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Shawscope Vol. 3 Blu-ray box |
Comparison between the Celestial version, represented here by the HD version on Amazon Prime Video, 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 3 contains Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan and The Lady Hermit from 1971. TIn the marketing, the focus was mainly on the well-dosed, exploitative show values, but Chor Yuen's wuxia drama also offers a few unusual approaches to feminism, homosexuality and toxic masculinity for the time. For those who need another point of reference: the Cat.III cult film Naked Killer was clearly inspired by the plot of this film. The difference in running time compared to the previously known version was quite small for a change.
Minus the Celestial logos, the new Arrow version is 0:51 min longer and after a missing piece in the credits, it is actually mainly a small re-ordered scene in the finale that is worth mentioning. Interestingly, it is only in the second half of the film that framecuts become more noticeable at all, and basically everything remains unspectacular this time.
Runtime information is given according to the scheme The VOD version still has the Celestial logo at the beginning.
+ 11.5 sec The credits in yellow vs. white. Plus a small image comparison at the beginning. The usual tendency towards a rather cool and smooth look was also present here with Celestial, but what stands out most is the clearly zoomed image.
03:39 / 03:28-03:31 A shot during the opening credits sequence begins much earlier. On the left of the screen, a white dot moves from bottom to top. This detail may have been a reason for Celestial to simply remove the beginning of the shot, in which the credits fade in artificially like all the others. 2.9 sec
Around the 56th minute, the number of frame cuts increases significantly, whereas until then the film was actually not constantly affected by it (and depending on the case, usually only a maximum of 5 frames per transition). 78:32-78:33 / 79:08-79:09 A classic among the Celestial edits: a short moment of a shot was damaged in the middle of it, and to cover that up, they recycled a moment from the surrounding area, thus incorporating an additional reaction shot. This happens after a guy has been knocked out in the front of the picture. So the short defence against another attacker with a kick is missing. No time difference
The end credits differ again (and after that, only the old version still refers to Celestial).
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