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As promised, here are my thoughts on the fourth, and final, Shout Factory’s excellent Shaw Brothers Classics boxsets. By far, in my opinion, this is the best set, because by the early/mid-80s the Shaw directors and writers have finetuned the kung fu movie genre.
Collected here is my favorite Shaw Brothers director Chang Cheh and his last film for the company, Five Element Ninjas (aka Super Ninjas). I’ve previously mentioned that this is my favorite Venoms film, although it’s technically not a Venoms film, as by this point in time, the Venoms have largely disbanded. Still, I considered it a Venoms, because it contains many of the tropes in a classic Venoms film.
The commentator, who described the film as Chang Cheh’s greatest hits remix, because it was. It was like Cheh knew this was his last film, so he made his greatest film… This film has it all. From his macho bare-chested heroes to wu-sha weapons (the Alliance heroes had these Swish Army Knife weapons!) to training film to epic final fight. In fact, the last 45 minutes of the film is just fight after fight after fight… until the hero sacrifices himself to take out the final boss. If you have to see one Shaw Brothers film, Five Element Ninjas is the one to see.
There’s a few other Venoms classics, like the “whodunnit” Masked Avengers and House of Traps (not my favorite film).
Unfortunately, Shaw Factory does not have the rights for Five Deadly Venoms or Crippled Avengers (aka Return of the Five Deadly Venoms), so you’ll need to get Arrow Videos’ Shaw Scope boxset.
I would love it if Shout and Arrow get together and co-release an ultimate Venoms Boxset. Boy, even though I already own all these films, I would definitely reconsider buy the Venoms set again!
I love these old kung fu films, so naturally, I had to get all the Shaw Brothers releases… For many years, we only had bootleg VHS, or had to important Region 3 DVD… but in the last five years, we finally started seeing some rare Shaw Brothers in proper Bluray 1080p full HD.
If you’re a big fan, as I am, and want collect everything (four Shout Factory sets, two Arrow Videos sets, plus a variety of single releases), you’re looking to spend around $1,000!
It wouldn’t be so bad if it was spread out in five or six years… but it is crazy that we’re getting all these films in two years (Shawscope in 2022 and Shaw Brothers Classics in 2023). If you’re a Shaw fan, what a moment to be alive!
Anyway, now that I’ve completed my Shaw Brothers set, I am very happy to have these films in my library… but my wallet is definitely lighter. If there are more Shaw releases in 2024… I’m probably not going to be first in line, but wait for a sale.
Collected here is my favorite Shaw Brothers director Chang Cheh and his last film for the company, Five Element Ninjas (aka Super Ninjas). I’ve previously mentioned that this is my favorite Venoms film, although it’s technically not a Venoms film, as by this point in time, the Venoms have largely disbanded. Still, I considered it a Venoms, because it contains many of the tropes in a classic Venoms film.
The commentator, who described the film as Chang Cheh’s greatest hits remix, because it was. It was like Cheh knew this was his last film, so he made his greatest film… This film has it all. From his macho bare-chested heroes to wu-sha weapons (the Alliance heroes had these Swish Army Knife weapons!) to training film to epic final fight. In fact, the last 45 minutes of the film is just fight after fight after fight… until the hero sacrifices himself to take out the final boss. If you have to see one Shaw Brothers film, Five Element Ninjas is the one to see.
There’s a few other Venoms classics, like the “whodunnit” Masked Avengers and House of Traps (not my favorite film).
Unfortunately, Shaw Factory does not have the rights for Five Deadly Venoms or Crippled Avengers (aka Return of the Five Deadly Venoms), so you’ll need to get Arrow Videos’ Shaw Scope boxset.
I would love it if Shout and Arrow get together and co-release an ultimate Venoms Boxset. Boy, even though I already own all these films, I would definitely reconsider buy the Venoms set again!
I love these old kung fu films, so naturally, I had to get all the Shaw Brothers releases… For many years, we only had bootleg VHS, or had to important Region 3 DVD… but in the last five years, we finally started seeing some rare Shaw Brothers in proper Bluray 1080p full HD.
If you’re a big fan, as I am, and want collect everything (four Shout Factory sets, two Arrow Videos sets, plus a variety of single releases), you’re looking to spend around $1,000!
It wouldn’t be so bad if it was spread out in five or six years… but it is crazy that we’re getting all these films in two years (Shawscope in 2022 and Shaw Brothers Classics in 2023). If you’re a Shaw fan, what a moment to be alive!
Anyway, now that I’ve completed my Shaw Brothers set, I am very happy to have these films in my library… but my wallet is definitely lighter. If there are more Shaw releases in 2024… I’m probably not going to be first in line, but wait for a sale.
Five Element Ninjas |
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