For the Malaysian film company with a similar name, see
Astro Shaw
.
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updated
. The reason given is: According to the article, the company stopped operation since 2011, but in fact as of 2022 it is still active in producing TV series.
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(
December 2022
)
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Film production company in Hong Kong
Shaw Brothers Studio
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Shaw Studios, Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong
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Chinese
| 邵氏片場
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Shaw Brothers (HK) Limited
(
Chinese
:
邵氏兄弟(香港)公司
) was the largest film production company in
Hong Kong
, operating from 1925 to 2011.
In 1925, three Shaw brothers—
Runje
,
Runme
, and
Runde
—founded
Tianyi Film Company
(also called "Unique") in
Shanghai
, and established a film distribution base in
Singapore
, where Runme and their youngest brother,
Run Run Shaw
, managed the precursor to the parent company,
Shaw Organisation
. Runme and Run Run took over the film production business of its
Hong Kong
-based sister company, Shaw & Sons Ltd; in 1958, a new company, "Shaw Brothers," was set up. In the 1960s, Shaw Brothers established what was once the largest privately-owned studio in the world, Movietown.
The company's most famous works include
The Love Eterne
(1963),
Come Drink with Me
(1966),
The One-Armed Swordsman
(1967),
King Boxer
(1972),
Executioners from Shaolin
(1977),
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
and
Five Deadly Venoms
(both 1978).
Over the years, the film company produced around 1,000 films, some becoming the most popular and significant Chinese-language films of the period. It also popularized the
kung fu genre
of films. In 1987, the company suspended film production in order to concentrate on the television industry through its subsidiary,
TVB
. Film production resumed in limited capacity in 2009.
In 2011, Shaw Brothers was reorganized into the Clear Water Bay Land Company Limited; its film production business was taken over by other companies within the Shaw conglomerate. However, the company continues to remain active in producing TV shows under the Shaw Brothers name to this day as of 2022.
History
[
edit
]
Prior to their involvement in the filmmaking business, the Shaw brothers were interested in opera and happened to own a theater in
Shanghai
; their father also owned a cinema.
[1]
One of the plays in their theater,
The Man from Shensi
, was very popular. The Shaw brothers then bought their first camera, and
Runje Shaw
made this play into a silent film that turned out to be a success.
[2]
Runje Shaw and his brothers
Runde
and
Runme
formed a film production company in 1925 in Shanghai called the
Tianyi Film Company
(also known as Unique).
[3]
[4]
The company's earliest films,
New Leaf
(立地成佛) and
Heroine Li Feifei
(女?李飛飛), were shown in Shanghai in 1925.
[5]
[6]
A rival studio,
Mingxing Film Company
, formed a syndicate with 5 other Shanghai companies to monopolize the distribution and exhibition markets in order to exclude Tianyi films from being shown in theater chains in Shanghai and Southeast Asia.
[7]
The brothers therefore became interested in forming their own network, and Runme Shaw, who was then the distribution manager, traveled to Singapore to establish a movie distribution business for
Southeast Asia
.
[4]
Runme incorporated the Hai Seng Co. (海星, which later became the Shaw Brothers Pte Ltd) to distribute films made by Tianyi and other studios. In 1927, they operated their own cinema in
Tanjong Pagar
in Singapore,
[1]
expanded in
Malaya
, and opened four cinemas there.
[8]
The number of cinemas owned by the Shaw chain in Southeast Asia would eventually reach 200 by the 1970s before it declined.
[2]
In 1928, Run Run Shaw moved to Singapore to assist Runme.
In 1931, the Tianyi Studio in Shanghai produced what is considered by some to be the first
sound-on-film
Chinese
talkie
,
Spring on Stage
(歌場春色).
[9]
In 1932, they teamed up with Cantonese opera singer Sit Gok-Sin (
薛覺先
) to make the first
Cantonese
talkie,
White Golden Dragon
(
白金龍
). This film proved to be very successful, and in 1934, they established the Tianyi Studio (Hong Kong) in
Kowloon
to make Cantonese films.
