Shawscope Vol. 4 (Hong Kong, 1975-1983, Arrow Video, 16 films on 10 Blu-rays, NR, 1,459 min.). This fourth volume in Arrow Video’s massive Shaw Brothers Studios limited-edition box sets contains the following 16 movies: “Super Inframan,” “Oily Maniac,” “Battle Wizard,” “Black Magic,” “Black Magic Part 2,” “Hex,” “Bewitched,” “Hex vs. Witchcraft,” “Hex After Hex,” “Bat Without Wings,” “Bloody Parrot,” “The Fake Ghost Catchers,” “Demon of the Lute,” “Seeding of a Ghost,” “Portrait In Crystal” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” The films include heroes with superpowers, supernatural skills and magical spells, as well as some iconic wuxia and martial arts moves. All the movies feature new 2K restorations by Arrow Films from the original negatives.

Overall, though, the quality is not as high as in the previous three sets, which were filled with more traditional wuxia and martial arts films. Of the 16 films, the truly scary “Seeding of a Ghost” is the standout, followed by the comedy “The Fake Ghost Catchers,” and the magic-oriented “Hex,” “Black Magic Part 2” and “Battle Wizard.” There is an attempt to tap into Japanese superheroes in “Super Inframan,” Shaw Brothers’ first science fiction film, and the closing low point with the bomb, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” which borrows from way too much, including Marilyn Monroe, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and Darth Vader of “Star Wars,” while serving comedy that too often elicits the word “dumb.”

The movies are individually reviewed:

“Super Inframan” aka “Infra-Man” (1975, 90 min.). The film, directed by Shan Hua (“Kung Fu Zombie,” this set’s “Bloody Parrot” and “Portrait in Crystal”) and written by Kwang Ni (“Five Deadly Venoms,” this set’s “Demon of the Lute,” “Battle Wizard,” the two “Black Magic” films), basically rips off Japanese TV’s “Ultraman,” a special effects fantasy series about a man who transforms into a giant superhero named Ultraman to fight alien invaders and giant monsters that threaten Earth. Here the invaders are Demon Princess Elzebub (aka Princess Dragon Mom in the U.S. release), played by Terry Liu, and her mutant army of Ice Age creatures, who have been living underground for 20 million years.

Professor Liu Ying-De (Wang Hsieh) of the Scientific Research Institute, which becomes the main target of Elzebub’s minions, has developed a process that can add mechanical parts to a cyborg-like human. His test subject, who becomes Inframan, is heroic Lei Ma (Danny Lee, who also stars in the next four films of this set), first seen rescuing people from building fires caused by an earthquake. Then, he becomes Inframan.

The Ice Age monsters are a weird, but always laughing bunch, including Witch Eye (Dana, whose character has an eye in each hand), Devil and Plant Monsters (Plant has long tentacles), Fire Dragon and Drill Monster. The film will mostly appeal to children, who will not care that portions make no sense.

The film is the one with the most extras, including audio commentary by Frank Djeng and Erik Ko; the U.S. theatrical version with new opening credits and soundtrack; an interview with actor Bruce Le, who plays Xiao-Long (24:36); and a video essay by Steven Sloss on Shaw’s tokusatsu films (13:13). Grade: film 2.5 stars; extras 3 stars

Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it

“Oily Maniac” (1976, 90 min.). Here, Danny Lee plays Shen Yuen, a man who has to use crutches as polio damaged one of his legs. The film, shot in Malaysia and directed by Ho Meng-Hua (“Vengeance Is a Golden Blade”), is introduced as a retelling of a South-East Asian folktale. The film has some nudity and three rapes.

A coconut oil plantation is about to be taken over by force, resulting in a brawl and the arrest of a good guy. Shen Yuen works for a shady law firm, headed by lawyer Hu li-Fa (Wang Hsiah), and likes Yue’er (Chen Ping of “The Vengeful Beauty”). Feeling hopeless to help, Shen goes to Yaba, who tells him how to dig a hole, pray for peace and power, and duck down into the oily hole. He emerges as “Oily Maniac,” as the news reports soon dub him. His first victim is one of two Yangs who attacked Yue’er. He continues to fight for revenge, as his body sometimes becomes a puddle and, during one fight, when his arm is cut off, it reattaches.

