made them the biggest film studio in Hong Kong, local audiences flocked to their wuxia pian films: mythic tales of swordfighting (and often gravity-defying) heroes fighting for honor. In his final film for the studi...
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Movie + 6 extrasMighty Peking Man
Movie + 6 extras
1977 • Hong Kong • Directed by Meng-Hua Ho
When Hollywood announced a big-budget remake of King Kong, Shaw Brothers followed suit with perhaps the most unhinged giant monster movie ever made: Mighty Peking Man. Fresh off directing the smash hit Black Magic horror series for Shaw, director Ho Men...
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Movie + 3 extrasShaolin Temple
Movie + 3 extras
1976 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang
Returning to Hong Kong filmmaking after a spell in Taiwan, director Chang Cheh closed out his ‘Shaolin Temple Cycle’ with arguably the most star-filled and action-packed instalment yet in Shaolin Temple. Ostensibly (though not strictly) a prequel to Five...