Who Keeps the Doors Open?

Read Time:10 Minute, 19 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Shawscope Presents: Street Gangs of Hong Kong
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Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Martial Arts
Year Released: 1973–1980, 2026 Blu-ray
Runtime: 11h 49m
Director(s): Chang Cheh, Kuei Chih-Hung, Sun Chung, Chor Yuen, Hua Shan
Writer(s): Ni Kuang, Szeto On, Chor Yuen, Lam Chin Wai, Yuen Cheung
Cast: Wong Chung, Lily Li, Chen Kuan-Tai, Karen Yeh, Chen Ping, Susan Shaw, Danny Lee, Ti Lung, Ching Li, Tony Liu
Where to Watch: available November 24, 2026; pre-order your copy here: www.arrowvideo.com, www.mvdshop.com, or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: A teahouse has to open again in the morning. That's a pretty good reason to build a crime movie around one. In THE TEAHOUSE, Chen Kuan-Tai plays a man who makes a living in Hong Kong alongside others who came from the mainland. When the triads interfere with his business, he's got employees to think about and a place that needs to be there for them tomorrow. A fight can settle who gets to stand in the room right now. It takes a different kind of nerve to keep opening the doors knowing the same people can come back.

That teahouse is the best explanation for how Arrow Video put SHAWSCOPE PRESENTS: STREET GANGS OF HONG KONG together. THE TEAHOUSE, its sequel, and its spinoff account for nearly half the set. They give the other movies something to push against. Put a robbery or a revenge story next to a film about the same people having to live on the same block after a fight, and the stakes of that fight start to look different. There are stretches where the box feels more like a collection of crime dramas than the title suggests.

The gang boss in THE DELINQUENT knows exactly how to flatter a kid. Wong Chung plays John, a young guy who struggles to keep a job and already has plenty to fight about at home. The gang's interest gives him the chance to be good at something in public, which goes a long way toward explaining why any of this would look like opportunity to him. He can see what the boss wants from him in the moment. He has a much harder time seeing what it costs to be useful to somebody like that.

Directors Chang Cheh and Kuei Chih-Hung take John out into Hong Kong housing estates and industrial areas. Those locations let the film show how close he is to people going about their day while he's ready to pick a fight with the world. The camera's abrupt zooms and the jazzy score give the production a restless quality that fits a guy who spends so much of his time working himself up. The city goes about its business around him. His frustration can fill the frame and leave the rest of the street entirely indifferent.

BIG BROTHER CHENG has to reckon with what happens once a character like Cheng has a reputation. His name is right there in the title this time, and the people who need help already know whose door to knock on. That familiarity gets the sequel moving quickly. It also makes some of the conflicts feel like another round of business the first film already handled. The earlier film can spend time establishing how a man who runs a business ends up doing work the neighborhood needs from the police. The sequel takes his standing for granted and shapes his intervention more like a vigilante story. Every time he steps in, it gets a little easier to see how the neighborhood might come to expect him to do it.

BIG BAD SIS gets more out of the spinoff idea by handing the story to Chen Ping as Ying. Her past with a gang follows her into a factory job, where the women around her have their own reasons to want to know how she handles the men who give her trouble. The training changes the kind of story Sun Chung gets to tell. Ying can pass on something her coworkers can use on a day when she isn't around. The factory has its own dangers. Men can make life miserable at work long before anybody from her old gang comes looking for her. Getting through a shift without being hassled is reason enough to learn how to fight.

Chor Yuen's THE BIG HOLDUP changes the terms as soon as a group of thieves has something worth stealing from one another. Seeing Chen Kuan-Tai in the middle of that is part of the pleasure of a collection like this. After two films in which other people rely on his character to step forward, here's a story where cooperation gets everybody through the job and gives them a reason to watch each other afterward. The threat of a traitor makes a successful robbery feel like unfinished business. The gang can agree on how to get paid, then find out how little that agreement is worth once there's money on the table.

Chor's THE CONVICT KILLER goes further afield. It takes place in the Republican era and gives Ti Lung a chain that once held him in prison. The idea has the blunt appeal of a man walking around with a piece of the punishment he served for a crime he didn't commit. It also gives the box a dose of the period action associated with Shaw Brothers. Ching Li plays a widow whose search leads her toward the same man he's after. Their partnership gives the revenge story another claim on his attention. He's spent years nursing his own grievance and now has to work alongside someone with a different loss to account for. As a choice for this particular box, it's something of an outlier. There’s more of the old Shaw formula in its historical setting and its weapon of choice than in most of the films Arrow puts around it.

