Blu-ray release: ‘Shaw Brothers Presents: The Basher Box’

By   |  Oct 13, 2023

Arrow Video are bringing a triple bill of Shaw Brothers redemption and revenge kung fu movies to UK Blu-ray on October 23, 2023.

At the dawn of the 1970s, a new kind of hard-hitting action film swept the Asian film industry: the kung fu movie, often known to Western audiences as ‘bashers’ for their emphasis on hand-to-hand combat. Shaw Brothers was one of the greatest producers of these eye-popping action spectaculars, revolutionizing the genre through the back-breaking work of top-shelf talent on both sides of the camera as well as unbeatable widescreen production value, much of it shot at ‘Movietown’, their huge, privately-owned studio on the outskirts of Hong Kong.

‘The Basher Box’ kicks off in 1972 with Korean director Chung Chang-Wha’s ‘King Boxer’, the film that established kung fu cinema as an international box office powerhouse when it hit Stateside cinemas under the title ‘Five Fingers of Death’. From there we see Chang Cheh, arguably Shaw’s most prolific director, helm the blood-soaked brutality of  ‘The Boxer From Shantung’ and ‘Chinatown Kid’, the latter set on the streets of San Francisco.

Features:
• 2K restorations by Arrow Films
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations
• Uncompressed Mandarin and English original mono audio
• Uncompressed original Cantonese audio for ‘Chinatown Kid’
• English subtitles for the Mandarin audio
• English hard-of-hearing subtitles for the English dubs
• Commentary for ‘King Boxer’ by David Desser
• Commentary for ‘Chinatown Kid’ (International Version) by Terrence J. Brady
• Appreciation for ‘King Boxer’ by Tony Rayns
• Interview with director Chung Chang-Wha, filmed in 2003 and 2004
• Interview with star Wang Ping, filmed in 2007
• Interview with Korean cinema expert Cho Young-Jung, filmed in 2005
• Interview with Chen Kuan-Tai, filmed in 2007
• Interview with John Woo, filmed in 2004
• Interview with David Chiang, filmed in 2003
• Select ‘Chinatown Kid’ scene video commentary by Susan Shaw from 2021
• Conversation between Chen Kuan-Tai and Ku Feng, filmed in 2007
• Elegant Trails: Fu Sheng, a featurette produced by Celestial Pictures in 2005
• Cinema Hong Kong: Kung Fu, the first in a three-part Shaw Brothers documentary
• Alternate opening credits from ‘Five Fingers of Death’
• Trailers
• Image galleries

‘Shaw Brothers Presents: The Basher Box’ is available to pre-order now from Amazon.co.uk or ArrowFilms.com.

Phil Mills
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