Black Magic Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Black Magic Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 18, 2025

Note: This version of this film is available on Blu-ray as part of the Shawscope Volume Four collection from Arrow Video.

Things seem to have calmed down a little from the gauntlet I experienced toward the end of 2024 where it seemed I was getting a Shaw Brothers title (or several) in my review queue virtually daily. Arrow has been curating its immense Shawscope collections for a few years now, and they're helping to alleviate any perceived deficit in high definition presentations of the venerable studio's output with this fourth volume which aggregates sixteen more films from the Shaw Brothers canon (some of them previously released in other territories, though Arrow advertises new 2025 restorations for all of the films in the set). Arrow has packaged all of these volumes consistently, and this latest volume shares the same basic dimensions as its shelf mates (if you even have shelf space for such large boxes), and it also includes the wealth of bonus material that the previous releases from Arrow have offered.

For "rabid completists" who may want to peruse the immense prior volumes in this series from Arrow, please click on the following links:

Shawscope Volume One Blu-ray review

Shawscope Volume Two Blu-ray review

Shawscope Volume Three Blu-ray review

Even the commentary tracks on both this feature and its sequel readily admit that both Black Magic films came along at a transitional period for Shaw Brothers when the studio was perhaps increasingly desperate to get ticket buying butts into seats. Butts may be the operative word, since both of the Black Magic films offer copious amounts of absolutely gratuitous nudity, along with a rather liberal dose of horror gore. Both films dabble in the Shaw Brothers version of the titular technique, with the first film offering a convoluted scenario involving what amounts to love potions and/or spells, and the second film trafficking more in I Walked with a Zombie territory.

As is also at least alluded to in the commentary tracks, both films have rather odd disjunctive opening vignettes, though at least with regard to this first film there's arguably a bit more of a tether to subsequent goings on since we're introduced to someone engaging in something akin to voodoo, which then goes spectacularly awry. Spells and charms continue to predominate in this story, making this film's opening a bit more organically woven into the proceedings than the second film, which quite oddly features a Jaws adjacent vignette featuring a poor girl getting eaten by a alligator, something that has arguably very little to absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film.

In any case an increasingly love potion suffused starcrossed set of potential relationships ensue that would seem to keep "true lovers" Xu Luo (Ti Lung) and Wang Ju-Ying (Lili Li Li-Li) apart, but you can probably already guess how that problem ends up. Good vs. evil (and/or white magic vs. black magic) are represented by the kindly shaman Master Fu Yong (Ku Wen-Chung) and the neafarious Shan Jian-Mi (Ku Feng). You can probably also guess how that conflict is resolved.

Black Magic Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Black Magic is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. Arrow's almost overwhelming insert booklet lumps all the films together on its informational page about the transfers, as follows:

All sixteen films in this boxset are presented in their original aspect ratios (all 2.35:1 except for Bewitched, Hex After Hex and Seeding of a Ghost in 1.85:1) with their original Mandarin and/or Cantonese and/or English monaural soundtracks. Every effort has been made to present these films in their original and complete versions using the best materials available.

All sixteen films have been newly restored by Arrow Films in 2025, in collaboration with L'Immagine Ritrovata, Hong Kong Film Archive and Celestial Pictures. The original 35mm negatives for these films were scanned at L'Immagine Ritrovata Asia and restored in 2K resolution at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. Super Inframan, Oily Maniac, Battle Wizard, Black Magic, Black Magic Part 2, Hex, Hex Vs. Witchcraft, Hex After Hex and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star were graded at R3store Studios, London. Bewitched, Bat Without Wings, Bloody Parrot, The Fake Ghost Catchers, Demon of the Lute, Seeding of a Ghost and Portrait in Crystal were restored at Dragon DI, Wales. These restorations have used the entire film negative without resorting to the practice of "frame-cutting" resulting in the loss of film frames at each negative splice point.

The mono mixes were remastered from the original sound negatives at L'Immagine Ritrovata. Additional sound remastering was completed by Þorsteinn Gíslason. The audio synch will often seem loose against the picture, due to the fact that the dialogue and sound effects were recorded entirely during post-production, as per the production standards of the period.

All film materials supplied for these restorations were made available from the Hong Kong Film Archive via Celestial Pictures.

The American cut of Super Inframan, titled Infra-Man, is remastered using a composite of the newly restored Hong Kong version and selected excerpts from a 35mm US exhibition print. This print also featured a rare quadrophonic sound mix ("Stereo-Infra-Sound") that is featured here, for the first time on home video. The print, as well as 16mm TV spots and a 7" record with two radio spots, was scanned by Film-Tech Cinema Systems in Richardson, Texas. Special thanks to Lee Demarbre for granting us access to the 35mm print, and to Jarrod Varney for supplying the TV and radio spots.

The original camera negative for Bewitched is conformed to a censored version missing select scenes in the first two reels. When the film was originally remastered in high-definition by Celestial Pictures in 2007, these additional scenes were scanned from a lower-quality element as the negatives for them could not be located. When preparing for this new restoration, this element could not be located anymore either, so the scenes have been incorporated from the earlier HD master instead.

The original trailers were restored by Arrow Films from the original 35mm materials held at the Hong Kong Film Archive. Special thanks to King-Wei Chu and Denis-Carl Robidaux for donating and scanning additional trailers for Bat Without Wings and Bloody Parrot.

Black Magic can't quite get past its low budget and so this doesn't have the luxe production values of a lot the Shaw Brothers historical films in particular. That said, the palette is quite appealing here, and in fact I'd say color timing and suffusion are superior here than in the sequel, which can look a little wan and skewed toward pink / peach tones. Here, though, the palette is really warm a lot of the time, with natural looking flesh tones and some appealing pastels in some of the production design. Detail levels are generally very good, with possible exceptions like some of the opticals in the opening vignette for example. Grain resolves without any issues. There are some almost motion sickness inducing anamorphic warpings that turn up, including in a couple of pans of urban environments at around the 10 minute mark.

Black Magic Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Black Magic features LPCM Mono tracks in either Mandarin or English. This is one film where the English dub, whatever its deficits and "loose sync", offers a bit more clarity and "oomph" throughout, though there's arguably a bit more strident high end as a result. The Mandarin track is perfectly listenable, but it can sound slightly muffled, again especially in the higher registers, when compared to the English language track. Both tracks offer dialogue cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

Black Magic Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by James Mudge

Black Magic Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Black Magic is unavoidably goofy, though it has some fairly provocative moments along the way. Technical merits are generally solid and the commentary track informative, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.