[7]
[10]
The move to Hong Kong was accelerated as the
Nanjing government
had issued a ban on
martial arts films
as well as Cantonese films, and two years later, they moved the entire film production operation from Shanghai to Hong Kong.
[7]
Tianyi was reorganized into Nanyang (南洋) Productions with
Runde Shaw
as the studio head.
[11]
They also announced plan for their first film production studio in Singapore in 1937 to make films in Malay; a studio was built in 1940 to make Malay and Cantonese films, followed by another called Singapore Film Studios in 1941 on
Jalan Ampas
.
[12]
It produced Malay films under the studio named
Malay Film Productions
(formally incorporated in 1949) which lasted until 1967.
[13]
[14]
The most prominent Malay actor, director and producer of this period was
P. Ramlee
.
[12]
The Shaw Brothers continued to expand but suffered a setback during the
Second World War
when the Japanese
occupied Malaya
and
Singapore
.
[15]
After the war, they began to rebuild. In the 1950s, Nanyang started to switch film production from Cantonese to
Mandarin
as the communist takeover of mainland China had cut off the supply of Mandarin films to overseas Chinese communities. In this period, Nanyang Studio operated under the company name of Shaw and Sons Ltd.
[16]
The Mandarin films of the 1950s were primarily
wenyi
films (文藝片) in a contemporary setting as well as a few period dramas.
[17]
In 1957, Run Run Shaw moved to Hong Kong, set up a new company, Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Ltd., and built a new studio at
Clearwater Bay
, which officially opened in 1961 as Movietown.
[4]
In the mid-1960s, Movietown was the largest and best-equipped studio in Chinese filmmaking as well as the largest privately owned studio in the world, with 15 stages, two permanent sets, state-of-the-art film-making equipment and facilities, and 1,300 employees.
[18]
Period and music dramas were popular in the 1960s, and later in the decade
Kung fu films
also became popular. Some of Shaw Brothers' most notable films were made in this period, including
The Magnificent Concubine
,
The Love Eterne
, as well as
One-Armed Swordsman
, which broke the box office records and some spawned multiple sequels.
[19]
The studio popularized the
kung-fu genre
of films, which included
Five Fingers of Death
and
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
made in the 1970s.
[20]
The 1960s was a period of intense rivalry between Shaw Brothers and
Cathay Organisation
, but eventually Shaw Brothers gained the upper hand and Cathay ceased film production in 1970. Sir Run Run Shaw became involved in television when
TVB
was launched in 1967.
[19]
In 1969, Shaw Brothers (HK) issued shares and became a public listed company.
In the 1970s, Shaw Brothers faced a strong challenge from a new studio,
Golden Harvest
, which had considerable success internationally with the martial arts film,
Enter the Dragon
starring
Bruce Lee
. Shaw Brothers then also began to co-produce films with Western producers for the international market
[21]
and invest in films such as
Meteor
and
Blade Runner
.
[22]
However, Shaw Brothers ceased film production in 1986 because of competition from Golden Harvest and increasing piracy, focusing instead on TV production. In 1986, Movietown became TV City, which was leased to TVB for TV production. In 1988, the company was reorganized under the umbrella of the Shaw Organization.
[4]
In the 1990s, Shaw again started making a few films, but no longer on the same scale as before.
[23]
Shaw has since relocated to a new site in
Tseung Kwan O
, Hong Kong.