At least all the bad guys die in the film. It comes with audio commentary by Ian Jane. Grade: film 2.25 stars; extra 1.5 stars

“Battle Wizard” (1977, 80 min.). The film opens with a sex scene between Duan Zheng-Chun, duke of Tali in Yunnan Province, and Chin Hung Mien, the wife of the Yellow-Robed Warrior (Shih Chung-Tien). A fight breaks out between Duan and the Yellow-Robed Warrior when the latter finds out about it, and Duan defeats him with his Yi Yang Finger that produces cutting rays, but the Warrior, who lost both legs, promises to take his revenge upon him in time.

For this film, Danny Lee plays Prince Duan Yu, a bookish young man who, with his sword-loving sister, find themselves battling a trio of villains, one of whom is a beautiful but masked woman who has promised to either marry or murder the first man to see her unmasked. This action comes 10 years after the opening scene. Prince Duan is told if he drinks the blood of the red python, he will become invincible. The film has a “Star Wars” twist.

One bad guy breaths fire and a message is delivered by inscribing it on a snake and sent that way. The supernatural elements work here, although they often feel comic. The extra is an audio commentary by Jonathan Clements. Grade: film 3 stars; extra 1.5 stars

“Black Magic” (1975, 97 min.). Xu Lo (Ti Lung), and Wang Chu-ying (Lily Li Li-Li) are engaged to be married, but Luo Yin (Tanny Tien Ni), a sexy widow, makes a play for Xu Lo, only to be rejected by him. Then, Liang Chia-chieh (Lo Lieh) seeks the help of a witch doctor (Ku Feng) to cast a spell so he can seduce Luo Yin. Liang is killed by the witch doctor for failing to pay.

When Luo Yin discovers how Liang seduced her, she goes to the witch doctor to buy a spell which will win Xu Lo’s heart, which works immediately after he drinks the love potion. The potion requires Xu Lo’s hair and blood, plus her breast milk – an excuse for more nudity – and the burning of a corpse.

The film has quite a bit of nudity and an early sex scene. The ending is weird and has special effects. The extra is an audio commentary by James Mudge. Grade: film 2.5 stars, extra 1.5 stars

“Black Magic Part 2” (1976, 92 min.). The better sequel opens with nudity, as a woman jumps into a river and is eaten by a crocodile. Still not sure it has anything to do with the rest of the movie.

The story centers on two couples: Dr. Zhen-Sheng (Lin Wei-Tu) and his wife Margaret (Lily Li Li-Li) and their visiting guests, Dr. Qi Zhong-Ping (Ti Lung) and Cui-Ling (Tanny Tien Ni). An evil sorcerer (Lo Lieh as Kang Cong, who is constantly petting a cat like the James Bond films’ villain Blofeld) is rising an army of zombies and trying to stay eternally young. He uses the Green Poison curse on Margaret; the curse creates ulcers that look like human faces.

To check whether black magic is at play, non-believer Dr. Qi asks Kang to curse Cui-Ling. This leads to a long-distance battle between Kang and a good wizard. Kang wins the lengthy battle, but the good wizard first plucks out his eyeballs and tells Zhong-Ping to eat them.

There is an aerial gondola flight that replicates one in an action film and lots of burning ghosts. The special effects are better than the first film and there are some genuine scares. Extras are an audio commentary by Samm Deighan and alternate U.S. credits. Grade: film 3 stars; extras 1.5 stars

“Hex” (1980, 97 min.). The film, directed by Kuei Chih-Hung, would go on to have two sequels, which are also included in this box set. Here, a wife (Tanny Tien Ni as Chen Xiu-Ying) kills her abusive husband (Wand Yong as Yang Chen-yu) with the help of her new servant (Chan Sze-Kai as Liang Yi-hua), but they fear he has risen from his watery grave, when no body is found, after the pond is drained due to excess stink.

