Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Angel with the Iron Fists Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 7, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of the Super Spies and Secret Lies: Three Undercover Classics from Shaw Brothers collection from Eureka! Entertainment.

The venerable Shaw Brothers may be best remembered for their glut of martial arts extravaganzas, a glut evidenced by the recent massive Shawscope Volume Three set among many others, evidenced at least in part by that Volume Three, which is not to suggest the Shawscope collections have been the only source for Shaw Brothers films on Blu-ray. But the studio was certainly not immune to various other crazes that subsumed the global film world, including the massive wake left by the first several James Bond films, seemingly even a bit before the Bond phenomenon had a new burst of Asian energy courtesy of You Only Live Twice. Eureka has aggregated three of these slightly wacky exploits together in an appealing set which if nothing else presents both regular Shaw Brothers performers and directors in a somewhat different genre context.

If The Golden Buddha may recall certain Hitchcock films as much as any James Bond outing, Angel with the Iron Fists may itself spark memories of lunatic outings like In Like Flint that feature a horde of female spy types. The film posits Lily Ho as agent 009, a "Jane Bond" type who, kind of like Paul in The Golden Buddha, finds herself embroiled with a bunch of villains, though at least she has the skill set necessary to deal with nemeses, perhaps unlike Paul. The film never quite delivers on its premise, and frankly lacks some of the gonzo goofiness that made In Like Flint (not to mention some of the Bond films) so enjoyable, though there is definitely a bit of the same camp-tastic approach that the Flint films in particular virtually wallowed in.

Angel with the Iron Fists Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Angel with the Iron Fist is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka! Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. As usual, Eureka! provides no real technical information on the transfer, but one assumes all three of the films in this set are part of the massive restoration project undertaken by Celestial Pictures of the Shaw Brothers catalog. Without any real technical information imparted about the provenance of a source element or elements, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what's going on with this presentation, other than to say it's probably the most widely variant of the three in Eureka!'s set. Brightly lit moments can pop with some considerable energy, especially on the fanciful costumes several of the women wear, and detail levels can be rather good throughout many of these scenes. But there are recurrent interstitial moments, many but not all of which are related to lower light scenes, where the image substantially degrades and splotchy grain can look noisy. Even some of the better moments in terms of tightly resolved grain can frankly look mottled and crosshatched. There's an interesting example very early in the film of some of the kind of inexplicable variances, with the first view of an assemblage of assassins looking pretty rough (see screenshot 8), but then a closely following return to them in the same framing looking at least relatively better.

Angel with the Iron Fists Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Angel with the Iron Fists features LPCM 2.0 Mono audio in the original Mandarin. Once again, the incredible brightness of the upper registers may cause a bit of a reaction during the opening Shaw Brothers masthead fanfare, but this is another track that otherwise offers a reasonable accounting of a soundtrack that has its fair share of musical elements. Some of the higher frequency scoring choices, like brushes on cymbals or the inclusion of rapid fire gunshots during the opening credits theme can sound slightly phased. This has a slightly boxy sound somewhat like The Singing Thief, though I'd argue not as noticeably. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Angel with the Iron Fists Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Eureka! Entertainment has packaged The Golden Buddha and Angel with the Iron Fists together on one disc, with The Singing Thief on the other, with the following supplements:

Disc One

• Commentary on The Golden Buddha by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema


• Commentary on Angel with the Iron Fists by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema

Disc Two

• Commentary on The Singing Thief by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema


• From Hong Kong with Love (HD; 16:43) is an overview of spy films from the Shaw Brothers.


• International Super Spies (HD; 21:51) looks at the global Bond phenomenon.

Additionally, Eureka! provides a very nicely appointed insert booklet, with cast information on all three films and an essay by Iain Robert Smith. Packaging features a slipcover. The score above is for the set's supplements as a whole.

Angel with the Iron Fists Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Angel with the Iron Fist may only exploit its underlying "feminism" a bit more discursively than the "activists" in In Like Flint, but the emphasis on women in this story may well be its most appealing element. This presentation shows the widest quality fluctuations in the video department of the three in Eureka!'s set, though at its best, video is more than acceptable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.