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Shawscope Vol. 3 Blu-ray box |
Comparison between the Celestial version, represented here by the German Blu-ray from filmArt, and the 2024 restoration from Arrow Video, contained on the British/American Blu-ray from Arrow Video
- 10 relevant missing bits Several other master errors/framecuts with a duration of less than 1 sec each were not listed in the report.
At the end of 2021, Arrow Video in the UK/USA released the ‘Shawscope Vol. 1’ box set, which contained 12 films from the legendary Hong Kong film studio. In addition to 5 well-known HD masters from the licensor Celestial, there were 7 new HD restorations that did not have the infamous framecuts that run through much of the Celestial catalogue. We have documented this in more detail in several editing reports, for example the comparison to Five Venoms. At the end of 2022, ‘Shawscope Vol. 2’ followed with 9 out of a total of 14 films in new HD restorations without framecuts, for example the report on Ten Tigers of Kwantung. From 25 November 2024 (UK) and 6 December 2024 (USA) respectively, ‘Shawscope Vol. 3’ is available. Fortunately, this time even all 14 films included are new restorations, so that there is added value across the board compared to the previously known Celestial versions. Particularly exciting are Clans of Intrigue, which has only been available in a censored version worldwide so far, and The New One-Armed Swordsman, which was only released by T.V.P. in an incomplete reconstruction instead of fully uncut. The Avenging Eagle is a similar case which had a half-baked "uncut" reconstruction in Germany by filmArt. Arrow presents all these problem cases in the longest versions to date, along with much more. Disc 7 contains Killer Constable, which is not only an unusual and rather grim film in itself, but also features another highlight of the box set in the form of the heavily alternative Korean version. In this curious version of the film, almost half of the film is missing, but this has been filled in with exclusive material featuring Korean actors and, of course, a few additional scenes with the Hong Kong stars. Exciting, but more on that later – for now, the present comparison offers at least a small insight. However, the usual problem of framecuts is also prevalent here.
Minus the Celestial references, the new Arrow version is 2:33 minutes longer. As could be guessed from the few comments in our report on the German VHS, there are basically only a few notable differences apart from the usual framecuts. In the finale, you'll find a typical example of a shot that was probably damaged in the middle, where an artificial reaction shot was created with a recycled shot from another scene. Apart from that, there are only a few significantly longer shots. Runtime information is given according to the scheme To get you started, here is an example of the reconstructed Korean version of the film, which is available on the bonus disc in the Shawscope set from Arrow. We also had a copy of the actual Korean VHS that was quite worn out, so you can see here in a direct comparison that the color scheme was slightly adjusted or darkened and the worst VHS 'wear and tear' was eliminated with filters. On the third comparison picture, however, you can also see from the occasional remaining white dropouts on the right side of the image that in principle the same VHS source was used to create the Arrow reconstruction. Scenes from the 2nd, 4th, 18th and 87th minutes are shown here to highlight that the good widescreen HD image was used for whole scenes but also even just single shots also avaible the original film. The Korea-exclusive scenes then run in windowboxed format. By using the HD master whenever possible, some nasty tape damage that affected at least the copy we had, could be bypassed. Apart from that, the versions are almost frame-perfectly identical, and (aside from a handful of really unimportant moments) Arrow carefully reconstructed the correct Korean version. Great work once again.
The German Blu-ray still has the Celestial logo at the beginning. + 12 sec A few comparison images. The credits are the same color and the color scheme is largely similar. In night scenes, the Celestial version sometimes has brighter colors than would actually fit with the rest of the shots, which have a blue filter.
10:07 / 10:07-10:08 The drums can be seen a little earlier. 0,8 sec
10:58 / 11:00-11:01 A shot of the men is a bit longer. 1 sec
34:10 / 34:48-34:51 The water can be seen much earlier and the camera pans a little to the side. 2.4 sec
36:29 / 37:17 Just for the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that the “leg slashes” with lots of blood in close-ups are all visible in the Celestial version, but in a shot surrounding the slashing close-ups, a little more than half a second is missing. 0.6 sec
38:13 / 39:05-39:06 A close-up on the battlefield begins earlier in the theatrical cut: the Celestial version starts when the camera zooms out. 1.1 sec
59:36 / 61:01-61:09 A soft fade in was recreated here in Celestial. Actually, it comes a little later and thus shows the house and the following tracking shot longer. The following change to the interior is also shortened accordingly. Arrow 5.4 sec longer
Shortly after another 2 seconds go missing. 76:10 / 77:59-78:00 The attackers shoot at the end of the shot. 1.3 sec
83:01 / 85:01-85:02 The man comes out of the underground earlier. There is a small jump cut (which was probably the reason for the cut in the case of Celestial) and the German Blu-ray resumes with his throw. 0.5 sec
Alternative 86:28-86:29 / 88:32-88:33 The middle part of the shot was apparently damaged here, so that the uncut master briefly switches to another shot of the fire – while the original version stays with the dying Pang throughout. No time difference
86:42 / 88:47-88:49 Shortly thereafter, a soft fade was set earlier again. 1.8 sec
Finally, as usual, the old version had a Celestial note after the credits. |