After some “hauntings,” things are revealed to not be as they seemed. Then, Chen, as a real ghost, seeks her revenge. A furniture mover pisses his pants when he sees her ghost, and a creeping hand throttles a priest. However, the strangest happening is the nearly 8-minute nude female dance that ends the film, before an epilogue explanation. Grade: film 3.25 stars

“Bewitched” (1981, 107 min.). In the film, also directed by Kuei Chich-Hung, a man possessed by an evil spirit murders his 7-year-old daughter. A police detective (Melvin Wong as Bobby Wong) investigating the case travels to Thailand to see if the spirit of a killer had possessed his main suspect. The film has a lot of location footage and often seems more a documentary.

The detective discovers the corpse oil curse was probably used. A silly segment has the bad wizard and the good wizard monk fighting each other remotely. There is some disgusting throwing up of worms.

The extra is an audio commentary by James Mudge. Grade: film 2 stars; extra 1.5 stars

“Hex vs. Witchcraft” (1980, 100 min.). In this comedy, a compulsive gambler (James Yi Lui as Yu Nan) attempts to change his luck by marrying a ghost, after his failures to commit suicide as demanded by the debt collectors. He also tried to pay off his debt by allowing Brother Nine (Chan Shen) have sex with his wife. But she pushes a table into Nine’s balls, ending his sex life.

The fun comes in when Yu’s ghost wife starts possessing humans, both women and men. In one scene, she possesses Brother Nine and his two thugs, so that they end up trying to castrate each other. The film improves somewhat with some late gambling scenes. Grade: film 2.5 stars

“Hex After Hex” (1982, 105 min.). This is a direct sequel to “Hex vs. Witchcraft,” as its ghost now needs a new husband and the ghost’s father turns to Yu Nan’s bodybuilder neighbor Muscle Tsang (Lo Meng), a stunt performer in movies.

The ghost has fun creating traffic accidents, possessing a possibly dead guy and both Yoda and Darth Vader from “Star Wars.” Meanwhile, Muscle is trying to stop his apartment building being torn down for a city park. The film has a lot of naked male butts, a scene that copies “Drunken Master” and a really stupid ending. Grade: film 2 stars

“Bat Without Wings” (1980, 95 min.). Written and directed by Chor Yuen, the film is about a notorious rapist-murderer known as the Bat Without Wings (Tang Ching), who was imprisoned many years ago. Five years earlier, an attack to kill him resulted in 26 of 28 heroes dying. Now, it seems he has reappeared, abducting and killing Lei Feng (Susanna Au-Yeng Pui-San), the daughter of Security Bureau Chief Lei Hsin (Wang Yong). Suspicion falls on swordsman Hsiao Chi, so in order to clear his name, he joins Lei Feng’s fiancé Han Sheng (Ku Kuan-Chung) in search of the killer.

The film is loaded with swordplay, but most of the fights seem to be for no reason. There are a couple of betrayals, and control of the two Bat swords seems to be a hidden priority. The film has impressive sets.

The extra is an audio commentary by Samm Deighan. Grade: film 2 stars; extra 1.5 stars

“Bloody Parrot” (1981, 96 min.). The film, directed by Hua Shan, has a zombie, a witch, a demonic painting and ghost eyes, as well as some nudity, but it makes little sense. Still, it has some excitement and scares.

In celebration of the 100,000th birthday of the first demon, demonic blood was used to create a parrot, who, when seen, grants three wishes to the viewer. The film starts with the theft of 13 chests of jewelry and gold, intended for the emperor. The parrot is seen by Guo Fan (Kwan Fung), who uses one wish so that his son, Guo Cong, be restored to life. He also asks for the jewels return.

However, Guo Fan is stabbed to death by an imperial concubine, who later commits suicide, and the jewels disappear again. Swordsman Yeh Ting-feng (Jason Pai Piao) hunts for the parrot, to find the jewels, as do other swordsmen. Meanwhile, Tieh Han, a famous constable from Chung Yuan, investigates the case. He is mortally wounded and asks Yeh to deliver his body to his home town. Bringing the body and casket to a brothel evokes way too much attention.

