All customer reviews

A superb release of several Shaw Brothers horror classics housed in a high quality signature Shawscope box. This is a must-buy release, simple as that.

The fourth volume in the wonderful Shawscope collection is as interesting as the ones before, equally pretty, in a different color and with a rather different selection of movies. This time, they are horror movies; some of them with a bit of martial arts, most without it. Some of them add odd mystic gimmicks, which makes them different if you like this sort of naive thing. As usual, restorations are truly excellent, very interesting extras (most of them in a separate disc this time), a pretty, informative, carefully crafted booklet; an exquisite presentation on the whole. However, you should know this: there are a few comedies, and, in my opinion, they are VERY bad. Try to picture not funny at all plus really boring. They must be funnier for native speakers, but, even so, there is excessive overacting all over the place, dialogues are simply preposterous, and characters mostly unbearable. This is the only reason for being one star short of five. In my opinion, it was a very bad idea to include these comedies in the set, sorry to say. The other movies are really good, though, so I think it's worth the purchase if you are into simple campy horror. Let's hope for a volume 5...without that sort of bad comedies, if possible. Anyway, thanks a bunch to Arrow for this series, really.

is an unexpected feast: it moves beyond kung fu to dive into the darker, more creative side of the Shaw Brothers. Witchcraft, fantastic horrors, celluloid monsters, and supernatural delirium come together in a set of impeccable restorations, packed with extras that contextualize the studio’s most experimental phase. It’s an essential box set, both for cult cinema fans and for those wanting to discover the versatility of the Shaw catalog beyond fists and swords.