Love and Bullets Hong Kong DVD Review Column #2: SB! What's that?

Welcome to the second installment of Love and Bullets new editorial column, a place for fans to share their love and passion of Hong Kong cinema with one another.

This week I'd like to make a special welcome to fans who may be new to Asian cinema. While Hollywood (and the Wachowski brothers) has done their bit to promote and plunder Hong Kong talent like Yuen Woo Ping, John Woo, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan, their North American output has been less than stellar. Regardless of whether you've enjoyed some of their more successful (Chan's Rush Hour 2) or less than profitable releases (pretty much everything else), if you're only familiar with their western efforts, then as any fan could tell you, you're really missing out. One film though that managed to live up to the hype in the last year (at least partially) was Kill Bill Part 1. While it may not be a Hong Kong film per se (and I'll spare you a rehash of my review or what I thought about part two), it was an entertaining ride and had just enough of the Hong Kong spirit. It even opened with the classic Shawscope logo. Coming out of the theatre, it brought back a flood of fond memories and reminded me of how much I really missed those old films.

Growing up as a child, my parents would occasionally take me with them to the theatre, and my favourite (Star Wars not withstanding) would always be kung fu movies. There was even one in particular that I just couldn't get enough of. It was about an evil martial arts master who used his iron fingers to kill people. Two brothers, orphaned by the villain would grow up apart, find each other, and join together to avenge their parents. Cheesy? You bet, and a heck of a lot of fun. I loved it so much that on the following weekend I was visiting with my grandparents, I somehow convinced my grandmother to take me down to Chinatown and catch it again (there were only one or two Chinese theatres, so if you didn't catch it quick, it would be gone). We had a ball (and my grandmother hated violent movies). I don't remember much about it other than the plot of course, it was such a long time ago, but I'll never forget the Shaw Brothers fanfare that played before it and many of the other movies I saw when I was young.

Whether you liked it or hated it, if Kill Bill made you even remotely curious about some of the original films that inspired Tarantino's opus, then you've come to the right place. After all, the foreign section at any given video store can be full of stuff you've never heard of. Say you liked Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but not any of Jackie Chan's movies, what do you choose? Sure, experimentation is the best way to find out, but that could get time consuming and expensive (we're not all made of money). So let us do the work. We watch the movies and write the reviews, you read and decide if any them are worth you time.

This week I'm going to take a look at the Shaw Brothers, (you know, that loud trumpeting logo at the beginning of Kill Bill) at the time one of the largest film studios in the world. Built on a huge lot of land in Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong the company built by Sir Run Run Shaw and his brother Runme Shaw would encompass dozens of outdoor and indoor sound stages, recording studios, film editing and processing plants as well as staff dormitories. While small films had been made in Asia since the turn of the century, the Shaw Brothers studio was a powerhouse that could go toe to toe with international productions (Sir Run Run Shaw's producing credits extends as far as Blade Runner). They ruled the Hong Kong box office of the '60s, garnering acclaim the world over with a wide variety of musicals, soap operas, comedies, and costume dramas and turning such starlets as Ivy Ling Po and Li-Li Hua into silver screen queens. Having duplicated the Hollywood studio system successfully, the Shaws had a huge stable of popular stars and filmmakers that kept them on top, even when trends moved away from Cantonese operas and musicals.

By the '70s, a new wave of martial arts and wu xia sword epics were overtaking ticket sales and influential directors such as Chang Cheh, Chor Yuen, and Lau Kar Leung came to the fore. Cheh's tales of cinematic bloodshed with his realistic depiction of violence, and themes of honour, loyalty, and brotherhood would have a huge impact (notably on his young assistant, John Woo) on the kung fu genre. A genuine film connoisseur inspired from the East and West by Akira Kurosawa and Sam Peckinpah, Cheh realized that actions films could be elevated above their pulp roots and blazed his own trail of 'heroic bloodshed' with countless imitators to follow (take Tarantino's homage in Kill Bill's House of Blue Leaves scene). He also opened the door for male actors to headline a film and turned Jimmy Wang Yu (One-armed Swordsman), David Chiang (Vengeance), Ti Lung (Heroic Ones), and others into leading men. Other filmmakers put their own unique spin on the genre such as Chor Yuen with his opulent, costumed sword epics and Lau Kar Leung would become renown for his complex choreography and thoughtful martial spiritualism, not mention making a star of his adopted brother Gordon Liu Chia-Hui (appearing in Kill Bill vol. 1&2).