Legacy
[
edit
]
Directors
[
edit
]
Shaw Brothers is noted for film directors such as
King Hu
,
Lau Kar-leung
,
P. Ramlee
[24]
and
Chang Cheh
. King Hu was an early director who is best remembered for his film,
Come Drink with Me
, a martial arts film which differed from those of Chang Cheh in that it featured a capable female protagonist and revolved around romance in the martial arts world, rather than fast-paced action and the tales of brotherhood which Chang Cheh would later popularize. Chang Cheh, who was more fond of the latter components, would go on to be Shaw Studio's best-known director, with such films as
Five Deadly Venoms
,
The Brave Archer
(based on the works of
Jin Yong
),
One-Armed Swordsman
, and other classics of
Wuxia
and
Wushu
film. Almost equally as famous was
fight-choreographer
-turned-director Lau Kar-leung, who would produce such highly regarded kung fu films as
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
and
The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter
,
while P. Ramlee was known for Malay style romantics and comedy such as
Nujum Pa' Belalang
,
Seniman Bujang Lapok
and
Do Re Mi
.
Actors
[
edit
]
Shaw Brothers was modeled after the classic Hollywood system, with hundreds of actors signed to exclusive contracts. While other studios rotated cast members, Shaw Brothers assigned certain groups of actors to work exclusively with certain directors.
Shaw Brothers productions during the late 1950s to early '60s were dominated by actresses like
Li Li-Hua
,
Ivy Ling Po
,
Linda Lin Dai
,
Betty Loh Ti
,
Li Ching
in dramatic and romantic features. In particular, the
Huangmei opera
The Love Eterne
, starring Ivy Ling Po and Betty Loh Ti and based on the
Butterfly Lovers
folk legend from the
Jin Dynasty
, is one of the highest-grossing features of the Shaw Studio. Its huge success is in part due to the ingenious casting of Ivy Ling Po, who was a relatively unknown supporting actress, as the male lead. In the story of
Butterfly Lovers
, the female lead, played by Betty Loh Ti, disguised herself as a male to attend college because social mingling between the sexes was forbidden. The film resonated with its audience, and reportedly some members of the audience in Hong Kong and Taiwan repeatedly bought tickets and watched the feature in theaters over and over again in 1962, with some having watched it over 20 times.
From the late 1960s onward, production of dramatic features was reduced in favor of martial arts features. The group of actors from the 1978 release,
Five Deadly Venoms
, and the subsequent series of films?known by the name the
Venom Mob
?were among the most memorable. They were
Lo Mang
,
Lu Feng
, Sun Chien,
Chiang Sheng
, and
Kuo Chui
, who had been stars in the Shaw Studio for years, but did not become memorable faces until
Five Deadly Venoms
. Wei Pai, who played the Snake (referred to as "Number Two" throughout the film
Five Deadly Venoms
), was also part of the
Venom Mob
, which numbered over 15 actors who appeared in almost all of the
Venom
movies.
In the first half of the 1970s, two other stars were particularly renowned and favored by the "Million-Dollar Director"
Chang Cheh
in his movies:
Ti Lung
and
David Chiang
. He is also accredited as a capable actor who reinforced his muscular glamor with strong characterization over his many films. Chiang, on the other hand, was slight and wiry and often played the sarcastic antihero to Lung's standard archetype. Chang Cheh, with his stars Ti Lung and David Chiang, were known as the cinematic "Iron Triangle" throughout Southeast Asia. In the middle of that decade, the duo was overshadowed by the rise of
Alexander Fu Sheng
, who had played supporting roles opposite them on many occasions. Fu was killed in 1983 in a car accident, at age 28, ending a brief but spectacular career.
Members of the
Peking Opera School
, including
Jackie Chan
,
Yuen Biao
, and
Sammo Hung
, played extras and bit parts in several Shaw Brothers films in the 1970s, although they were unknowns at the time.
Better-known female martial arts actresses of Shaw Brothers include
Cheng Pei-pei
,
Lily Ho
,
Shih Szu
,
Lily Li
, and
Kara Hui Ying-Hung
. Cheng Pei-pei in particular is relatively well-known for her starring role in King Hu's
Come Drink with Me
and more recently in
Ang Lee
's
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
as Jade Fox.
