Black Magic

"Image has assembled a generous but somewhat problematic DVD for this Shaw Brothers favorite. Black Magic receives a transfer here that is letterboxed and anamorphically enhanced. It comes from a nicely remastered source with eye-popping colors but it also suffers from some blurred motion that suggests it was taken from an interlaced video source. On the audio side, it offers a trio of sound mixes: a Mandarin mono soundtrack, a 5.1 stereo remix of the Mandarin soundtrack and the original English mono dub track. The first two offer crisp sound (with the stereo remix adding some extra depth to the sound) but the English mono track is in rough shape, offering a hiss-y, sometimes harsh sound. However, fans who want to hear it in English will probably be glad it was included. In terms of extras, there are some nice still galleries, a collection of newly-created trailers for various Shaw Brothers titles and a collection of trailers for other Asian fare from Image. The package is rounded out by liner notes insert from Linn Haynes that offers historical background on both the film and the studio and a free mail-in card that gets the owner a free Black Magic poster. All in all, the extras and sound options are nice on this disc but it's unfortunate that the video transfer couldn't be better."