While the 80's would see the decline of the Shaw studios as they turned to other business ventures and focus on their television empire TVB, the films themselves would make a lasting impression. Their competition, Raymond Chow's Golden Harvest and with stars Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, following in the footsteps of Bruce Lee would usher in a new hard-hitting style of kung fu filmmaking and established the modern face of Hong Kong cinema as seen today. With their lots and sound stages leased out to TVB, the Shaw studios eventually shut down production leaving the world with their library of almost 800 films unavailable for decades.

Luckily since then, Celestial Pictures, part of a Malaysian conglomerate has bought the rights to the entire Shaw library has begun releasing Shaw films on DVD and VCD home video. Many of these films, some of which have literally not seen the light of day in almost 40 years have attained legendary status are now being digitally restored and remastered. The results are films that are brighter, more colorful and vibrant than they have ever been.

Of course, nothing in this world is perfect. Celestial's production facility was new and their crew inexperienced. Initial releases were letterboxed/non-anamorphic, the restoration would remove dirt and blemishes, but also fine grain and detail. To speed up the process only a chosen few are transferred in high definition, with others making due with (low) standard resolution, and then when up-scaled to anamorphic DVD, a soft image would blow up into a blurry image. They've also fallen into the trap of omitting the original soundtracks in favour of new 5.1 re-mixes with the dreaded 'chirping birds,' new sound fx that are added to create a surround field, but are noticeably out of place.

Problems aside, I was happy enough to finally get a chance to even see these pictures again, and their subsequent releases have gotten a lot better. Still no mono soundtracks, but the remixes are a little more refined and picture quality can range from good to outstanding! While their titles have for the most part been uncut, the only thing I'd really like to see saved are the alternate scenes from various prints made for the international markets. There is still plenty of material not seen in the HK cuts and that includes the original trailers that are still missing from some of the individual releases.

Since December 2002 Celestial and distributor IVL have released about a dozen titles a month with offerings in almost every genre imaginable. Understand though that these are Region 3 DVDs and will require a little effort to enjoy these films (like a multi-region player if you're outside of Southeast Asia like me) While the price was a little high at first, they're now on par with a typical new release, and considering that these among the most celebrated films in the world and the time and cost of restoring them with the results they deliver, they're worth every penny.

With over a hundred films already available, coverage of all the Shaw releases has been limited, but here are our the reviews to date, with more to come. You're going to find action, suspense, comedy and even a full on Star Wars parody, so check 'em out!

The Five Venoms
Come Drink With Me
Heroic Ones
Lion vs. Lion
Little Dragon Maid
The Sentimental Swordsman
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

And that Shaw Brothers' movie I saw with my grandmother when I was a kid? It was the Shaolin Prince [link] and it was just released. Read my review here [review forth coming!].

Celestial has made me a real happy camper, but remember what I said about the world not being perfect? While I don't have any hard numbers, anecdotally the Shaw line up hasn't performed as well as it could despite starting with a bang. A corporate restructuring earlier in the year didn't bode well, but aside from a little reshuffling their release schedule hasn't been hit too much so far. They've also sold the international licensing rights to various distributors, so now you're going to see releases from other regions as well. Don't hold your breath for a North American release though, many of the Region 1 rights were bought up by Miramax who's sitting on them until a remake gets the green light. Even worse, starting last month poor sales have had the impact of limiting some titles to a VCD-only release. Wouldn't it be a shame if after all the work that was put into each film they couldn't be enjoyed to the fullest extent possible? It's true that in Asia, VCDs are cheaper and more popular than DVDs. While nothing can be done to change a fiscally sound decision (if Celestial can't make money, they won't release any more) we should still make our feelings known concerning this issue should the opportunity arise to change it.

Celestial Enquiry@CelestialPictures.com
IVL: contact_ivl@intercontinental.com.hk

I would also like to encourage all film lovers to give these films a try if you haven't already. HKFlix carries all the latest titles with some from different regions cheaper than others. Find out what influenced a generation of filmmakers (Woo, Tarantino). In their time, Shaw produced celluloid masterpieces that are easily just as entertaining and breathtaking today, so don't let these cinematic gems slip your grasp!

Have any questions, comments, or a rant of your own? Email us and let us know what you think! We'll reply in the next column.

Copyright © 2004 Leon Ho