Portrait in Crystal Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Portrait in Crystal 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

In what is kind of a perhaps inadvertent "tradition" displayed in many of the films in this particular volume of Shawscope offerings is how a nonstop array of visual and aural blandishments, all within a crazy quilt of supernatural phenomena and martial arts madness, probably predominate over any attempt at a comprehensible narrative. In that regard, Ian Jane's film notes for Portrait in Crystal compare this film to Bloody Parrot, which may indicate to the cognoscenti just how gonzo this outing can be. Once again regular Jason Pai Paio is on hand, this time as Long Fei, who might be jokingly compared to Pygmalion, meaning the original Greek figure of mythology, not the George Bernard Shaw entry which co-opted his name. Long Fei is, like the original Pygmalion, a sculptor who brings one of his works to life, albeit in this formulation there's not exactly a happy marriage and offspring, let alone musicalized chances to "dance all night" (that's a My Fair Lady reference for the uninitiated).

Ian Jane argues that the upshot of Long Fei's sculpture embarking on a murder spree ends up making Long Fei a Hitchcockian Wrong Man, but that may frankly be a generous assessment of the film's pretty chaotic screenplay. That chaos may actually redound to the benefit of the film's basic ambience, since there is so much happening with so many bizarre characters that any underlying story may frankly recede to the point that it ultimately doesn't matter very much.

Portrait in Crystal Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. 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.

Portrait in Crystal looks great for the most part, and the film's repeated use of some evocative lighting really helps a number of scenes to pop quite vividly. There are some relatively unusual tones used to suffuse a number of scenes, and warmer hues like oranges and yellows are very vivid throughout. Clarity is typically commendable, occasionally faltering slightly in some of the composited effects sequence. Fine detail on all of the practical sets and costumes is very precisely rendered. While some mist strewn scenes may arguably look just very slightly noisy, grain resolves without any issues.

Portrait in Crystal Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Portrait in Crystal features LPCM Mono tracks in either Cantonese or Mandarin, as with many of the other films in this set. In this case the Cantonese track is a bit louder and fuller bodied, but both tracks deliver some patently insane scoring and effects choices with considerable energy. The sound effects in this film in particular are among the most hyperbolic in the entire set, which is really saying something. As such, the high end may actually be a bit painful for some after awhile, since everything is so constantly amped "up to 11", the major reason I scored this as 3.5. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Portrait in Crystal Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are associated with this film.

Portrait in Crystal Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It might be jokingly offered that the tag line for this film could have quite easily been something like "this is your Shaw Brothers on drugs". The visual and aural onslaughts are pretty exhausting after a while, but the film is so completely bizarre it's hard to ignore. Technical merits are generally solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.