Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Five Superfighters Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 22, 2022

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Shawscope Volume Two.

The good news is if you have a martial arts fan you've been worried about finding an appropriate holiday present for, your prayers have been answered (for the second year in a row in fact), by the thoughtful folks at Arrow Video, who are returning to the evidently bottomless well that gave lovers of a certain Hong Kong studio one of 2021's most impressive releases, Shawscope Volume One. The bad news is, if you're a martial arts fan intrigued by this new release, you're going to have to put the rest of your life on hold to make it through not just a glut of Shaw Brothers films, but an immense assortment of supplemental material. As with the first volume of Shawscope, there's probably no doubt that some films will appeal to some viewers more than others, but the sheer variety of films in this set, along with an authoritative set of bonus features, will almost certainly make this a marquee item for genre aficionados.

Even though the title of this film might have been designed to evoke memories of The Five Venoms, Five Superfighters might comically also be termed the "flip side" of an old movie called A Letter to Three Wives, since that film was actually based on a novel which had five wives in its title, and at least somewhat similarly if in an opposite direction, this film really concentrates on a trio of fighters rather than a quintet, though of course a quintet is ultimately part and parcel of the goings on. This is another film that sees a mentor of sorts wronged and his acolytes then struggling to find a way to avenge the slights offered to their master (and in fact to them as well). In one salient way, this film also tends to echo some of the ambience of Drunken Master, which would have been a relatively recent phenomenon at the time of this film's original theatrical exhibition.

Five Superfighters also has echoes of any number of other marital arts outings (including but not necessarily limited to Shaw Brothers productions) where mastering a specific fighting technique is part of the story. Here the three acolytes all have their own separate adventures where they meet, sometimes under rather peculiar circumstances, masters who will then coach them in various styles, though kind of comically there's also a character who "corrects bad kung fu". This approach may tend to slightly dilute the forward momentum of the narrative, but the fight choreography is suitably diverse and helps to recharge sometimes flagging energy.

Five Superfighters Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Five Superfighters is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Arrow's insert booklet lumps all the films together on its page devoted to the restorations, as follows:

All fourteen films in this boxset are presented in their original aspect ratios (2.35:1 for all films except 1.85:1 for The Boxer's Omen and The Bare-Footed Kid) with their original Mandarin, English, and Cantonese (where applicable) monoaural soundtracks. Every effort has been made to present these films in their original and complete versions using the best materials available.

Return to the 36th Chamber, Disciples of the 36th Chamber, My Young Auntie, Martial Arts of Shaolin and The Bare-Footed Kid were remastered by Celestial Pictures in 2003-2007, as part of an initiative to digitally restore the entire Shaw Brothers library. The High Definition masters of these restorations, which included the original Mandarin, Cantonese and English mono soundtracks, were supplied to Arrow Films by Celestial Pictures.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was restored by Celestial Pictures and L'Immagine Ritrovata in 2020. Additional grading was completed at R3Store Studios, London in 2021.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu, Five Superfighters, Invincible Shaolin, The Kid with the Golden Arm, Magnificent Ruffians, Ten Tigers of Kwangtung, Mercenaries from Hong Kong and The Boxer's Omen have all been newly restored by Arrow Films in 2021 and 2022, 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. The films were graded at R3Store Studios, London. 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 Matthew Jarman/Bad Princess Productions.

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

Excerpts from vintage 35mm feature print elements for Return to the 36th Chamber, Disciples of the 36th Chamber and My Young Auntie and vintage 35mm trailer prints for Disciples of the 36th Chamber, Mad Monkey Kung Fu, Mercenaries from Hong Kong and The Boxer's Omen were scanned and graded in 2K resolution at American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) and R3Store Studios.

Additional print materials were made available from American Genre Film Archive (AGFA), Harry Guerro, Scott Napier, King-Wei Chu and Howard Zinman.

This is by and large a very pleasing looking presentation, especially in terms of another at times amazingly vivid palette. Outdoor material offers some gorgeously saturated blue skies and green foliage, and a wealth of opulent costumes all provides all sorts of jewel tones and bright primaries. Some of the studio bound material probably doesn't fare quite as well in terms of overall saturation, and there are also a few passing but noticeable variances in color temperature as at around both the five and twenty minute marks, where things look a bit cooler (some of which can be ascribed to supposed nighttime). Detail levels are generally very good, but there are some ebbs and flows to clarity, some of which may be ascribed to actual focus pulling. As with many of the presentations in this set, there's noticeable anamorphic squeezing at the very edges of the frame, and at times even further in toward the middle of the frame. This presentation offers generally nicely tight grain resolution, but the film has an almost comically long credits sequence and my hunch is all of that material was optically printed whether or not there are actual credits on screen all of the time, and so the opening can look a bit chunky in comparison to the bulk of the presentation. My score is 3.75.

Five Superfighters Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Five Superfighters offers the same trio of options that many of the films in this second Shawscope volume do, Cantonese, Mandarin and English tracks all delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio Mono. This is another film where I frankly didn't hear any huge differences between the three tracks, and all feature more or less identical amplitude and overall mix levels. As with many of the soundtracks in this set, I found the high end to be a little too bright for my liking at times, especially at higher volumes. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Five Superfighters Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged Mad Monkey Kung Fu and Five Superfighters together on one disc. However, after selecting Choose Film on the Main Menu, the Special Features then also change to reflect that choice. This film features the following supplements:

• Shaw in the USA (HD; 32:12) is a new interview with Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali, authors of These Fists Break Bricks. This supplement is accessible under the Special Features menu for both films on this disc.


• Trailer Gallery

  HK Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:26)

  
  

  UK VHS Promo (HD*; 2:37)

• Image Gallery (HD)

*720

Five Superfighters Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Five Superfighters may have made a structural error in trying to follow a trio of warriors who all set out in different directions and encounter different masters who train them in various techniques. That gives the first half or so of this film a kind of vignette driven feeling which may work against forward momentum. Still, the final showdowns are inventive and fun. Technical merits are generally solid and the interview with Hendrix and Pollgiali very enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.