|
buy this title
Arrow Video Shawscope Vol. 4 Box |
Comparison between the Hong Kong Theatrical Version with the Mandarin Extended Version, both available on the British/American Blu-ray from Arrow Video
- One cut
Here we are again: After there were were many reports on Shawscope Vol. 3 at the end of 2024, Vol. 4 of the box set will now be available from December 8, 2025 (UK, or December 9 in the US). Once again, the collector's label Arrow Video offers new restorations of 16 films from the legendary Hong Kong film studios, which were notorious for years for their “framecut” versions of Celestial: countless moments roughly shortened at splice points and any kind of damage on the film material. Two, or on closer inspection even three titles are included in several versions within the box set. For Super Inframan, you also get the different US version, and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is also available with an additional scene exclusive to the Mandarin version. With Bloody Parrot, there was once again the typical British situation, without any prior announcement, that scenes involving animal cruelty are critical for the BBFC, which is why the uncut version is available on the same disc with code A (intended for America), but a slightly censored version is served up with code B (UK / Europe). Disc 9 contains the science fiction comedy Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star which was produced with a surprisingly high budget. The film is hardly known internationally, probably due to its Hong Kong humor, which can be quite challenging for Western audiences, containing many references which are more likely to be only understood locally (the audio commentary explains some of this). But countless film references - in addition to local hits such as Hui Brother's The Private Eyes you of course see some gags about genre titles such as the Star Wars trilogy or Close Encounters of the Third Kind - are well worth discovering. In addition to the version commonly found on previous releases, Arrow Video offers a variant that includes an additional scene. The reason behind this was probably political censorship, as Cherie Chung's character quotes the former Chinese Prime Minister Deng Xiaoping and his cat theory. In Taiwan, the scene was already included at the time (during Xiaoping's lifetime), but in Hong Kong, people were more critical. The scene is therefore only available in Mandarin, but besides this, the longer version from Arrow Video can also be watched with the Cantonese dub. Apart from that, we also had the older Hong Kong DVD available for comparison.
We checked this separately, of course, but as the almost identical running time at the same speed suggests: The old master used here was without any frame cuts and otherwise identical to the Hong Kong theatrical version.
Running times are listed according to the following scheme 20:31 / 20:31-21:36
Before the father (Ching Miao) takes out his gun, he says, “Be quiet now! Enough!” and angrily overturns the table. He warns the people: “I'll kill you all if you don't stop! Is this some kind of rebellion? What nonsense! What bad manners!” Li (Cherie Chung) cautiously says, “I'd like to ask you a question.” David Lo rushes over, but Ching says, “It's fine. I can handle it. Go ahead.” Li: “Which is better, a black cat or a white cat?” Ching thinks: “A fair complexion hides flaws. White cat.” Li: “Wrong!” Ching: “Well... A black cat isn't afraid of dirt. Black cat.” Li: “Wrong!” Ching: “If it's neither of them, then which is better?” Li: “It doesn't matter if it's white or black, the best cat is the one that can catch mice, so you're wrong!” Everyone laughs and Ching says: “What a ridiculous argument! Quiet! Quiet, all of you!” 65 sec
Here are a few more comparison images between the Hong Kong DVD and the Arrow Blu-ray.
There were no frame cuts on the HK DVD and only a minor difference at 58:40 / 61:11-61:13, because after the music video sequence, the Blu-ray has 1.7 seconds of black screen as a transition to the following scene back at the dinner table. |