Hua Shan's THE BROTHERS has the most interesting journey to this collection. It adapts Yash Chopra's DEEWAAR and relocates the conflict to Hong Kong, where Tony Liu's underworld figure and Danny Lee's police officer are brothers. It's easy to talk about that setup in terms of what John Woo later did with A BETTER TOMORROW. The family story also gives THE BROTHERS a reason to stand on its own. The moment you give these men a mother, you've got somebody whose idea of a good outcome is going to be different from anybody running a gang or a police investigation. A victory at work for either son can turn into a disaster at home. Arrow makes it the only feature on the fourth disc, with an interview on its influence as part of the extras.

Arrow restored all seven films in 2K from their original 35mm negatives and presents them on four Blu-rays. The tracks are lossless mono, with the language choices varying by title. THE TEAHOUSE and BIG BAD SIS offer Cantonese and Mandarin, and THE DELINQUENT and THE CONVICT KILLER include English dubs alongside their Mandarin tracks. The American TV spot for THE DELINQUENT, sold as STREET GANGS OF HONG KONG, makes for a neat detail here. An old export title for one film has ended up on a box that gives viewers a much wider view of the period.

The supplement lineup also gives the films outside the Cheng run room to breathe. Frank Djeng covers the first two discs, which puts the Cheng films and their spinoff in the hands of one commentator. James Mudge takes THE BIG HOLDUP and THE BROTHERS, with David West on THE CONVICT KILLER. The interviews expand the scope beyond the directors, including Susan Shaw on her own and Chen Kuan-Tai with Bruce Le. The two Tony Rayns interviews give Kuei and Chor room to discuss more than the films that made the cut here. The booklet adds essays by Jonathan Clements, Samm Deighan, Victor Fan and David West. A commentary on every film is a welcome decision for a set whose appeal depends on how much there is to discover around its better-known names.

The set earns its shelf space a disc at a time. A few of these films make more sense here than they would on their own, especially when the Cheng sequel can share a disc with a spinoff that finds something new to do with his example. The collection also gives a little extra meaning to a name like “Big Brother.” Once you've seen what it gets Cheng, it sounds a lot like somebody knocking before he's had a chance to turn the sign around.

Bonus Materials
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
Brand new 2K restorations of all seven films by Arrow Films from the original 35mm negatives
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of all seven films
Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork by Tom Fournier
Collectors’ perfect-bound booklet featuring new writing on the films by Jonathan Clements, Samm Deighan, Victor Fan and David West

DISC ONE: THE DELINQUENT / THE TEAHOUSE
Original lossless Mandarin and English mono audio on The Delinquent and lossless Cantonese and Mandarin mono audio on The Teahouse
Optional English subtitles for the Cantonese and Mandarin soundtracks and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
Brand new audio commentaries for both films by Hong Kong cinema expert Frank Djeng
Original theatrical trailers for both films and US TV spot for The Delinquent, released as Street Gangs of Hong Kong

DISC TWO: BIG BROTHER CHENG / BIG BAD SIS
Original lossless Cantonese mono audio on Big Brother Cheng and lossless Cantonese and Mandarin mono audio on Big Bad Sis
Optional English subtitles for both films
Brand new audio commentaries for both films by Frank Djeng
Original theatrical trailers for both films

DISC THREE: THE BIG HOLDUP / THE CONVICT KILLER
Original lossless Mandarin mono audio on The Big Holdup and lossless Mandarin and English mono audio on The Convict Killer
Optional English subtitles for the Mandarin soundtracks and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
Brand new audio commentary for The Big Holdup by Asian cinema expert James Mudge
Brand new audio commentary for The Convict Killer by Asian cinema expert David West
Original theatrical trailer for The Convict Killer

DISC FOUR: THE BROTHERS / EXTRAS
Original lossless Mandarin mono audio
Optional English subtitles
Brand new commentary by James Mudge
Remaining Fearless, a brand new interview with actor Susan Shaw, filmed and conducted by Frédéric Ambroisine in 2026
The Iron Monkey of Macau, a brand new interview with actor Chen Kuan-Tai
Martial Memories, a brand new interview with actors Chen Kuan-Tai and Bruce Le
Two new interviews with film critic and Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns discussing the films of Kuei Chih-Hung and Chor Yuen
Predicting Heroic Bloodshed, a brand new interview with Frank Djeng discussing The Brothers’ legacy

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[photo courtesy of ARROW VIDEO, MVD ENTERTAINMENT]

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