Taking a look at the 88 Films sales page on HMV,I was thrilled to discover that the company has released a number of Shaw Brothers flicks that I've been interested in watching for years. After opening the parcel of Shaw Blu's,I decided to start with a spirited boxing match.

View on the film:

Backed by a very good commentary track from David West, 88 Films present a great transfer, with the English and Chinese Dubs being clean, whilst the print retains an image grain, but keeps a sharpness which allows for the Action set-pieces to be seen with a spotless image.

Running from every town with his hands filled with goods in the hopes that the locals won't click in that his act of being able to speak to the spirits is a con, until long after he has moved on to the next bunch of local yokel suckers, Wong Yue gives an excellent performance as Chien, thanks to Yue performing the thrilling Kung-Fu moves with a slickness, which Yue blends with a cheeky comedic enthusiasm when Chien outwits another local.

Making his directing debut by taking on the spiritual boxer, director Chia-Liang Liu hits a winning combo, thanks to closely working with cinematographer Han Lu Kuang in landing the Action set-pieces with ultra-stylized whip-pans, crash zooms, and jump-cuts from smoke flash bangs used by Chien to create the image of getting powers from the spirits.

Between the spirited boxing, Liu high-kicks a merry Comedy atmosphere, via staging lively sequences where Chien leaves the locals on eggshells as he flees,and in a playful spoof to the Horror movies the Shaw Bros were putting out, surrounds Chien in creepy low-lighting drizzled in brash colours,as he comes face to face with what appears to be a real spirit.

Keeping up with Chien on his travels, the screenplay from Kuang Ni keeps Chien busy on the road by smartly going for a variety of styles for his con act to play out, which knock-out any risk of things becoming repetitive, as Chien goes from fooling the local hard man with fake knives, to using objects he finds round the villages that will keep the locals hands full, as Chien makes a spirited getaway.