Directed by Lau Kar-leung, The Shadow Boxer is also known as The Spiritual Boxer Part II.

Master Chen Wu (Chia-Yung Liu) and his apprentice Fan Chun Yuen (Yue Wong) are undertakers who have the rough job of getting the dead back in their graves. They must bring nine corpses from back to their home graves, an effort that Master Chen accomplishes by turning the dead bodies into jiangshi or, as more commonly known, hopping vampires. He does that by attaching spells to their foreheads which reanimate them, which allows the spiritual undertakers to avoid carrying coffins and just have the dead walk — or jump — home on their own.

Arriving before Mr. Vampire and Encounters of the Spooky Kind, this is one of the first appearances of these creatures, monsters that would soon show up in so many horror — and non-horror — movies.

One of the undead, Zhang Jie (Gordon Liu), just won’t listen. That’s because he may not be dead. They’re also hosts to Ah Fei (Cecilia Wong), who arrives just in time for things to start going wrong.

Fan Chun Yuen can only do martial arts when his master is chanting spells at him, so it’s a good thing that Zhang Jie is along. And it’s also great for the viewer, as Gordon Liu is always a welcome fighter in any film.

Also: Don’t be concerned that this is a sequel. It is one in name only and both movies have Yue Wong in them.

The 88 Films blu ray release of The Shadow Boxing has a limited edition slipcase with brand-new artwork by Mark Bell and four collectable artcards. You also get a trailer and a still gallery. Of all the 88 Films Shaw Brothers releases, this has the greatest looking cover art. I’m honored to have it as part of my collection.

Get this from MVD.