Overview: One of Shaws’ most beloved cult classics, Hua Shan’s tokusatsu tribute SUPER INFRAMAN stars Danny Lee (The Killer) as the titular high-kicking superhero, defending the planet against a demon queen and her legion of subterranean mutant minions. Lee also stars as a monster vigilante issuing vicious justice in Ho Meng-hua’s creeptastic OILY MANIAC and as the prince granted magical powers in Pao Hsueh-li’s fantastical wuxia BATTLE WIZARD Director Ho next treats us to a double-helping of occult mayhem with BLACK MAGIC and its sequel, where Ti Lung battles wicked voodoo doctors with the power to cast spells and raise the dead.

Four more doses of unhinged madness follow from Kuei Chih-hung in the form of BEWITCHED and the HEX trilogy, an unforgettable quadruple serving of possession and witchcraft that presaged his notorious brain-melting classic The Boxer’s Omen.

Master filmmaker Chor Yuen adds a dose of horror to his trademark wuxia-mystery style in BAT WITHOUT WINGS in which a young sword fighter must end a deranged martial arts master-turned-multiple murderer’s perverted rampage. Hua Shan returns with BLOODY PARROT an eye-poppingly vivid horror fantasy about two swordsmen hunting a demon that offers to grant wishes. Lau Kar-wing’s kung fu jiangshi comedy THE FAKE GHOST CATCHERS sees two conmen unwittingly enlisted to battle spirits from the underworld, while Tang Tak-cheung’s hair-raising wuxia fantasia DEMON OF THE LUTE has to be seen to be believed.

Yang Chuen’s gruesome splatterfest SEEDING OF A GHOST has a taxi driver enlist a necromancer’s help in avenging the murder of his wife, with sickening results; and Hua Shan returns with PORTRAIT IN CRYSTAL, a deliriously imaginative tale of a murderous swordswoman brought to life through a crystal sculpture. Last but not least, Alex Cheung’s TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR is an out-of-this-world comedy in which city girl Cherie Chung is abducted by aliens and taken to a galaxy far, far away!

Blu-ray Verdict: This fourth collection by Arrow Video opens on the much beloved SUPER INFRAMAN (1975), where Princess Dragon Mom and her mutant army have risen, and only Infra-Man can stop them.

Awakened from her centuries of slumber underneath the volcano of Mount Devil by an earthquake, the thoroughly wicked Princess Dragon Mom (deliciously overplayed with lip-smacking relish by the gorgeously slinky blonde looker Terry Liu) threatens to take over our planet. The cackling, whip-brandishing villainess is assisted by her numerous skull-faced soldiers and an unruly army of unsightly hyperactive monsters.

Fortunately, newly created bionic superhero Infra-Man (stolidly essayed by Hong Kong action movie star Danny Lee) comes to mankind’s rescue, beating up on Dragon Mom and her nefarious minions with his exceptional chopsocky prowess and remarkable super powers.

This beautifully bent, batty and berserk baby possesses all the right wrong stuff to qualify as a complete corker: sloppy direction, endearingly grotesque beasts who are obviously just poor guys in cheesy rubber outfits (said ghastly ghouls include a tentacle creature, a shaggy-haired freak, a bright orange bug critter, and a fanged lumpy fudge thing), a constant quick pace, colorful, expansive widescreen cinematography and a flimsy, nonsensical plot! Brilliant!

Next up is OILY MANIAC (1976) where a cripple takes revenge on criminals by using a magic spell that transforms him into an oily monster/superhero.

Inspired by a 1950’s series of Malaysian movies, this film is about Sheng Yun (Danny Lee, The Killer, Thunder of Gigantic Serpent/King of Snakes, Infra-Man), a man who has risen past the handicap that polio dealt him to become a lawyer. He tries to help a man, Lin Yang Ba (Ku Feng), who has killed a criminal to protect his daughter Yue (Chen Ping) and his coconut oil business. Before he is hung, Lin Yang gives Sheng Yu a black magic spell that transforms him into an oily maniac.

The real problem is that Yue is really in love with Chen Fu Sin (Wa Lun) and wants nothing to do with him. That means he goes on a rampage, wiping out all manner of criminals, like a plastic surgeon, a woman who accuses men of rape and a blackmailer. Look, if someone asks you to look at the magic spell on their back, lie in a hole in your yard and cover yourself with oil, I guess you do it!

