THE SHADOW BOXING (1979) (88 Films Blu-ray Review)

THE SHADOW BOXING (1979) 

Label: 88 Films

Region Code: A,B

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 101 Minutes 

Audio: Mandarin PCM 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Director: Chia-Liang Liu, Lau Kar Leung

Cast: Yue Wong, Cecilia Wong, Gordon Liu, Chia-Hui Liu, Chia-Yung Liu, Lung Chan, Shao-Hung Chan, Hsi Chang, Chok-Chow Cheung, John Cheung, Wah Cheung, Han Chiang, Szu-Ying Chien, Tien-Chu Chin, Norman Chu, Ming Fung, Kung-Wu Huang, Hoi-Sang Lee, Lau Kar Wing

Kung-fu horror-comedy The Shadow Boxing (aka The Spiritual Boxer 2) comes to us from the legendary Hong Kong director Lau Kar-leung (The Spiritual Boxer), it tells the demented tale of corpse herders Sifu Chen Wu (Chia-Yung Liu, Master of the Flying Guillotine), and his apprentice, Zhengyuan (Yue Wong, The Kung Fu Instructor), who use black magic to reanimate corpses into "hopping vampires" aka Jiangshi, and transport them back to their rural area villages for proper burial before they can become supernatural monsters. While doing so a particular bald corpse (Gordon Liu, Kill Bill) starts acting peculiarly, and the master's gambling habit leaves him injured and unable to complete the journey returning the corpses to their villages, leaving his apprentice to complete the trip with he help of a new apprentice, the strong-willed Fei (Cecilia Wong, The Way of the Black Dragon). 

The trip proves tricky when it turns out that one of the corpses is not actually dead and is a fugitive on the run from the law. There's a sub-plot involving a corrupt army officer and crime boss who are in cahoots and who have a connection to the difficult bald corpse. Often referred to as one of the first kung fu horror-comedies The Shadow Boxing is pretty light on horror but ripe with offbeat comedy and some fun fight choreography, particularly during the fight sequence inside the gambling den and the finale-fight. This was actually the first time I have seen one of the Chinese hopping-vampire flicks, wherein the corpse herders use hand-inked paper spells and incantations on the corpses to control them, the corpse being reanimated and hopping like rabbits as the herders transport them to their proper burials in their home villages. I found this quite fascinating, they are not traditional vampires of a bloodsucking nature, they are not really scary other than that they are reanimated corpses being controlled by the corpse-herders. This has me intrigued to check out the oater hopping vampire flicks for sure, especially any that might have more horrific elements, the folklore of it is quite interesting. 

Audio/Video: The Shadow Boxing (1979) arrives on Blu-ray from 88 Films in 1080p HD Widescreen framed in the original 2.35: widescreen. The source is in great shape and looks wonderful, colors and skin tones look accurate, black levels are strong. Disc authoring looks solid as well with no compression issues like black crush noted during my viewing. Audio comes by way of Mandarin PCM 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles, dialogue sounds natural, and the canned chop socky sound effects and the score from Yung-Yu Chen (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin) sound pleasing. 

Extras are slim, we only get  the 1-min Trailer and a 2-min Still Gallery. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with Reversible Wrap featuring a new illustration and the original Hong Kong artwork. The first-pressing also includes a Slipcover featuring the new artwork with a cool metallic highlights. Inside there are four Art Cards. 

Special Features: 

- Trailer (1:06)

- Still Galler (1:44) 

- Reversible Artwork

- Slipcover 

- Four Art Cards 

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THE KILLERS (1996) (Synapse Films Blu-ray Review)

THE KILLERS (1996)

Unrated Director's Cut Blu-ray 

Label: Synapse Films
Region Code; Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 89 Minutes 3 Seconds 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Mike Mendez
Cast: Dave Larsen, David Gunn, C.T. Miller

