Shanghai Blues 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Shanghai Blues 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 23, 2026

Arrow's UK division recently released separate standalone 1080 and 4K versions of Peking Opera Blues (Region A has a combo pack from Shout! Factory), but for those wanting "blues" from Tsui Hark of a slightly different flavor (or at least region), Shanghai Blues (which predated Peking Opera Blues by a couple of years) offers an ebullient and madcap tour through its parsing of 20th century Chinese history. Tung* (Kenny Bee) and Shu* (Sylvia Chang) meet cute in 1937, at least if meeting cute includes hiding out from a Japanese bombing incursion by running beneath a bridge. Despite the fact that it's supposedly too dark for them to see anything, they fall in love at first sight (or blindness, as the case may be), and promise to reunite under the same bridge after war, even though they're not really sure what each other looks like, and, in a further complication, they don't even know each other's names. What's a seemingly preordained love match to do? If Shanghai Blues is any indication, it's to hold on tight while all sorts of comedic mayhem breaks out until of course things are set right for a happily ever after.

*Note: I'm using the transliterations of character names utilized in the insert booklet with this release. A lot of various online sources have radically different versions of some of these names.

There's kind of an almost Shakespearean farce element to the increasingly convoluted mistaken identities, but the upshot is that a decade after their perilous meeting, Tung and Shu end up in the same apartment building, completely unaware that they are the same "couple" from ten years before, albeit now each trying to make ends meet in post-World War II Shanghai, with Tung as a tuba player and Shu as a nightclub chanteuse. And in fact Tung's tuba playing actually rubs Shu the wrong way, leading to some comic bantering. When Shu takes in a boarder named Stool (Sally Yeh), things get even more convoluted when Tung misidentifies Stool as the woman he met under the bridge all those years ago.

Despite their manifest differences, even if their titles are somewhat similar, Peking Opera Blues and Shanghai Blues do share some tethers, notably star Sally Yeh, but also their emphases on what might be called ménages à trois, if not in the classic starcrossed romance sense (though that certainly pertains to this film), then in a focus on three characters. Peking Opera Blues famously offers three females, and in fact I was actually going to jokingly caption the first screenshot of my Peking Opera Blues 4K Blu-ray review "Matchmaker, Matchmaker". That said, Shanghai Blues is probably by far the more slapdash film, rife with physical humor and some fun circus adjacent material with clowns and the like.

Shanghai Blues 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced off the 1080 disc in this package.

Shanghai Blues is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Film Movement with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 1.85:1. This combo package also includes an AVC encoded 1080p disc also in 1.85:1. This appears to be the debut of the film in either 1080 or 4K in Region A. Typically these Film Movement releases don't offer a ton of technical information, and while that's strictly the case again with this release, there is at least a "4K restoration from the original negative at L'Immagine Ritrovata supervised by Tsui Hark" offered in the insert booklet. It's that L'Immagine Ritrovata part that may raise the hackles of some videophiles, for while both the 1080 and 4K presentations are often quite lush and at least decently detailed, color timing may once again be an issue for some. Reds can vary from what I'd call "true" to more orangish at times, and in fact a lot of the transfer seems skewed toward yellow, something that may be even more apparent in the 4K version courtesy of HDR (no Dolby Vision on this release that my player detected). Clarity is also rather widely variable, and some midrange to wide framings can look pretty fuzzy and ill defined. Contrast is typically excellent, and the HDR grade on the 4K disc adds some oomph to blacks in particular. This is another combo format release where an occasionally very heavy grain field may be preferable to some eyes in 1080 rather than 4K UHD.

Shanghai Blues 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

If the color timing of this release may strike some as potentially revisionist, there may be absolutely no argument about the revisions to the soundtrack, as this features a newly produced 2024 dub that the back cover describes as "Mandarin Shanghaiese", but which our specs can only handle by listing both Mandarin and Cantonese, though there is but one track on this disc, in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. The musical elements, which are many, are typically vibrant and decently full bodied, but a lot of the track struck me as just slightly boxy sounding. Dialogue (whatever language it is) is presented cleanly and clearly . Optional English subtitles are available.

Shanghai Blues 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K UHD Disc

• Commentary with Hong Kong Film Expert Frank Djeng

1080 Disc

• Commentary with Hong Kong Film Expert Frank Djeng


• Interview with Director / Producer Tsui Hark (HD; 26:00) offers some appealing background, but the thing that interested me most was the background behind Tsui, which looks like something from Ruslan and Ludmila.


• Interview with Film Coordinator O Sing Pui (HD; 19:12) is subtitled in English.


• Restoration Trailer (HD; 1:45)

As with many releases from this label, the main menu on the 1080 disc also has an About Film Movement option that brings up a text box with information.

An insert booklet contains an interesting essay by John Charles.

The sleeve has an inner print. The original exclusive Vinegar Syndrome release evidently had a slipcover, but the review copy sent to me did not.

Shanghai Blues 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the kind of wonderful things about watching this film and Peking Opera Blues as a double feature is reacquainting yourself with just how incredibly eclectic Tsui Hark's films can be, even if their titles are kind of alike. This is a really enjoyable romp that has hefty doses of screwball but which still manages to create its own unique identity. Technical merits are generally solid, and Film Movement has included some appealing supplements. Recommended.