Then comes BATTLE WIZARD (1977) where a bookish young man and his sword-loving sister find themselves battling a trio of villains, one of them a beautiful but masked woman who has promised to either marry or murder the first man to see her unmasked.

This is one of the Shaw Brothers films that makes almost no sense if you try to think about it logically but is a lot of fun to look at anyway. There’s all sorts of mayhem, including a gorilla (or rather, a man in a gorilla suit), bullet-like objects being shot from some characters’ fingers, a guy who periodically belches out fire and oh, so much more!

This film was rushed out just four or five months after the original Star Wars film, which it definitely seeks to emulate in terms of what were then state-of-the-art special effects; and it looks just as silly to modern eyes today as that original Star Wars does (I mean that affectionately). Tons of fun!

Up next is BLACK MAGIC (1975) where an evil magician makes a living by casting deadly spells on people’s objects of desire. He gets overly ambitious and start to go out of control.

The film excels in creating a vivid and immersive atmosphere. The detailed production design, from the eerie landscapes to the elaborate costumes, transports viewers into a realm where magic and mystery reign supreme. The use of practical effects, while somewhat dated, adds a tangible authenticity to the film’s many supernatural scenes, giving them a unique charm despite their occasional campiness.

That said, Jiang Tou struggles with narrative cohesion and pacing. The story, while rich in potential, often feels disjointed, with certain plot points lacking sufficient development or clarity. This results in a viewing experience that can be confusing and uneven at times, but overall it is an enjoyable flashback watch.

Then comes BLACK MAGIC PART 2 (1976) where an evil magician and his zombie minions are up against a trio of doctors who are on a mission to find the cause of an outbreak of unknown diseases caused by his spells.

Black Magic 2 starts as it means to go on: in full-on bonkers mode, with a group of topless cuties taking a dip in a river only to be attacked by a unconvincing model crocodile that eats one of the girls. A white magician lures the reptile to its death and cuts it open. Cue the opening credits.

The rest of the film is equally as insane, with plenty of those Hong Kong black magic movie staples, mucus, maggots and worms, plus zombies with metal spikes in their heads, potions made from burnt pubic hair, breast-milk drinking, and eye-ball eating. There’s also a hilariously bad fight in and on a cable car (complete with really dreadful back projection), lots more gratuitous female nudity, and a fiery finale in the evil magician’s home!

Then we get brought forth HEX (1980) where a woman who has murdered her abusive husband, sees his return as a vengeful ghost.

Hex follows an uneasy menage a trois in a traditional Chinese mansion where fear, paranoia, and violence consume everyone unfortunate enough to come near. Tanny Tien Ni plays Madam Chan, a woman dying of consumption. Her abusive alcoholic husband, Yeung, played by Wang Jung divides his time between drinking and abusing her and the help, which shortly consists of just Yi Wah (Chen Szu Chia), a newly-arrived family friend from the country. When murder comes to mind as a way out of this claustrophobic situation, the characters stir up more evil than they can cope with.

I’ve not seen Diabolique, which this film supposedly borrows heavily from, but I think that Hex owes a lot to the Hammer films of the ’60s and ’70s. Lonely house, check; interpersonal problems, check; plot twists, check check; little exposition bits done in voice-over, check check check! This film could do with 15-20 minutes being snipped out of it, and it relies on a lot of techniques that now look very hackneyed - the mirror there-but-not-there thing, the soundtrack bumps - but overall this is a solid flashback to settle in with on a cold, rainy night.

Then we get BEWITCHED (1981). While possessed by an evil spirit, a man murders his daughter. A police detective investigating the case also becomes possessed. A good monk helps fight the evil spirit.

Detective Wong King Sun is investigating the horrific and violent death of a little girl at the hands of her father, who claims that he was under the influence of a wizard. This takes the detective all the way to Thailand to learn more and, as happens in films such as this, to be cursed by a powerful magician named Magusu, who was supposedly played by an infamous Malay sorcerer. That’s what the credits say and who are we to deny the words of Shaw Brothers or any exploitation studio when you get right down to it?

Wong King Sun decides to fight black magic he needs a white magic monk. What follows is an entire movie of one-upmanship battles over whose magic is strongest, including a gut-churning moment when the evil magician grabs that pause that refreshes. Except that we’re not talking about Coca-Cola. This dude likes to sip from a big urn filled with unborn children and blood!

