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Shawscope Vol. 3 Blu-ray box |
Comparison between the old Celestial version on the French Blu-ray by Spectrum and the 2024 restoration from Arrow Video, contained on the British/American Blu-ray from Arrow Video
- 2 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 8 contains the two films Buddha's Palm and Bastard Swordsman. Buddha's Palm was actually exactly the same as the HD master from Celestial, frame for frame identical. Bastard Swordsman, on the other hand, had a huge runtime difference and a surprising result.
Minus the Celestial credits and at the same running speed, the new Arrow version is 4:18 min longer. The film is extremely fast-paced (countless shots of the fast-paced fight scenes are less than a second long), but besides the usual frame cuts by only a few frames at the end/beginning, basically, nothing is particularly noteworthy. Only in one scene, with deliberately repeated shots, can you discover on closer inspection that a short 0.3 sec long shot has been lost during the Celestial "restoration". All in all, however, unspectacular, and that's where our report series on the framecut-less restorations in the third Shawscope box ends.
Runtime information is given according to the scheme The French Blu-ray still has the Celestial logo at the start.
+ 10.5 sec A few comparison images: As is often the case, Arrow shows the original credits in white instead of a pseudo-modern recreation in yellow with a color gradient, and the color scheme is a bit more natural. What's also special this time is that Arrow has incorporated the correct Shaw logo from 1983, the year the film was made, while the French Blu-ray shows the better-known, old logo.
46:34 / 50:36 The repeated shots in quick succession are used as a stylistic device when the girl kicks the camera. Actually, you see the kick three times in quick succession, but on the French Blu-ray only twice. 0.3 sec
70:14-70:16 / 76:22-76:25 Again, there are several repetitions of wild jumps through the air, and the additional framecuts made it look massively jerky on the Celestial version. Arrow 1.3 sec longer
Now there is the correct end title card again instead of the recreated variant from Celestial. Before that, the credits also differed again.
Finally, as usual, a Celestial note in earlier version. |
