Director Lau Kar-leung with his truly deranged The Shadow Boxing (aka The Spiritual Boxer II) invents the Kung-fu Horror Comedy. New to Blu-ray from 88 Films.
The Film
This reviewer has only been recently (e.g., in the last five years) introduced to the vampire lore of China. The Shadow Boxing takes a crack at what was perfected in films like The Mr. Vampire series. The result is a film that’s half Martial Arts and half Horror Comedy though the two are not as merged or mashed up as one would think or maybe hope for. This aside legendary director Lau Kar-Leung creates a film that regardless of the mashup or lack thereof works splendidly.
The undertakers of a small town in China use magic to transport their dead to their proper burial. They do so to ensure these dead do not turn into vampires. Their latest batch of dead is not only besieged by the gambling habits of the elder undertaker but also by what appears to be a possessed body (Gordon Liu). As the dead near their destination, it appears there’s more to the supposed possessed body than initially thought – including a gang of criminals.
Director Lau creates a film that’s odd, funny, and slightly deranged. Be it scenes of gambling and drunken tomfoolery, or comedic bits that include corpses urinating – there isn’t a moment that Lau doesn’t take to 10. The Shadow Boxing in its movement between martial arts troupes, scary moments, and comedic bits shows how the director is able to handle tone and balance it perfectly. That isn’t to say that the film works as a whole but it does provide for a massively entertaining and action-packed movie.
The biggest issue is that Lau and his writers never found a way to merge both the horror and the spiritual with the martial arts stories. Yes, there are moments within the action that work – stunningly good choreography and action set pieces. However, having the reveal of Gordon Liu’s character truly seems like a cop-out to the horror side of the film. There is a natural story/plot point that could have easily integrated and created a near-perfect genre mashup.
The Shadow Boxing remains a successful and wildly entertaining genre entry albeit more of an interesting, if not entirely successful, mashup of genres.
The Transfer
The transfer provided to 88 Films is one of the Celestial Pictures transfers, so the original coloring and titles have been replaced by newer cleaner ones. The handsome sharp image is as clean and flawless as the day it was produced. Many will critique the grading on the transfers but what we get in return and the fidelity of the image is just too good in a way that any of the Shaw Bros Studio films have looked. The Shadow Boxing was shot on locations at various outside sets that the Shaw Brothers used (many a fan will be familiar) and looks beautifully reproduced here, funnier still is when the film does go into stage work (towards the end) the transfer is so good that one can spot the artifice right away. 88 Films continues its vital work of curating Asian Genre films both popular and obscure.
The Extras
They include the following;
- Original Trailer
- Stills Gallery
Original Trailer (1:06) – Chinese with English Subtitles.
Stills Gallery (1:44) – the still gallery consists of 13 production stills that automatically plays with the score from the film. One can navigate the gallery by using your remote’s next and back chapter stop buttons.
The Final Thought
The Shadow Boxing is a curious cult oddity that fans of martial arts films will delight in discovering. Recommended!