Looks pretty packed (especially that documentary). Time to see how the various UK editions I've got compare. Have a feeling I might regret some of those, others maybe not.

The Protector... that's the movie with the naked chicks working in a rub-n-tug massage parlor and bagging coke, isn't it?

Pay cable favorite of mine when I was a kid.

Goddamit, I’d almost convinced myself I don’t need these.

Scenes that I seem to recall are missing or drastically reduced in Chan’s Hong Kong version, because, then as now, he was something of a goody two shoes. At least he made up for it with extra fight scenes in his version.

Apparently now Shout is going to release a Shaw Collection in June:
https://www.bullmoose.com/p/36305312...al-arts-movies

No other info yet.

…which on one hand is exciting, but on the other will probably never drop to a price I’d be comfortable paying.

If they have Super Inframan on it, it’ll be impossible for me to say no, though!

It could... I would imagine there will be some titles in there that 88 previously released that were Region B only.

I can't wait to see what the titles are. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but my primary wants are early 70's Chang Cheh Iron Triangle films and Chor Yuen Gu Long adaptations. But there is a part of me that hopes that Shout didn't pick up any of my real favorites because I've been spoiled by Arrow. I know they can't do everything, but Arrow is absolutely best in class when it comes to these Shaws.

I could've sworn Shout released some Shaw movies years ago during the previous round of interest (mostly DVD era), but couldn't really find anything outside of their two Shaw/Hammer crossovers (which are definitely worth owning) and the various GH collections they did (Jimmy Wang Yu, Angela Mao, Bruce Lee, etc). I guess so many Shaw titles were put out by Image, Tokyo Shock and Dragon Dynasty that I just assumed Shout must've been in on that action.

This is great for me and really bad for my wallet. After years with no Shaw Brothers, we are now getting a Volume One set with 11 films from Shout along with the Arrow and 88 Films releases.

I’m looking forward in finding out the titles but are we looking for Shout to have done their own remastering or would it be previous releases from Europe?

I wonder if it’ll be a mix like Arrow’s.

Since Cliff from Shout Factory handled a couple of Shaw titles when he was at BCI Eclipse, I wonder if those might be a part of this set. The only one I remember off the top of my head is Opium and the Kung-Fu Master.

Edit! Reddit sez the list of titles that BCI Eclipse licensed (though only released 2 before going under) were:

I'll be stunned if Shout uses anything other than the pre-existing HD transfers from Celestial.
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Yeah, Life Gamble and Opium and the Kung Fu Master were the only two that were released on dvd. Opium also got a blu-ray, but I don't think Life Gamble did. The rest of the titles eventually ended up on DVD via Funimation.

Dawn of the Discs just posted this regarding the Shaw Bros. set

Twitter

Having watched all of them, people are going to be surprised by some of the Shaw films that were selected especially if they were spoiled by the Shawscope sets in terms of heavy action. The standouts for me are Bells of Death and Dragon Swamp. I’ll definitely get the set as I never thought that these early Wuxia will ever get released in North America.

I can’t wait to see the reaction of people when they watch the musical numbers in a Wuxia lol!

I don't feel the need to get this one right away... even at 50% off MSRP it would be $85. Outside of a few, I don't really feel like the titles in that collection justify that price. It's not the level of the Arrow sets... but Shout is going to be Shout. Seems like they assume that people will just buy it since the name Shaw is on the box. Prior the current HK boom something like this would probably in a budget friendly release.

Is the Shaw Classic set, site exclusive too like the Brave Archer? I didn’t see it indicated on the Shout site. That gives me hope that the set will be cheaper later on and on another site.

This won’t be a Day One for me even with the poster.

Interesting set. Theses are all from 1967-1969 and most (if not all) have never been released to blu-ray anywhere in the world. It also appears to be chronological, so I'd expect volume 2 to pick up in 1970.

I’m guessing that Arrow has the One-Armed Swordsman trilogy.