After foiling several attempts on his life, Yeh discovers a clue, and gets some information from a courtesan named Blood Slave (Jenny Leung Jan-Lee). After Tieh’s corpse goes missing from its coffin, Yeh follows a trail of footprints to the house of Madam Li (Wong Mei-Mei). There he learns more about the stolen jewels, and witnesses an attack upon her being repelled by the Parrot.

The film has another audio commentary by Samm Deighan. Grade: film 2 stars; extra 1.5 stars

“The Fake Ghost Catchers” (1982, 103 min.). This genuinely funny action fantasy sees its heroes face off against all sorts of unholy threats seeking to terrorize the land of the living. The clever opening has fake medium Master Zhang (Lam Fai-Wong) supposedly summoning a ghost for a woman. The film shows his assistant Bao Tuo (Hsiao Ho) running around to do the ghostly special effects.

Meanwhile, Bao’s cousin, Zhou Peng (Cheung Chin-Pang) has a fight with several attackers. He kills them all and there is lots of blood.

With the Master gone, Bao pretends to be a ghost communicator. The cousins try to expel the spirit of a male ghost, Tu Lao, for a young rich lady called Mrs. Lin (Lily Li Li-Li), but they are scared off. Before Lin dies, knowing that Tu is on the way to Kai Feng to haunt her sister, Lin asks the two cousins to take her spirit there in an umbrella and seek the help of Magistrate Pao’s assistant, Kung Sun.

While on the way there, the pair run out of traveling expenses, but are helped by Lin to win money through gambling. They are then asked to get the help of an actor-gambler Wu Shun-Chao (the great Alexander Fu Sheng of “Shaolin Temple,” “The Shaolin Avengers,” “Chinatown Kid”), reportedly gifted with magic power to expel spirits. This leads to several comedic episodes, with Wu gambling, helped by the ghost.

The Buddhist figures and magical tools used by Kung Sun to trap Tu Lao are damaged when Chu’s men come to attack Chou, but thanks to Lin’s help, Chu is overpowered and brought to justice. In one of their fights, the cousins use each other’s body in coordination. Grade: film 3.5 stars

“Demon of the Lute” (1983, 106 min.). Written and directed by Tang Tak-Cheung, the film opens with cartoon figures in the credits and is dedicated to children. However, the film has a young girl (Kei Kong-Hung Xiao Ding-Dong) as a thief, another character pisses on a third and the young thief gets drunk. That’s not very kid-friendly stuff.

Lute Demon Chin Mo (Jason Pai Piao) has reappeared in the world to wreak havoc. Hsien Wang orders his pupil Feng-Ling (Kara Hui Ying-Hung) to help find the special Fire Bow and arrows that can destroy the lute. Only Chiao Yin knows the whereabouts of the weapon. Feng-Ling and her classmate Old Naughty (Yuen Tak) set out on an arduous journey to find Chiao. They encounter a series of bizarre adventures along the way and, after fighting off many obstacles, they catch Chin Mo’s man trying to snatch the bow, and stop him in time.

One villain has an extended arm and a hero has a cloak that turns into a flying carpet. The film comes with audio commentary by Frenk Djeng. Grade: film 2 stars; extra 1.75 stars

“Seeding of Ghost” (1983, 90 min.). The film, directed by Richard Yeung Keun, starts with a collision as cab driver Chow Tung (Phillip Ko Fei) runs over a sorcerer (Yee Muk Kwan San) only to discover the mystical man sitting in his back seat. Instead of a tip, the cabbie receives a curse that ruins his life.

Chow’s wife Irene (Hyeon Ji-Hye), a casino dealer, yields to the temptation of gambler Fang Ming (Norman Tsui Siu-Keung) and begins an affair with him. She offers to divorce her husband and marry Fang and asks Fang to divorce his wife (Wai Ka-Man). When he turns her down, Irene leaves him in anger and strolls in the street. In the dark of the night, she is picked up and raped by two young hooligans, Peter (Hung San-Nam) and Paul (Foo Ling-Kei), and dies accidentally.  The disaster fulfills the prediction of the grave-rifling sorcerer whom Chow had run over earlier.

