Shawscore: Volume Four


As gleefully entertaining as Shaw Brothers films can be, those box-set collections can get a little, well, repetitive. Kick, punch, jump, repeat. It’s like button mashing on Super Street Fighter and hoping to be surprised with the results. But Arrow’s Shawscope Volume Four gathers films outside of the studio’s typical martial arts wheelhouse; odd detours into kid-friendly superhero territory, South Asian black magic, evil sorcerers and slimy vigilantes. And with sixteen – count ‘em, sixteen! – movies of steadily increasing weirdness, this limited edition is essential stuff for kung-fu and horror fans.

Look, no one wants to read a play by play of each film. Besides, that would spoil the fun of what (for most people) would be “first contact” with movies that are so much more enjoyable going in blind. Things start off with the Ultraman-inspired Super Inframan, which sends a bunch of Ice Age Monsters topside in a series of Power Rangers-style face-offs. But the majority of the set leans towards horror, including several exploitation entries like Black Magic and its sequel, set in Thailand where witches and warlocks dabble in unspeakable curses. The Oily Maniac is a pre-Toxic Avenger anti-hero who uses his petroleum-induced powers for personal vengeance.

Produced for a particular audience, you can count on plenty of casual nudity, racial profiling and obscene amounts gore. But you also get finger lasers, demonic perverts and plenty of unsubtle comic relief…so it’s a win-win! What’s fascinating is watching Shaw Brothers fight its way into new genres while still incorporating their signature style. Like Hex, an upscale Hitchcockian mystery, that looks every bit as impressive as the studios best stage-bound productions. Horror themes and ideas from West and East are woven into these fast-moving (mostly) low-budget excursions into exploitation, comedy, horror, sci-fi and fantasy. This set really does have it all.

The full list of titles includes Super Inframan, Oily Maniac, Battle Wizard, Black Magic 1 & 2, Hex, Bewitched, Hex vs. Witchcraft, Hex after Hex, Bat Without Wings, Bloody Parrot, The Fake Ghost Catcher, Demon of the Lute, Seeding of a Ghost, Portrait in Crystal and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, most of which include a commentary track to help put things in perspective. Disc ten is a full-on bonus disc of extras containing video appreciations of specific films in the set, trailers and a 1972 French TV profile of Shaw Bros. The packaging itself comes with a 60-page collector’s booklet.

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