The Shaw Brother Studio's productions set the benchmark for martial-arts and action films as we know them today. The Shaw Brothers' martial-arts films have reinvented and imprinted their DNA on world-famous filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and John Woo--changing the way action looks on screen. The studio's influence on the genre can be seen in modern day blockbusters including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Matrix, Kill Bill volumes 1&2 and Kung Fu Hustle.
Over the years the studio was home to the finest martial-arts directors, such as Chang Cheh, Liu Chia-liang, Chu Yuan and King Hu, and nurtured the careers of many action-film stars such as Jet Li, Chow Yun-fat, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Alexander Fu Sheng, Gordon Liu Chia-hui, Derek Yee and Chen Kuan-tai.
The Greatest Shaw Brothers Kung Fu Masterpieces
The Five Venoms The most prolific kung fu director in Hong Kong martial-arts cinema, Chang Cheh, kick-started both a new phase of his career and a new generation of action stars with The Five Venoms. Chang Cheh's super-heroic, grand guignol-flavored thriller proved hugely popular in America, inspiring a US soft drink commercial, and even the world tour of the hip-hop sensation, Wu Tang Clan. It also spawned a film series featuring more high-flying, blade-juggling, and flesh-stabbing mayhem.
Hero Cory Yuen's remake of Chang Cheh's Boxer From Shantung sees Taiwanese/Japanese heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro in the role made famous by Chang's favourite actor Chen Kuan-tai. Kaneshiro stars as pugilist Ma Wing-jing, who arrives in Shanghai and rises to the top of the triad ladder. Cory Yuen - who worked with Jet Li on all his Hollywood movies and directed such hits as Fong Sai-yuk and New Legend Of Shaolin - brings the hero to life with his trademark mix of explosive action and physical comedy.
Erotica
Ground-breaking and daring in its day, Shaw Brothers' erotic films turned conservative Chinese society on its head. In days when hand-holding and a chaste peck on the cheek were considered audacious, the studio was already shocking audiences with the sensual An Amorous Woman Of Tang Dynasty.
This landmark Hong Kong erotic film explores the boudoir and even the monastery of a scholar turned Taoist nun turned literati (played by Patricia Ha in her most acclaimed role). Her pursuits of love and lust show that the Tang Dynasty was light-years ahead of the West in sexual enlightenment. The film's sophisticated sets won the Golden Horse Award for Best Art Direction.
Shaw Brothers showcased both ancient Chinese fables (Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan) and modern Hong Kong foibles (Bamboo House of Dolls, The Girly Bar).
Period Drama
The Celestial's Shaw Brothers Film Library hosts some of the most spectacular epics of the Chinese screen. The multi-talented Li Han-hsiang, the master of all genres, is a major contributor to the library with films such as The Empress Dowager and The Kingdom and the Beauty.
Huangmei Opera The Shaw Brothers Studio was the master in adapting this well-loved traditional folk opera style for the big screen. The studio's classical and lyrical huangmei opera--a combination of Chinese folk songs, dances and ancient opera art thrilled and swooned audiences through the decades.
The Love Eterne, an adaptation of a well-loved Chinese folk tale, won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Music, Best Editing and Best Actress awards, and a special award for outstanding performance. Screen legend Betty Loh Ti stars as a beauty that disguises herself as a boy to get an otherwise forbidden education. This sort of gender-bender role-playing is traditional when it comes to Chinese opera, yet there's nothing old-fashioned about the superlative treatment given this classic tale.
Drama
Shaw Brothers produced dramas for decades, among them is Johnny To's Lifeline, a heroic tale on firefighters with the Hong Kong handover as its backdrop. Lifeline captures the ferociousness of firestorms (for real, as the filmmakers didn't use special effects but real flames instead) and delves into the fireman's psyche. These audacious firefighters march into disaster and risk their lives by saving others, yet can they tackle their personal issues with equal courage? The story revolves around a dutiful yet indifferent fireman (Lau Ching-wan) who strives to win back his valor and love.
Horror Asian horror films have become the most popular Asian film export since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Chinese horror films have always been able to thrill and petrify, mostly because they feature a potent combination of supernatural lore and action as well as horror elements. The films in the Shaw Brothers horror library are leaders of the genre.
After making successful thrillers, action films, and comedies, director Kuei Chih-hung put his first Hex on the audience. This supernatural mystery thriller was so effective it led to the sequels Hex Versus Witchcraft and Hex After Hex. What starts as an Asian variation of the classic French suspense film Diabolique becomes an exercise in fervid and frightening Hong Kong horror as one ghost after another appears to wreak havoc, insanity, and death.
Other film plots travel beyond Hong Kong to the wilds of Southeast Asia in search of horror: a classic example is Black Magic, starring Shaws stalwart Ku Feng as a Malaysian sorcerer. And, martial-arts master Liu Chia-liang shifted genres when he cast Gordon Liu as a "hopping vampire" in the supernatural action film, The Shadow Boxing. And The Bride From Hell makes The Exorcist looks like a Sunday school picnic.
Comedy Shaw comedies brought laughter to millions of filmgoers over the years. From award-winning director Johnnie To, Justice, My Foot! is a Hong Kong Film Awards' winner starring the reigning Hong Kong king of comedy: Stephen Chow. Chow injects his special brand of very modern, very Hong Kong screwball comedy in this costume farce, which is set in imperial China . Chow is a shyster with an equally eccentric kung fu ace of a wife, hilariously played by Anita Mui. Accompanied by his screen sidekick, Ng Man-tat, Chow manages to bring justice to the court and laughter to the viewer. A resounding success, Justice, My Foot! broke Hong Kong box office records to become the number one hit of 1992.
Science Fiction & Fantasy Science fiction fans worldwide know that science fiction Hong Kong-style dazzles unlike any other. Alien abductions, suicide pacts, platoons of imaginative monsters, outlandish sets and costuming are all part and parcel of Celestial's slate of Shaw Brothers science fiction & fantasy offerings.
Long before ET came to visit earth, Shaw Brothers was already producing trendsetting fare like Chang Kuo-ming's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Western audiences know Super Inframan as a cult classic, and now have the chance to see the film starring Danny Lee, who rose to fame in John Woo's The Killer. The Mighty Peking Man, again starring Lee, featured a giant gorilla running amok in Hong Kong - Quentin Tarantino released the film as part of his Rolling Thunders Pictures catalog. The combination of martial-arts and fantasy action features in Shaws films like Holy Flame of the Martial World, Descendant of the Sun, The Hidden Power of Dragon Sabre, Buddha's Palm, The Battle Wizard and Demon of the Lute are highly imaginative and thrilling, bringing alive both magic and mayhem.
Musical Singing and dancing Hong Kong-style, Shaw Brothers musicals captured the tastes, trend and psychology of the cinema-going public in the 1960s and the 1970s. In The Lark, 1960s pop star Carrie Ku-mei plays pop star “Little Lark”--not only her most famous role, but a treasure trove of some of the most popular Mandarin songs of all time. The story, a frothy romance of mistaken identities, ultimately takes a back seat to the wonderful musical numbers, highlighted by “The Wedding Song” and “A Lover's Tears”, perhaps the most romantic Mandarin song of all time.
Other Shaw musicals include Hong Kong Nocturne, starring the legendary Cheng Pei-pei, and Til the End of Time, the first film by Eurasian stunner Jenny Hu.