Along next is HEX VS. WITCHCRAFT (1980). A compulsive gambler with bad luck owes money to a violent gangster boss. A mysterious old man offers him a proposal to marry the ghost of his dead daughter in exchange for cash and an expensive apartment.

Chih-Hung Kuei directed this yet there are hardly any of the maggots and worms and murder and weirdness that you want. Instead, it’s about a compulsive gambler by the name of Cai Tou (James Yi Lui) whose bad luck is fixed when a mysterious elderly man fixes him up with the ghost of his daughter.

I mean, his last plan was to get his wife to sleep with the gangster he owed money to, which ended up with her decimating his scrotum and then leaving Cai Tou. Now, he has a spectral wife who is jealous of other women yet is only able to make love to her husband by possessing them.

We live in a weird world where some cultures have gambling movies as an actual genre. Let’s love the fact that so many odd and fascinating subcultures exist.

Then comes HEX AFTER HEX (1982) where a female ghost possesses the body a dead girl in order to get a muscular stuntman for a boyfriend.

Kuei Chi-Hung has created a movie where Yoda randomly shows up and then Darth Vader appears with a lightsaber that removes clothing! There’s also a real estate developer who hires Ma Su and plans to complete his development by June 30, 1997, which is when Hong Kong became part of China again. In fact, this evil landowner even gets branded with what was supposed to say 1997 but Shaw Brothers replaced that with their logo.

Eventually, Ma Su fades into the background and Yeung Suk Yi goes on the offensive to get back at the developer for kicking everyone out of their apartment. By the end, Ma Su has fallen for the ghost and invokes a monkey god to battle an animated statue of Thomas Jefferson because, well, why not at this point? What if it also turns into a slot machine and gets everyone rich with the gold that comes out of it? Let’s do that too!

Next is BAT WITHOUT WINGS (1980) where an acclaimed director Chu Yuan was credited for bringing mystery thriller ingredients into his atmospheric martial arts epics, and this is one of the most impressive examples. The title refers to the feared nickname of a notorious rapist-murderer who swoops down to destroy one swordsman’s fiancé and frame another. Or does he? The two tragic men team with a beautiful swordswoman to find the truth.

Starring the wonderful Ku Feng, a man who’s filmography has spanned over 50 years, as the titular character, the Bat glides around the place, raping women and killing anyone who gets in his way, all while looking like an angry reject from popular rock band, Kiss. He even dons face paint almost identical to that of Gene Simmons himself. As it turns out, Feng is only masquerading as the Bat, and has the real one locked up in a cave having lost his memory a few years before, after getting hit on the head during a fight.

And while the Bat Without Wings has a lot of great things going for it, a lot of scenes with the aforementioned Feng, come off as silly as he seems to defy gravity in a much more abstract way than everyone else. But it’s hardly anything to put you off.

Then we get BLOODY PARROT (1981). An expert swordsman is suspected of being the thief of a treasure sent to Emperor. The swordsman who has nothing to do with the theft investigates and is led on the trail of the supernatural Bloody Parrot.

Another film from the director of the legendary Super Infra Man, Hua Shan gives us this odd mish-mash of several HK genres of the early 80’s.

An expert swordsman is suspected of being the thief of a treasure sent to Emperor. The swordsman who has nothing to do with the theft investigates and is led on the trail of the supernatural Bloody Parrot. This leads to the Parrot Brothel and the star prostitute who walks around half naked. Strange things happen including a demonic possession, witches casting poison spells, disgusting autopsies and numerous sword fights. Then a dead constable turns into a vampire! This is all in the first 30 minutes!

Directed at a breakneck pace, Hua Shan predicts the hyper-kinetic films from HK in the 1990’s. The film shows a good bit of style and production values. If the story wasn’t completely confusing at times, it would be quite enjoyable for fans of wacky HK films. At least something unexpectedly odd happens every few minutes. For fans of Shaw wuxia action, there is quite a bit of it and the fight choreography of Hsu Hsia is very good.

Along thereafter is THE FAKE GHOST CATCHERS (1982). This uproarious action fantasy sees its heroes facing off against all sorts of unholy threats seeking to terrorize the land of the living.

The plot (from a script by Wong Jing) is all over the place and doesn’t always respect continuity as it tells of a young man (Hsiao Hou) who abandons his job as assistant to a fake medium (hence, the title of the film) and is recruited, along with Chang, to aid the bride’s ghost who is pursued in the afterlife by the ghost of the jealous suitor.

