Shawscope: Volume Two

Shawscope: Volume Two. Various directors, 1978-1993.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray box set, released 2021. Mandarin and Cantonese languages with English subtitle. Cumulative runtime of feature films approximately 1,286 minutes.

Summary: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Disciples of the 36th Chamber, Martial Arts of Shaolin, The Boxer’s Omen, and Mad Monkey Kung Fu contain violence to animals. See individual titles for details.

The Arrow set includes many documentaries, interviews and commentaries, and fourteen feature films:

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, 1978, Liu Chia-Liang

Return to the 36th Chamber, 1980, Liu Chia-Liang

Disciples of the 36th Chamber, 1985, Liu Chia-Liang

Mad Monkey Kung Fu, 1979, Liu Chia-Liang

Five Superfighters, 1979, Lo Mar

Invincible Shaolin, 1978, Chang Cheh

The Kid with the Golden Arm, 1979, Chang Cheh

The Magnificent Ruffians, 1980, Chang Cheh

Ten Tigers of Kwangtung, 1978, Chang Cheh

My Young Auntie, 1981, Liu Chia-Liang

Mercenaries from Hong Kong, 1982, Jing Wong

The Boxer’s Omen, 1983, Kuei Chih-Hung

Martial Arts of Shaolin, 1986, Liu Chia-Liang

The Bare-Footed Kid, 1993, Johnny To and Patrick Leung

Martial Arts of Shaolin

Martial Arts of Shaolin (Nan bei Shao Lin). Liu Chia-Liang, 1986.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: A living harmless snake is fastened to a thin tree branch by looping its neck around the branch and tying a knot with its body. It then is pulled taught, skinned alive, the body whacked from the head, hacked into pieces and cooked on a sizzling hot stone. Hokey Smokes. 16:52 - 17:26.

The film opens with an ethically irreconcilable scene in which two young Shaolin students save a nest of baby birds. They then get worms to feed the pre-fledglings and are interrupted by a senior monk who ruins Happy Baby Bird Time by asking if the birds’ lives are more important than the life of the worms?

The Boxer’s Omen

The Boxer’s Omen (Mo). Kuei Chih-hung, 1983.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.

Summary: Ritualistic killing and torture of two chickens.

Details: Two psychic battles between a boxer-turned-monk and practitioners of Black Magic consume over half of this film’s runtime. In the first battle, the evil sorcerer performs outrageous rituals in his (lab?, game room?) decorated like the waiting area for the scary show at an amusement park. The monk sits calmly in a temple and counters his attacks. The second battle is rooted in arcane Thai magic, alluringly psychedelic rather than spooky in the traditional Chinese or Japanese taste. Both sequences rely on the mystical power of stop-action claymation.

Although the evil magicians’ spells hinge primarily on the persecution of rubber animals, two live chickens also are cruelly victimized. The killing of these chickens compromise what otherwise would be a uniquely entertaining film.

1) From 16:32 through 18:25, a silly rubber bat is repeatedly killed and resurrected. The final minute of that sequence includes a real black rat which the sorcerer repeatedly pretends to bite into and spits simulated rodent blood on various Halloween decorations from aisle #2 in Home Depot.

2) This scene of ritual conjuring continues to include real vipers having their venom ‘milked’ (ick) into a glass container, through 24:22. The snakes do not appear to be particularly annoyed or even interested in the fact that rubber spiders are then supercharged with their venom.

3) A live rooster is decapitated and his blood thrown around to generate more evil rubber bats, 43:17-44:10.

4) A real crocodile is provoked with a weapon, then a rubber prop is used for the ensuing scene in which the fake crocodile is eviscerated and used as a resurrection coffin for a female demon, 58:10-59:27.

5) A live chicken’s protruding anus is sliced off and eaten family-style as part of the demon resurrection ritual, 1:03:41-1:04:15.

Mercenaries from Hong Kong

Mercenaries from Hong Kong (Lie mo zhe). Jing Wong, 1982.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Rather than the usual Asian tale of two bickering warlords and the young fighters on both sides, Mercenaries from Hong Kong is American-style nostalgia about The Toughest Vet who assembles a crew of his old buddies for a rescue-and-revenge mission in an unpleasant place.

