Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

My Young Auntie 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.

Tony Rayns contributes his usual learned analysis of this film in a selected scene commentary included on this disc as a bonus item, and Rayns makes the case that My Young Auntie might almost be seen as a quasi-musical. That may be at least slightly questionable, but there's little doubt that, as Rayns also suggests, there is most definitely a connection between dance and martial arts choreography that this film exploits in at least one key sequence which in fact combines "traditional" dancing with martial arts acrobatics. One of the interesting things about My Young Auntie, at least in terms of it being a perceived "musical spectacular", is that it actually begins on a rather serious, even dour, note, only to, as Rayns mentions, kind of explode into screwball comedy territory once the credits have ended.

In a way My Young Auntie may be as much of a melodrama, in the "old timey" sense, as it is a screwball comedy and/or a musical. That's because the basic setup here is that a young woman named Cheng Tai-nun (Kara Hui) agrees to marry her elderly mentor because the aged man wants to keep his estate from falling into the hands of a greedy relative. That however sets the poor woman up on a kind of fool's errand which then involves her much older "nephew" Yu Cheng-chuan (Lau Kar Leung), who embark on a series of adventures to obtain property deeds (and that's where the "old timey" melodramatic aspect enters the fray).

This is a rather interesting film from any number of angles, but one which struck me personally is that while Rayns again makes a case that while not overtly specified the film seems to be taking place in the 1930s, whereas the production design and even some of the music struck me as much more redolent of the 1950s. This film was obviously made to capitalize on the emerging stardom of Hui, and she is an incredibly engaging presence both in the physically demanding scenes as well as some goofier moments that are mined for laughs.

My Young Auntie Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

My Young Auntie is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.36:1. 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.

Many of the "pre-mastered" films provided to Arrow by Celestial Pictures share some of the same qualities, and in that regard, My Young Auntie offers a generally pleasing looking presentation which offers a typically secure palette and detail levels. Things looked just a tad brown(ish) to my eyes at times, something that tends to occur most noticeably with regard to things like flesh tones, but which can also push reds just slightly toward orange territory. This is a variable situation, though, and other moments look rather nicely warm and natural (see screenshot 1 for one example). As with many of the films in this set, the venerable Shawscope presentation comes with some baked in anamorphic anomalies, including pretty severe squeezing around the edges of the frame. Grain looks natural and I noticed no major compression issues.

My Young Auntie Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with many of the films in this set, My Young Auntie features Cantonese, Mandarin and English language options all delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio Mono. While Tony Rayns makes a case in his commentary that this film (and perhaps many Shaw Brothers outings) might be best appreciated in Cantonese, since Rayns suspects most of the cast was speaking that dialect during the shoot (even if some were later dubbed - in Cantonese - by other performers), the Mandarin track on this disc struck my ears as being the loudest and with the best dynamic range, though the difference between it and the Cantonese track is not huge. All three tracks deliver dialogue, effects and score without any major issues, but they all have the kind of slightly phased, boxy quality at times. Optional English subtitles are available.

My Young Auntie Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Select Scene Commentary by Tony Rayns features around 45 minutes of Rayns' typically information packed musings.


• Interview with Kara Hui (HD; 29:20) is another interesting piece done by Frederic Ambroisine, this one from 2003. Subtitled in English.


• Cinema Hong Kong: The Beauties of the Shaw Studio (HD*; 53:45) is the final installment of the three part documentary produced by Celestial Pictures in 2003. Narrated in English, but with English subtitles where needed.


• Alternate VHS Version (HD*; 2:00:34) once again utilizes the kind of odd "arguably a truer representation of the film's original cinema release" language used for ___. This has some old school tracking issues and frankly doesn't look great.


• Alternate Opening Credits (HD; 1:19)


• Trailer Gallery

  HK Theatrical Trailer (HD*; 4:19)

  
  

  Digital Reissue Trailer (HD*; 1:04)

• Image Gallery

*720

My Young Auntie Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tony Rayns also kind of jokingly mentions that he feels writer and director Lau Kar-leung may have subscribed to a "one for them (i.e., the studio) and one for me" philosophy when creating his films, and in that regard My Young Auntie is defintely a "one for me" item. It's a rather unique film both in the annals of Shaw Brothers but also with regard to this second Shawscope volume. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplements very enjoyable. Recommended.