Only by helping the two men transport the spell containing her soul, stashed inside an umbrella, to her sister in another town can the ghost achieve justice and find peace. There are lots of obstacles along the way, including the eyepatch-wearing Wang Lung Wei and his men and a detour involving the opera performer, now possessed by the bride’s ghost, winning at the gambling tables as long as the bride’s spell is maintained.

It all leads to multiple confrontations in an abandoned villa, starting with a kung fu fight with Wang Lung Wei and his men and continuing with a showdown between the ghost of the jealous suitor and the three heroes using written spells and other supernatural tactics.

The pay-off is not nearly as imaginative as a film like this needs (see the spectacular finale of ENCOUNTER OF THE SPOOKY KIND) and it’s a big disappointment that Fu Sheng never fights, although his comic performance is otherwise quite enjoyable. Still, it’s quite watchable and has a good cast and the usual high-level Shaw Bros. production values, complete with an effective array of clever special effects.

Then comes DEMON OF THE LUTE (1983) where the lute-demon Chin Mo has reappeared in the world to wreak havoc. Hsiao Feng-ling is ordered to find a special bow and arrow that can counter the demon.

The first film by Lung Yi-sheng, this is the tale of Yuan Fei the Flying Monkey (Chin Siu-ho), who takes on the challenge of finding a weapon that can defeat the Demon Lute, which has been made from the muscles of dinosaurs. In his journey, he meets swordswoman Feng Ling the Rainbow Sword (Kara Wai), the drunken Old Naughty and his scissors, the Woodcutter and his son Doraemon, called that because he carries around a Doraemon doll.

They will battle The Long Limb Evil, a demon who has an arm that can keep growing; the One Eyed Dragon, who has a crazy spider eyepatch; Red-Haired Devil, who can attack with his afro and the demonic lute itself, which becomes a transparent hand with six fingers that keeps grabbing for our heroes before they use the only weapon can stop it, a bow that was jammed into the stone wall of a cave!

Then comes SEEDING OF A GHOST (1983). A Hong Kong taxi driver’s life horribly falls apart after accidentally hitting a sorcerer with his cab. He decides to seek the sorcerer’s help to turn the curse on his enemies at the expense of his own life.

As ’80s Hong Kong horror goes, this movie from the Shaw Brothers studio is a fairly typical example: the story is bizarre, there are plenty of moments that defy logic and it is loaded with shonky creatures and OTT gore. Throw in some gritty fight scenes, a brutal rape, and quite a bit of female nudity (including full frontal) from cute Asian women, and the result is an enjoyable slice of Eastern sleaze that never bores, and even sometimes surprises.

This is perhaps the only film where one might witness a man being sodomized with a giant matchstick, a spirit impregnates a putrefying corpse in mid-air, and a finale in which a multi-tentacled fetus creature erupts bloodily from its mother and attacks guests at a party!

That is followed by PORTRAIT IN CRYSTAL (1983) where several mysterious killings take place in the underworld and a war fighter is trying to find the culprit behind these murders.

Long Fei (Jason Piao Pai) left behind the world of martial arts fisticuffs and now lives in a secluded mountain studio where he and his assistant Fatty (Wong Chun) have spent five years carving a woman out of crystal. Long Fei wishes that his woman had a soul, so he adds some blood because you know, nothing bad would happen, and of course everything bad in this movie happens as the crystal woman (Yu-Po Liu) starts killing people.

Masked Poison Yama (Wei Hao Ting) and his son (Yu Hsiao) want to kill Long Fei, so they spend much of the movie inside a treehouse lab where they mix plants, snake venom - yes, the movie shows us it being extracted, it’s a Shaw Brothers movie - and animals to make a poison that blows people up from inside their stomach. Yes, they show it. You know you want it!

And finally on the cinematic menu is TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR (1983) where a second-rate private eye sees a woman’s UFO abduction claim as their ticket to fame and fortune.

Not the best of the bunch, but hey, the beautiful Cherie Chung is in it, and that is one damn fine reason to watch. She was some presence, and you will know that by the first scene she is in. She gets her shoes stuck on a grating and, like Marilyn Monroe, the dress goes up, but for much longer. This causes a major traffic pileup (not a surprise, she looks amazing in the scene and throughout the film).

