The Himalayan - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Himalayan



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
Acting as the third film in the 88 Films “Golden Harvest” trilogy of early films, The Himalayan is 5 years into the iconic Asian studio's career and once more brings Angela Mao up as one of the leads. Not to mention that it showcases the steep rise in quality that the studio saw after separating from the Shaw Brothers studio house. A fresh texture is brought in, with a more modern take on choreography, more brutality without being TOO cheesy, and Sammo Hung getting a little more screen time. Honestly, it’s the longest of the three films they released last month, but also one of the better ones out of the batch, making it my personal favorite.

Directed by famed Hong Kong director Feng Huang, The Himalayan is (not exactly a shocker here) set in Tibet, where we are introduced to the Tseng family. The elderly patriarch (Guan Shen) arranges a marriage for his daughter Ching-Lan (Angela Mao) with the younger son of another respected family named I-Fan (played by Ling Hon). However, the marriage is manipulated by outside events, as the elder brother, Kao Chu (Chen Sing), wishes to marry off his younger brother to the Tseng family ONLY so that he can gain access to their wealth. After his younger brother figures things out, Kao Chu murders him with his killer Tiger’s Claw technique and, in a hilarious twist of fate, finds another guy who LOOKS like his brother and dresses him up as an imposter.

With I-Fan’s imposter in place, Kao Chu slowly begins to manipulate the family, utilizing the help of a Tseng family servant who is just as devious as Kao Chu is to get this wedding underway. As soon as the wedding is complete, Kao Chu initiates his plan by attempting to murder Ching-lan and the I-Fan imposter. Only thing is, he fails at his attempts thanks to the efforts of Ching-lan’s childhood friend “Little Hsu” (Delon Tan), who gets her out of the home and the pair hustle off to a Buddhist temple to learn the skills of the esoteric martial arts system (watching these Hong Kong period piece films with all of their names makes me understand why there were so many hilarious titles in Ranma ½). There, they hone forbidden techniques that will give them the ability to take out Kao Chu and his deadly Tiger Claws.

The plot is fairly standard fare for the most part, with the bulk of it being martial arts battles between the various factions as they find out Kao Chu’s plans. But hey, that’s why we’re here watching a Chop Socky film. People aren’t tuning in to watch Scorsese; we’re here to watch skilled martial artists beat the snot out of each other. And frankly, the film does a wonderful job at it. Outside of a slow start, including real-life spearing of chickens (like, actual live chickens being speared on cameras for the movie), and an overly cheesy eye roll when it comes to Kao Chu finding a duplicate of I-Fan, the film is a blast. Kao Chu is a respectable villain, twirling his mustache at every opportunity, and both Ching-Lan and Little Hsu do great jobs as the Romeo and Juliet-esque lovers/partners.

Angela Mao was already a Kung-Fu goddess this early in her career (she was a graduate of the famous Peking Opera house that sired so many Hong Kong legends), but it's really Delon Tan who shines here thanks to his fast-moving legs. Golden Harvest was trying to move away from the stiff and stodgy choreography of the Shaw Brothers era, and with Bruce Lee lighting a fire under the whole industry, Golden Harvest was making active changes to make more realistic fight scenes. And while The Himalayan isn’t wildly different than many other period-piece kung fu movies of the time, it DID make greater strides, especially with Delon Tan. His movies are fast, and kicks go straight to the head instead of tight body kicks and overly extended arm blocks that were typical of the time. Little Hsu movies extremely fast, and shows the beginnings of what would become the golden age of Hong Kong martial arts cinema in the 80s and 90s. Mao utilizes more traditional movements, but in a few years, her own style would start to come out instead of the formulaic cookie-cutter moves that had become ingrained in Hong Kong action at the time.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

According to the back cover, the film was restored in 2K from the OCN (original camera negative), and the results look quite good. Maybe not AS good as The Angry River, but still a nice-looking image that really benefits from the grassy Tibetan locations for the set. Reds and greens really pop (foliage and the fake red blood), and black levels maintain a strong amount of detail throughout. There are a few sequences that show some grain spikes, but overall this 1.85:1 AVC image (1.85:1 is a rarity if you’re familiar with the Shaw Brothers' addiction to scope films) really looks great. Some strange digital-looking artifacts crop up in the latter half (usually at night, especially where Little Hsu gets flirted with by the duplicitous servant), but at the end of the day, this is a very solid-looking transfer.







Audio:

Featuring dual LPCM 2.0 Mono tracks in both Mandarin and English, the Mandarin is the easy choice. The English track sounds good on a technical level, but English dubs for Hong Kong martial arts films of this era have become a meme for a reason. And of course, I lean towards original language tracks whenever I can. But weirdly, these are two different mixes. It’s not just dialog that is changed, but also some scoring and even ambient effects are different. But still, I’m leaning HEAVILY towards the Mandarin track. Dialog is clean and mostly clear, with only some minor distortion in the higher treble range, and we get some full-bodied effects as the fights ensue. But at the end of the day, this is a simple 2.0 Mono track and isn’t going to be as insanely intense as a 5.1 or above would net us.










Extras:

• Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng and Michael Worth
• Tales from the Monastery
• English Opening and Closing Credits
• Image Gallery
• Mandarin Trailer

Final Score: ​

All in all, I had a blast with The Himalayan. It is probably the best of the three films 88 Films released on the 12th of May, but all three of them are fun. It still borrows pretty heavily from the studio that they wanted to get away from (including some hilarious overuse of full frontal upper nudity that was seen as taboo and salacious in the 70s), but it also manages to showcase the transitionary period that Hong Kong action was in during the mid to late 70s, and the beginnings of what the art would become in a few years. Plus, it has a cameo from Sammo Hung, and even a VERY brief one of Jackie Chan. And honestly, I still have a blast with the well-worn tropes that the Shaw Brothers created and so many replicated during that era. The Blu-ray looks and sounds good, and we get a solid amount of extras for the disc as well. Definitely recommended for fans of classic Kung-Fu.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Angela Mao, Sing Chen, Tao-liang Tan, Sammo Hung, Billy Chan
Directed by: Feng Huang
Written by: Kuang Ni
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: Mandarin: LPCM 2.0 Mono, English LPCM 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English
Studio: 88 Films
Rated: NR
Runtime: 117 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: May 12th, 2026

Recommendation: Fun Watch