Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.5

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 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

If a number of elements in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star are obviously culled from any number of science fiction extravaganzas ranging from Star Wars to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the film's poster (as seen above) may indicate a decidedly more unlikely referent: The Seven Year Itch. That may be subliminally (or even liminally) indicative of the fact that as Ian Jane's film notes in Arrow's insert booklet mention, this is a film that is probably better "experienced" than "understood".

Two hapless people on the brink of suicide, Yi Tien (James Yi Lui) and Li Tien Zhen* (Cherie Chung Cho-Hung), fail in that endeavor, but at least allows a little info dump that Li Tien Zhen believes she has been the victim of an alien abduction, and may have been "probed" in more than one way. Yi Tien, who harbors a crush on the girl, decides he can help prove her claim. The upshot is an absolutely bonkers array of musical numbers (that's not a typo), flat out allusions to any number of more vaunted science fiction outings (as mentioned above), and a general sense that the filmmakers wanted to throw everything they could think of at the screen in the hopes that something might stick. There's actually a kind of snarky satirical side to the film, especially when Li Tien Zhen becomes an overnight celebrity due to her alien abduction claim. Suffice it to say fame is fickle mistress and/or master.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 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.

While this may not offer the same superb levels of special effects seen in the Hollywood blockbusters Twinkle Twinkle Little Star regularly co-opts, this is a generally very well detailed looking presentation, probably more so when special effects aren't being utilized. The palette is generally beautifully suffused, and a glut of weird lighting choices, including a number of interstitial scenes (moments at times) drenched in deep tones like red, help to give the film some visual energy. This is another curious presentation where parts of the frame in certain scenes actually look out of focus (peruse the edges of the frame in screenshot 2, for one example). The composited effects can certainly lead to variances in clarity and grain structure. Otherwise, though, grain resolves organically and without any issues.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star features LPCM Mono tracks in either Cantonese or Mandarin, though in this case there's a rather fascinating sociopolitical difference to the tracks as disclosed in the Choose Version menu this disc boots to:

One minute of footage was removed from Cantonese language versions due to reference to Deng Xiaopeng, the leader of the People's Republic of China at that time. This scene was kept for the Mandarin language version released in Taiwan. If you play the film in Cantese with the additonal scene, it will briefly switch to Mandarin and back again, as the Cantonese audio is partially lost.

Since this disc's authoring prevents easy "toggling" between tracks, it's not as easy here to accurately describe any differences in amplitude and the like, but I will say there was nothing in watching the two (and arguably three) versions on this disc that struck me as distinctly different other than the dialect. The virtually nonstop sound effects and/or scoring choices may show the same kind of thin and even brash high end at times as on several other discs in this set, but fidelity is generally quite winning, and there's no actual damage of any kind to report. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Cantonese Version (1:36:10)


• Mandarin Version (1:37:10)


• Cantonese Version with Additional Mandarin Scene (HD; 1:37:15)


• Commentary by Frank Djeng


• Interview with Alex Cheung (HD; 34:20) is subtitled in English.


• Victor Fan on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (HD; 25:04)


• Theatrical Trailer (Cantonese) (HD; 3:38)


• Theatrical Trailer (Mandarin) (HD; 3:38)

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If nothing else Twinkle Twinkle Little Star proves just how completely gonzo the Shaw Brothers could get during this general time frame in order to drum up business. The result is undeniably chaotic and frequently less than completely comprehensible, but, hey, there's singing and dancing. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements are very enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.