There are side stories here, but what it all boils down to is this is a film in which the writers used the kitchen sink approach. They put a Stars Wars type fight in it, put a little Triad action and even had Cherie being saved on the railroad tracks. Not a good film in the classic sense, but it’s totally fine as a stand-alone oddity, for sure.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY COLLECTION CONTENTS:
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of all sixteen films, all newly restored in 2K from the original negatives by Arrow Films
Illustrated 60-page collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by David West, Jonathan Clements and Grady Hendrix, plus cast and crew listings and notes on each film by Ian Jane
New artwork by Matt Frank & Jolyon Yates, Mike Lee-Graham, Chris Malbon and Ilan Sheady

DISC ONE – SUPER INFRAMAN
Newly restored lossless Mandarin, Cantonese and English mono audio
Newly translated English subtitles, plus optional hard-of-hearing subtitles for the English dub
Option to view the film in its US theatrical version, Infra-man, with lossless “Stereo-Infra-Sound” surround audio
Brand new commentary by martial arts cinema experts Frank Djeng & Erik Ko Shaws’ Little Dragon, a newly filmed interview with co-star Bruce Le
Super Ultra Infra Action!, a brand new video essay on Shaws’ tokusatsu films written and narrated by Steven Sloss
Theatrical trailers, TV spots and radio spots

DISC TWO – OILY MANIAC / BATTLE WIZARD
Newly restored lossless Mandarin mono for both films, plus English mono for Battle Wizard
Newly translated English subtitles for both films, plus optional hard-of-hearing subtitles for the English dub on Battle Wizard
Brand new commentary on Oily Maniac by critic Ian Jane
Brand new commentary on Battle Wizard by Jonathan Clements, author of A Brief History of the Martial Arts

DISC THREE – BLACK MAGIC / BLACK MAGIC PART 2
Newly restored lossless Mandarin and English mono audio for both films Newly translated English subtitles for both films, plus optional hard-of-hearing subtitles for the English dubs
Brand new commentary for Black Magic by critic James Mudge
Brand new commentary for Black Magic Part 2 by critic Samm Deighan
Alternate US opening for Black Magic Part 2

DISC FOUR – HEX / BEWITCHED
Newly restored lossless Cantonese and Mandarin mono audio for both films
Newly translated English subtitles for both films
Brand new commentary for Bewitched by critic James Mudge

DISC FIVE – HEX VS. WITCHCRAFT / HEX AFTER HEX
Newly restored lossless Cantonese and Mandarin mono audio for both films
Newly translated English subtitles for both films
Additional Mandarin voiceover clip for Hex Vs. Witchcraft

DISC SIX – BAT WITHOUT WINGS / BLOODY PARROT
Newly restored lossless Mandarin mono audio for both films
Newly translated English subtitles for both films
Brand new commentaries for both films by critic Samm Deighan

DISC SEVEN – THE FAKE GHOST CATCHERS / DEMON OF THE LUTE
Newly restored lossless Cantonese and Mandarin mono audio for both films
Newly translated English subtitles for both films
Brand new commentary for Demon of the Lute by martial arts cinema expert Frank Djeng

DISC EIGHT – SEEDING OF A GHOST / PORTRAIT IN CRYSTAL
Newly restored lossless Cantonese and Mandarin mono audio for both films
Newly translated English subtitles for both films
Brand new commentary for Seeding of a Ghost by critic James Mudge

DISC NINE – TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR
Newly restored lossless Cantonese and Mandarin mono audio
Newly translated English subtitles
Seamless branching option to watch Cantonese version with additional scene from Mandarin version
Brand new commentary by martial arts cinema expert Frank Djeng
Newly filmed interview with director/co-writer Alex Cheung
Newly filmed appreciation by film scholar Victor Fan
Theatrical trailer

DISC TEN – BONUS DISC
Hong Kong: The Show of Mister Shaw, a 1972 French TV profile of Shaw Brothers
Brand new video essay on Ho Meng-hua written and narrated by Grady Hendrix
Newly filmed appreciations of Super Inframan by Leon Hunt, Luke White and Kim Newman
Newly filmed appreciation of Bat Without Wings by Wayne Wong
Newly filmed appreciation of Demon of the Lute by Luke White
Newly filmed appreciations of Battle Wizard and Demon of the Lute by Victor Fan
Theatrical trailers for most of the films in the set, some never seen on video before

www.ArrowFilms.com