Overview: The Beauty of Beauties, the spectacular historical epic that swept the Golden Horse Awards (winning for best feature film, director, actor, color cinematography, and art direction), is a story drawn from China’s legendary Warring States Period.

The King of Yueh, Goujian (Lei Zhao), is defeated and imprisoned by the King of Wu, Fucha (Mu Chu). But when Goujian returns to his much-maligned homeland, he is determined to defeat Wu once and for all, with a secret weapon: a local beauty named Xi Si (Ching Chiang), who is sent to serve Fucha and lure him to his doom.

Blu-ray Verdict: Personally, I have had a vested interest in director Li Han-Hsiang’s work ever since The Love Eterne. So far that continues to be his best work, but Beauty of Beauties had showed promise ever since I had heard of it; being his first production outside of Shaw Brothers, and one that promised an epic scope that absolutely dwarfed what the Hong Kong studio could have provided.

Cursory research regards it to have been a truly humongous production, spouting over 6000 costumes, 30 thousand individual weapons, 800 chariots and 8000 chariot horses, 120 thousand extras, and a shoot that took 334 days and 120 thousand feet of film.

As time would show us, such a scale would bear fruit, as it went on to win several awards in the 1966 Golden Horse Awards, including Best Picture. A good copy of it had been long unavailable until just a few years ago, when the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute restored it, and along with it some art house theater screenings.

Now MVD Visual via 88 Films has brought out this wondrous brand new 4K remaster from the original negatives High Definition (1080p) and it has rocked my world. And so titling itself on the titular Beauty of Beauties, Xi Shi, the film’s main focus is more on the clash of nations during the Warring States Period, wherein she plays a pivotal role, and I have to admit, that turned out to be way more interesting than the supposed main character of the film itself.

Defeated kings swear vengeance, triumphant ones aloofly ignore advice from old advisors, apocalyptic declarations of revenge and the fall of the capital city. If you’re into that sorta thing, it can be, as they say, sick.

On the other hand, this leaves Xi Shi less as the central figure in a story that takes place across decades and nations, and more a side character that has an odd amount of emphasis put on her. This is a story that warranted a near 4 hour runtime, and I have no doubt that cutting over an hour of that resulted in some heavy lopsided screen time balance in this version. All in all, I can honestly say that this is a great film and thus I urge you to give it a shot. It is a watch, a long watch, but it is engrossing and will have you thinking things over long after the cinematic experience is over.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
Brand new 4K Remaster from the Original Negatives High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray in 2.39:1 Aspect Ratio
2.0 Original Mandarin Mono
Newly Translated English Subtitles
An Interview with Oriental Cinema Expert Tony Rayns
Original Trailer Restoration Comparison

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