Directed Mike Mendez (Big Ass Spider) the indie horror flick Killers (1996) was his debut feature film and in it sibling  serial-killers the James Brothers, Odessa (Dave Larsen) and Kyle (David Gunn, The Convent), have beenconvicted of cold-bloodedly murdering their own parents on Christmas Eve and sentenced to death for their crimes. Now, they’ve escaped from death row and while on the run invade the home of the Ryans, who seem like an all-American family who ought to be pushovers for the natural born killers, but whose thinly veiled facade of normalcy hides a dark secret. The Ryans consist of father Charles (C.T. Miller aka Burk Morgan, Dark Passion), his wife Rea (Damian Hoffer), and daughters Jami (Nanette Bianchi, The Killer Eye), Jenny (Renee Cohen), and there are clues from the get-go in the introductory scenes that there's something a little off about them, which is later more fully revealed. The killers take the family hostage, tying Charles up with a string of Christmas lights, and things get weird right off the bat,. For starters, it doesn't take long for both Ryan's wife and daughter to become sexually aroused by the killers, not just turned on, but they both end of having sex with them! It turns out that Mr. Ryan is not only a Vietnam vet with a huge chip on his shoulder, but he and his entire family are serial-killer obsessed demented psycho-killers themselves who easily who turn the tables on the brothers who clearly have no idea what they'd walked into when they chose this particular house. 

I've heard director Mike Mendez describe this as a glorified student film, and I would agree with that assessment, it has that film school wanna-be Tarantino-isms vibe about it, which are not terrible mind you, but it's also not executed all that well to be honest. The cast is young and inexperienced, the campy dialogue sounds slightly stilted as it comes out of their mouths, and there's a lot of arthouse/film school editing on display which at times looks cool and other times I found pretty distracting. 

What it has going for it is some cheap film school Tarantino-isms, pulpy dialogue, a bit of nudity and violence galore, and  much like Mendez's next film The Convent (2000) this one opens with a cool scene set to a cool song, that of the brother's murdering their parents on Christmas Eve (that's right, this technically a Christmas horror flick!) with some flashy violent visuals set to Iron Butterfly’s psychedelic dirge “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida”. Sure. The use of the song it's not quite as cool as whenMichael Mann used it in Manhunter but it's still pretty cool. This is obviously a dark, satirical dissection of America's obsession with serial killers but I felt that it was derailed by the frankly bizarre and far too out of left field twists, it's a pretty dang wacky flick when you get right down to it. 

I like the idea of this film, there are elements I about that hit, and it's pretty stylish and visually interesting for a low-budget flick with minimal means, but at the end of the day it's amateurish and the story is nearly nonsensical with how nuts it gets, which detracts from the biting commentary about how we are obsessed with serial killers, and that the all-American family no longer exists, if it ever did. I probably wouldn't broadly recommend other than to someone who might be exploring the filmography of Mike Mendez and might be interested in checking out his directorial debut. It is an interesting curio in that he did better much with his next film The Convent (2000) and went on to make more interesting and polished films later on, but who didn't hit a homerun with his first film straight out of film school, but he kept at it, and that's fucking cool. 

Audio/Video: Killers (1995) makes it's worldwide Blu-ray debut from Synapse Films in 1080p HD widescreen (1.78:1), representing the original unrated director's cut scanned and restored by Multicom Entertainment Group. The low-budget home invasion thriller looks good in 1080p HD, there are source limitations, grain is course and ever-present, especially during the darker scenes. Colors are generally quite pleasing, there's a lot of garish low-budget lighting throughout, and the source is in solid shape. Details and textures look terrific in the close-ups as well. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. Dialogue is delivered well, there are no issues with hiss or distortion, music and the sounds of violence and gunfire are impactful. 

Extras include Audio Commentary with director Mike Mendez and author/horror journalist Michael Gingold, the 3-min Original Promotional Trailer 1, the 3-min Original Promotional Trailer 2 Bloody Version; 4-min Alternate Ending.

The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork. Inside there's a Synapse Films catalog and a Booklet with Liner Notes by critic/writer Heather Drain. 

Special Features:
- Original unrated director's cut scanned and restored by Multicom Entertainment Group
- Audio Commentary with director Mike Mendez and author/horror journalist Michael Gingold
- Original Promotional Trailer 1 (2.37) 

- Original Promotional Trailer 2 Bloody Version (2:37)

- Alternate Ending (3:48)
- Booklet with Liner Notes by critic/writer Heather Drain

Screenshots from the Synapse Films Blu-ray: 

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