While on duty, Chow receives a radio call to pick up his wife. He does not find her waiting, but an unknown force leads him to the murder scene. Fang and the two culprits, whose car Chow had identified from an earlier incident, are taken to the police for interrogation, but are released for lack of evidence.

When legal means fail, Chow turns to the ghost controller, who casts a spell that leads to the deaths of Peter and Paul, as well as the bewitching of Fang’s wife. Effective scenes include a ghost’s head uncovered in a liquor container, and glasses, bottles and the toilet filling up with icky stuff in Peter’s house.

Fang hires a priest (Pak Man-Biu) to expel the spirit in his wife. The sorcerer and the priest battle for some time. Once the priest gets the upper hand, the sorcerer arranges for the copulation of two corpses, so their offspring can wreak havoc. Before succumbing to his injury, the sorcerer orders Chow to nurture the ghost seed with his own blood.

The film is really frightening at times, and the black magic punishments are actually cool. There is a gross birth scene as well. The extra is audio commentary by James Mudge. Grade: film 3.75 stars; extra 1.5 stars

“Portrait in Crystal” (1983, 82 min.). A crystal designer adds his blood to his work, creating a crystal being. Jason Pai Paio plays Long Fei, the crystal designer. Long Fei's sculpture embarks on a murder spree in the chaotic screenplay, in which many die for no explained reason. The film has many bizarre characters and a torture scene. Detailing more would just be confusing. Grade: film 2 stars

“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (1983, 97 min.) is the nadir of the set, as well as the final film. Again, it borrows from way too much, including Marilyn Monroe (the subway blowing up the skirt scene, only here it causes multiple car crashes), “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and Darth Vader of “Star Wars,” while serving comedy that too often elicits the word “dumb.”

Life loser Yi Tien (James Yi Lui) longs to become a famous detective, but his undignified assignments leave him so disillusioned that he plans suicide. About to be run over by a train, he encounters 18-year-old Li Tin Chun (Cherie Chung Cho-Hung), who already has tied herself to the train tracks. Li claims that she has been molested by a space alien from a flying saucer and has been rejected by her disbelieving fiancé.

After they narrowly escape death, Yi vows he to prove her story, making himself famous in the process. Earlier, Li was working in the perfume department of a store, which suddenly turns into a music number/music video, with several costume changes. Even more stupidly, one evil human character lacks his left arm because, he says, he never does anything seconded-handed and that was his second hand. (Release the groans.) A press conference degrades into a food fight. Then, the detective pair dress as women, drawing the aliens’ attention.

The film comes with audio commentary by Frank Djeng and two featurettes: an interview with director/co-writer Alex Cheung (34:20) and Victor Fan discussing the film (25:04). Grade: film dog; extras 2.5 stars

The set comes with a bonus 10th disc that includes a 1972 French TV look at the Shaw Brothers Studio, which was churning out 180 films a year, sometimes six at once, during that period (13:10). Grady Hendrix discusses the legacy of Ho Meng-Hua, the director of “Oily Maniac” and the “Black Magic” films (14:27). Additionally, there is a trailer gallery and five appreciations of individual films, namely Leon Hunt and Luke White on “Super Inframan” (21:33), Victor Fan on “Battle Wizard” (17:53), Wayne Wong on “Bat Without Wings” (12:48), Luke White on “Demon of the Lute” (21:37) and Victor Fan on “Demon of the Lute” (23:28).

Additionally, there is an illustrated 60-page collector’s booklet with cast and crew information on each film, film notes by Ian Jane (which often use different cast names than those in the cast list) and two essays, “The Japanese Connection” by Jonathan Clements and “Shaws’ Swan Song: The End of an Empire” by Grady Hendrix. Grade: overall extras 3.25 stars