With this set coming out, Shawscope Volume 3 will be Wuxia heavy.

Not an exclusive. It’s on Amazon too.

I have the HK DVDs (and maybe a couple of VCDs?) for all of these, so it will really come down to the extras since the HK versions didn't have much beyond trailers (and often "new" trailers at that). Would be nice to have a bunch in one handy pack, as well, with some context. Obviously that artwork is preliminary, but I've grown a bit tired of how a number of these boutique labels mock-up their images of boxes for both the preliminary and finished sets, often making them look much thicker/bigger than they really are at retail. To judge by that temporary box art, I'd think every film would have it's own case, but based on Shout's ongoing boxed set releases, I'd wager these might be split up into two or three multipacks. Severin's another one that posts artwork of massive boxes and then the actual product is substantially smaller (not that I should complain, as I much prefer these things take up less space!).

They could've doubled the films in this set and still not covered all of the martial arts / swordplay films from 67-69. Five of the titles in this set feature Cheng Pei-pei, so hopefully Shout or its supplement contractors have gotten her to participate. She seems to have retired after MULAN, but still makes public appearances as far as I know. David Chiang is in one of these (INVINCIBLE FIST) but if their plan is to include more of his films in future volumes, surely they could get him to sit for a long-form interview they could break up across discs? He still turns up in HK TV shows all the time, but he lives up here in Vancouver so it couldn't be that hard to track him down (plus he's sat for other interviews related to HK cinema in the past). Ku Feng is in two of these, but he's pretty old now, so who knows? Not sure if any of the others in these are still with us.

If this was Arrow releasing this set, my expectations will be higher for the set supplemental material but this being Shout Factory, I’ll be shocked if we have any substantial supplement for each film.

A current in depth interview with a star or director will be enough to please me.

Totally agree. Maybe that, plus a short 'expert' video piece for each film, as I think even commentaries on these would be somewhat redundant after a while, since there's so much cross-over of talent and styles from one Shaw film to the next during this period. And since there are still a few of the original participants living and active, it would be nice to hear from them before they're . . . not some day.

- - - - - - - - - -

Seeing films from such a (relatively) early era of Shaw reminds me of just how many other films we'll probably never see re-issued because they aren't straight-up period martial arts films. In particular, Shout could throw together a nice 'site-exclusive' set of some of the Bond knock-offs from the same mid- to late-60's period reflected in this first Shaw box with films like GOLDEN BUDDHA, ANGEL WITH THE IRON FISTS, OPERATION LIPSTICK ASIA-POL, BLACK FALCON, INTERPOL, KISS AND KILL, THE ANGEL STRIKES AGAIN, SINGING THIEF. Better yet, these films might feel right at home on labels like Severin or Mondo Macabro.

I mean, surely there must be some folks out there besides myself that might enjoy stuff like this (especially considering all the European Bond/spy knockoffs that have been issued on disc over the years to so much acclaim):


And then there's the early 70's Sexploitation films which I'm sure would definitely find their niche in a nice box from Mondo, Severin or wherever: BAMBOO HOUSE OF DOLLS, SEXY GIRLS OF DENMARK, SEX FOR SALE, VIRGINS OF THE SEVEN SEAS, etc

There’s an interview at least.

Good to know. Wonder if it's old or new, whomever it is. I'm curious if Fred Ambroisine's stuff is exclusive to Arrow. He basically interviewed more of these folks than anyone, anywhere, including many now departed. I'd imagine he's still got a lot of goodies in his archives that could keep multiple companies supplied, but it seems like most of his stuff is on Arrow's releases.

Also, I thought it was fairly well known that the Shaw Brothers weren't from Hong Kong, but "Shaw Brothers" as the world knows it very much is a Hong Kong company.

Shout just announced the bonus content for the Tiger Cage trilogy

I don't recall ever seeing this movies. Was this series good?

Is each film standalone with different characters, but the series just has the same name?