 

Invincible Shaolin

Invincible Shaolin (Unbeatable Dragon/Nan Shao Lin yu bei Shao Lin). Chang Cheh, 1978.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Kid with the Golden Arm

The Kid with the Golden Arm (Jin bi tong). Chang Cheh, 1979.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 86 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Magnificent Ruffians

The Magnificent Ruffians (Mai ming xiao zi). Chang Cheh, 1979.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Ten Tigers of Kwangtung

Ten Tigers of Kwangtung (Guangdong shi hu xing yi wu xi). Chang Cheh, 1980.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu

Mad Monkey Kung Fu (Feng hou). Liu Chia-Liang, 1979.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.

Summary: Depicted abuse and murder of a trained monkey.

Details:

1) A street performer has a monkey on a chain leash. The monkey is made to perform backflips when the owner jerks him upward via the chain, 21:12-21:22.

2) The monkey is seized by thugs at 32:46, who swing the monkey violently in circles by his chain before smashing him against a tree. The dead monkey is tossed to the ground and picked up by his owner through 33:24.

Five Superfighters

Five Superfighters (Shao Lin da peng da shi). Lo Mar, 1979.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Shao Lin san shi liu fang). Liu Chia-Liang, 1978.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language. Runtime approximately 116 minutes.

Summary: A particularly odd attempt to thwart warriors on horseback involves rigging modest amounts of rice flour to fall from the city gate as they pass below, 1:50:00. Hmmm. The horses are not injured but are visibly confused and weirded out, understandably. 

Disciples of the 36th Chamber

Disciples of the 36th Chamber (Pi li shi jie). Liu Chia-Liang, 1985.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

Summary: A large beautiful fish is thrown about callously, 19:05-19:18.

Return to the 36th Chamber

Return to the 36th Chamber (Shao Lin da peng da shi). Liu Chia-Liang, 1980.

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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The disc includes the 15 minute documentary Hero on the Scaffolding, (2003 Celestial Pictures), illuminating a scene in Return to the 36th Chamber in which an elaborate bamboo scaffolding is built as part of kung fu training. The Celestial short address both the martial arts depicted and the continuance of bamboo scaffolding in present-day China. 

I enjoyed Hero on the Scaffolding more than the feature film due to the relentless cheap comedy that permeates Return to the 36th Chamber.

Rebels of the Neon God

Rebels of the Neon God (Qing shao nian nuo zha). Ming-liang Tsai, 1992.

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Edition screened: Big World Blu-ray, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

Summary: Cruel killing of an insect.

Details: The protagonist skewers a cockroach with a compass, brings it to his desk and drives the skewered cockroach onto the desk, 2:27-2:40. We see the cockroach again at 3:03-3:11 as the protagonist flings the dead cockroach outside through the window. A little over a minute later, the cockroach wins some small retribution as another cockroach sticks to the glass pane outside the protagonist’s bedroom window and he tries smacking the glass so that the cockroach falls off on the other side, but winds up putting his hand through the window pane and cutting himself.

A Brighter Summer Day

A Brighter Summer Day (Guling jie shaonian sharen shijian). Edward Yang 1991.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #804, released 2016. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 237 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Taipei Story

Taipei Story (Qing mei zhu ma). Edward Yang, 1985.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #879 in box set #873 Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2, released 2017. Hokkien and Mandarin languages with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Everything Everywhere All at Once. Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022.

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Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2022. English and Mandarin with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 139 minutes.

Summary: “Comedic” depiction of extreme physical abuse of a dog.

Details: From 1:15:30 through 1:16:33, a leashed Pomeranian is used as a martial arts weapon. The dog repeatedly is twirled on his leash and used as a rope dart, then kicked hard enough to send him soaring across a large room.

One-Armed Boxer

One-Armed Boxer (Du bei chuan wang). Jimmy Yu Wang, 1972.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Come Drink with Me

Come Drink with Me (Da zui xia). King Hu, 1966.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Crippled Avengers

Crippled Avengers (Can que). Chang Cheh, 1978.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume One, released 2021. Mandarin language with English subtitles or English dub. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.