Influences
[
edit
]
The films produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio were highly popular among Chinese communities in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia and they would have a significant influence on later filmmakers, particularly in the
kung fu genre
. These films also reached the West and were popular for a time in the 1970s and early 1980s, having some influence on filmmakers such as
Quentin Tarantino
, who paid homage to the studio by displaying their logo in his
Kill Bill: Volume 1
and
2
films and adapting the styles of some of their films.
[25]
The 2023 animated movie
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
also paid homage to the studio by adding clips from classic Shaw Brothers movies into the movie when the
title characters
were trained in martial arts by their father figure,
Master Splinter
(voiced by Jackie Chan, who played smaller roles in few Shaw Brothers films), by showing them various video clips containing martial arts techniques, including clips from
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
,
Dirty Ho
,
The Magnificent Ruffians
and
Mad Monkey Kung Fu
.
[26]
Celestial Pictures acquisition and distribution
[
edit
]
Many Shaw Brothers classic films have been bootlegged due to the popularity of particular kung fu/martial arts titles.
Celestial Pictures
acquired rights to the Shaw Studio's legacy and is releasing, on
DVD
, 760 out of the nearly 1,000 films
[
citation needed
]
with restored picture and sound quality. Many of these DVDs have come under controversy, however, for remixing audio and not including the original mono soundtracks.
Karmaloop TV's licensing deal
[
edit
]
Karmaloop
TV, a multi-platform programming network designed to help operators "reclaim" viewership among the 18- to 34-year-old demographic, announced its first film licensing deal with Celestial Pictures. The Hong Kong-based company owns, restores and licenses the world's largest collection of Chinese-made films including the Shaw Brothers library of fan-favourite kung fu and action classics such as
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
,
Five Deadly Venoms
, and
The One-Armed Swordsman
.
The licensing deal with Karmaloop TV means that kung fu and action fans in the United States will see these films in their digitally restored versions, many of which will be premiering for the first time on U.S. television in high definition. The licensed collection includes more than 60 of the greatest martial arts masterpieces?movies which launched the careers of stars like Jimmy Wang Yu, Cheng Pei-Pei, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Alexander Fu Sheng, Chen Kuan-Tai, and Gordon Liu.
Shaw Studios
[
edit
]
The
Clearwater Bay
site at Clearwater Bay Road and Ngan Ying Road is the former home of Shaw Studio (built 1960?1961), as well as the vacated
TVB
headquarters and studios (1986?2003, since relocated to
TVB City
) and
Celestial Pictures
.
[27]
There are also apartment blocks used to house Shaw actors. The newer Shaw House and Shaw Villa are there. The site has been vacant since 2003
[28]
and has been targeted for redevelopment several times since 2006.
[29]
In 2015, Hong Kong's
Antiquities Advisory Board
declared the entire studio complex a site of
cultural significance
and subsequent redevelopment plans have included measures to restore and preserve the existing structures.
[29]
A new Shaw Studios (note the plural
s
) was built at
Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate
and opened in stages between 2006 and 2008.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Poshek Fu (2008).
China Forever: The Shaw Brothers and Diasporic Cinema
. University of Illinois Press.
ISBN
978-0-252-07500-1
.
- Glaessner, Verina.
Kung Fu: Cinema of Vengeance
. London: Lorimer; New York: Bounty Books, 1974.
ISBN
0-85647-045-7
,
ISBN
0-517-51831-7
.
- Wong, Ain-ling.
The Shaw Screen: A Preliminary Study
. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Film Archive, 2003.
ISBN
962-8050-21-4
.
- Zhong, Baoxian.
"Hollywood of the East" in the Making: The Cathay Organization Vs. the Shaw Organization in Post-War Hong Kong
. [Hong Kong]: Centre for China Urban and Regional Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University, 2004.
ISBN
962-8804-44-8
.
- Zhong, Baoxian.
Moguls of the Chinese Cinema: The Story of the Shaw Brothers in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore, 1924?2002
. Working paper series (David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies); no. 44. Hong Kong: David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University, 2005.
External links
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]
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