Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Invincible Shaolin 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.

If Five Superfighters perhaps none too subtly tried to hint that it was really about The Five Venoms , Invincible Shaolin, despite having an English language title that would seem to be referring to another titular franchise, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, is actually a sequel of sorts to The Five Venoms. Here there is yet another story of warring "schools", in this case Northern and Southern Shaolin temples that are pitted against each other by an evil General named Xu Kang-tu (Wang Lung-wei), whose scheme involves than a mere "wrestling match".

Once again schooling in individual styles is paramount to the story, as is typical political intrigue involving the Qing Dynasty. The film is notable for some extremely complex fight choreography as well as a rather opulent production design. The cast also includes Philip Kwok as Ho Yingwu, Lo Meng as Chu Zhangcheng, Lu Feng as Bao Shanxiong, Sun Chien as Xu Fang, Chiang Sheng as Yang Zhongfei, Wei Pai as Mai Feng, Niu Niu as Chen Cuiying, and Kara Hui as Xiu Yin.

Invincible Shaolin Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Invincible Shaolin 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 one of the nicer looking presentations in the second Shawscope volume, though it once again shares its disc with another feature and some may wonder if additional space could have helped a bit with some admittedly not overly problematic grain resolution. This is another transfer that offers a really beautifully suffused palette, and the film's gorgeous costumes offer a wealth of well saturated tones as well as generally excellent fine detail levels to the point that individual threads on some costumes can be easily discerned. Take a look at screenshot 9 as well for a peek at some obvious signs of sideburns being glued onto cheeks, another example of the general clarity of this presentation. There are once again some passing issues with focus, and as seems to be unavoidable with the now legendary Shawscope lenses, some pretty dramatic anamorphic squeezing at the edges of the frame.

Invincible Shaolin Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Invincible Shaolin features the usual trifecta of Mandarin, Cantonese and English audio options, all delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio Mono. In this case the Mandarin struck my ears as being a bit more clear than the Cantonese, though again probably only by marginal amounts. A perhaps bigger surprise here was the energy of the English language track, which has some really good depth. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Invincible Shaolin Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged Invincible Shaolin and The Kid With the Golden Arm 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:

• Interview with Robert Tai (HD; 23:59) is another Frederic Ambroisine piece, this one from 2003. Subtitled in English.


• Poison Clan Rocks the World (HD; 26:28) is a new video essay on the Venom Mob by Terrence J. Brady, author of an Alexander Fu Sheng biography.


• Trailer Gallery

  HK Theatrical Trailer (Mandarin) (HD; 4:06)

  
  

  HK Theatrical Trailer (English) (HD*; 4:06)

  
  

  Digital Reissue Trailer (HD*; 1:17)

• Image Gallery (HD)

*720

Invincible Shaolin Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Invincible Shaolin nicely balances the butt kicking action martial arts fans are going to be expecting with some more intriguing political (and even sociopolitical) plot points which help to keep the narrative interesting and the adrenaline levels high. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplements very well done. Recommended.