Seeding of a Ghost Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Seeding of a Ghost 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

With a number of films in this fourth Shawscope volume tending to combine horror and comedy, those who like their scares (not to mention blood and gore) "straight up" may find the often provocative Seeding of a Ghost more to their liking. This is an incredibly graphic film that definitely goes for gusto in terms of providing some squirm inducing bodily immolations, corpse exhumations and a "birth" that is probably going to be unavoidably reminiscent of a certain moment in Alien. In his film notes accompanying this release, Ian Jane overtly mentions that this calamitous climax provides "the most unforgettable finale out of all of the studio's genre entries". Jane goes on to specifically cite Seeding of a Ghost as "obscene", which may be a warning of sorts for those unacquainted with some of the more exploitational aspects of many films from the Shaw Brothers during this "end game" era for the studio's big screen enterprises.

The film begins with what seems like a throwback to Universal horror entries of yore, namely a crowd carrying what amounts to torches and pitchforks chasing some unfortunate individual. By the time the credits have ended, the guy running from the horde of pursuers is hit by a taxi driven by Chow Tung (Phillip Ko Fei), and even though the runner's supposedly dead body is glimpsed under the car for a moment, he then turns up very much allive in Chow Tung's back seat, identifying himself as a sorceror of sorts. When Chow's dallying wife Irene (Hyeon Ji-Hye) is brutally raped and murdered (in an absolutely gut punching vingette), Chow decides black magic may help him wreak vengeance (even if his wife had not been faithful).

The upshot is an incredibly gruesome series of events that has a number of potentially offensive elements for the more prudish minded. This is the kind of film that was seemingly designed for a pretty specific cult audience, which might itself beg the question as to what kind of box office receipts Shaw Brothers may have been expecting. One way or the other, this has some unforgettable (for better or worse) imagery that pretty convincingly suggests playing with black magic tends not to work out very well for anyone.

Seeding of a Ghost Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Seeding of a Ghost is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. 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.

This is another very nice looking presentation for the most part, at least when lighting regimens allow. Several scenes, including the opening with the sorcerer getting hit by the cab take place at night, and in many of the darker moments, fine detail levels can ebb. Some of the goofy special effects work can show signs of old school compositing and one effect seems to utilize stop motion photography with a few slight variations in clarity and grain structure. The brightly lit scenes (both interior and exterior) tend to pop very well, and details on practical sets and costumes is typically excellent. Even some of the effects, including a quasi-mummy, have generally good detail levels. Grain resolves without any issues.

Seeding of a Ghost Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Once again as with many other films in this set, Seeding of a Ghost features Cantonese or Mandarin options delivered via LPCM Mono tracks. This is also another case where there's really not a huge difference in terms of general characteristics, though I'd probably rate the Mandarin track as slightly less forceful and with a bit less amplitude than the Cantonese track. The Cantonese track has a slightly fuller midrange as well. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Also "once again", the music has been, um, borrowed from a variety of sources, including somewhat hilariously Alien. Optional English subtitles are available.

Seeding of a Ghost Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by James Mudge

Seeding of a Ghost Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is an entry which almost seems designed to intentionally shock and provoke the viewer, and some of the imagery is quite disturbing, even by the general standards of this era's Shaw Brothers horror opuses. Technical merits are generally solid and James Mudge contributes another interesting commentary, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.