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Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: December 14th, 2021.
Director: Mei-Chun Chang
Cast: Ying Bai, Shirley Han Hsiang-chin, Hsiu-Shen Liang, Chang Ma, Cheng Ku, Ying Lee
Year: 1977
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Revenge Of The Shogun Women – Movie Review:
Also known as 13 Nuns and featuring an actress credited in the English titles as ‘Booti Long,’ 1977’s Revenge Of The Shogun Women is a Taiwanese-Hong Kong co-production that opens with a dramatic scene where a gang of marauding bandit men arrive at a compound and rape all of the women that are smart enough to at least try and hide when they learn the men are en route. No longer virgins, the rape victims have their heads shaved before being sent away to a remote convent where a mother superior type trains them in the deadly art of kung-fu.
While all of this is going on, a young woman named Wu Chin (Han Tsiang-Chin) ha fallen very sick. A doctor named Choa (Chiusen Leong) is called to examine her and decides that she needs acupuncture on her breasts! Her family is less than pleased with this until Wu Chin's father decides his daughter should marry the doctor. All involved parties agree to this weirdly quickly, but a man named Chu (Kim Yung Koo), who has long carried a torch for lovely Wu Chin, is not at all impressed with this chain of events. He decides to hook up with the leader of the bandits from the opening scene (Ying Bai) figuring they'll ransack her place on an upcoming raid and he'll just be able to take her for his own, whether she likes it or not!
When said raid takes place, the inhabitants of the village look to the newly trained nuns to help them, but their leader must reconcile her Buddhist believes before getting involved. When the bandits push things too far, however, the women decide it's time for action...
If Revenge Of The Shogun Women, an odd retitling for the film maybe (?) meant to cash in on the success of Shogun Assassin which had hit American theaters in 1980, isn’t particularly deep it is pretty entertaining stuff. There’s a lot of action in the film and while it’s never quite as intricately choreographed as what was coming out from Shaw Brothers and even Golden Harvest productions around the same time, it’s still better than average. The film also has the distinction of being one of only a handful of movies shot using the Super-Touch 3-D system which was developed by none other than Michael Findlay. This system does result in some anomalies being 'baked in' to the elements used for the presentation but it's an interesting element just the same. The pacing is good here and the movie has nice costuming and sets. The action set pieces use a lot of weapons, which leads to plenty of spears and swords coming out of the screen at the audience, but also features a couple of strong hand-to-hand combat scenes, the final fight that we won’t spoil here, not surprisingly, being a stand out.
Note that this version of the film is the version of the film that 21st Century Film Corporation had dubbed and edited for release to American theaters and not the original Chinese version of the movie. It comes complete with English opening and closing titles and is apparently trimmed in a few spots. That’s not so much of a complaint as it is an observation. There’s still plenty of action and a fair bit of sleaze here, and the dubbing employed in the film definitely has its own goofy charm!
Revenge Of The Shogun Women – Blu-ray Review:
Revenge Of The Shogun Women arrives on Region A Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition presentation restored in 3-D by The 3-D Film Archive in both BD3D/Polarized and Anaglyph (red/cyan) version framed at 2.35.1 widescreen. Restored from a print, the picture quality here is more than solid. Colors look good, if not perfect, and while there’s some print damage noticeable (it’s much more noticeable in the first five minutes of the film than what comes after it) and some softness inherent in the elements used, the 3-D effects work really well here even in the anaglyph version (which is the version that we watched for review) even if it sucks almost all of the color out of the presentation when viewed in that format. A 2-D version is also provided, found under the polarized option on the menu, but viewing it that way really does take most of the fun out of the movie.
An English language option is provided in 16-bit DTS-HD 2.0 mono with optional subtitles provided in English only. There’s some hiss and pop here and there but overall it is a more than decent mix. Dialogue is always clean and clear and balanced. The sound effects are frequently very over the top and high in the mix but you more or less expect that from an old-school kung-fu movie.
As far as extra features go, Kino has provided three 3-D shorts, the first of which is College Capers, a fifteen minute directed by 'Elmo Williams' that takes place around a sorority house. Here a few guys who look way too old to be in college gets up to some goofy Three Stooges style shenanigans before using a ladder to sneak the goofiest of the three guys into the girls' place to peep at them and steal their undergarments. Eventually he has to hide in a closet where he gets to spy the girls undressing (it's not nearly as salacious as it sounds!) and then having a pillow fight - and then he gets caught. The 3-D effects in this are good, lots of goofy leering at the camera, bras and underwear flying in your face at one point.
Persian Slave Market is an eleven minute short that starts off with a curvaceous blonde woman doing a dance out on a patio. Soon enough, that dress comes off and she struts about in lingerie and heels. From there, a brunette comes out to the same location and follows suit, albeit with a bit more of a comedic touch, stripping down to a bikini and then taking her top off. Lastly, a girl in a belly-dancer outfit performs a routine for a girl in a bathing suit, eventually getting topless.
The third short, the sixteen minute Two Guys From Tick Ridge directed by David L. Summers, follows Wally and Harry as they head into a theater where they first see a band play, highlighted by some fun trombone and flute 3-D footage that really pops. After that, they see a lovely young woman in a bikini play with some bubbles before seeing a magician perform, which is followed by some random footage of a girl at the beach, a billiards game, some aerial/travelogue footage, some skiing clips and other odds and ends.
Menus and chapter selection is also provided and the disc comes packaged with one pair of anaglyph 3-D glasses.
Revenge Of The Shogun Women - The Final Word:
Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray release of Revenge Of The Shogun Women is a whole lot of trashy, exploitative fun, an entertaining throwback meant for the grindhouse/drive-in crowd. The 3-D works quite well here and the presentation is solid. Throw in a few bonus short films and this one turns out to be a really enjoyable disc.