Shaw Brothers (HK) Limited was the largest film production company in Hong Kong, and operated from 1925 to 2011.
Sir Run Run Shaw, also known as Shao Yifu and Siu Yat-fu, was a Hong Kong businessman, filmmaker, and philanthropist. He was one of the foremost influential movie moguls in the East Asian and Hong Kong entertainment industry. He founded the Shaw Brothers Studio, one of the largest film production companies in Hong Kong, and TVB, the dominant television company in Hong Kong.
The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former British colony, Hong Kong had a greater degree of political and economic freedom than mainland China and Taiwan, and developed into a filmmaking hub for the Chinese-speaking world.
Chang Cheh was a Chinese filmmaker, screenwriter, lyricist and producer active in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Chang Cheh directed more than 90 films in Greater China, the majority of them with the Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong. Most of his films are action films, especially wuxia and kung fu films filled with violence.
Kung Fu Hustle is a 2004 martial arts action comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Stephen Chow, who also stars in the lead role, alongside Huang Shengyi, Yuen Wah, Yuen Qiu, Danny Chan Kwok-kwan and Leung Siu-lung in prominent roles. The story revolves around a murderous neighbourhood gang, a poor village with unlikely heroes and an aspiring gangster's fierce journey to find his true self. The martial arts choreography is supervised by Yuen Woo-ping.
Celestial Movies (天映频道) is an Asian 24-hour Chinese movie channel, which screens films from and shows interviews with movie stars and directors, entertainment news and film award ceremonies. The channel is available in 11 territories across Asia Pacific, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and other countries in Asia.
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Kong filmmakers combined with elements from Hollywood and Japanese cinema along with new action choreography and filmmaking techniques, to create a culturally distinctive form that went on to have wide transcultural appeal. In turn, Hollywood action films have been heavily influenced by Hong Kong genre conventions, from the 1970s onwards.
Alexander Fu Sheng, also known as Fu Sing, was a Hong Kong martial arts actor. One of Hong Kong's most talented performers, Fu rose to prominence in the 1970s starring in a string of movies with the Shaw Brothers that accrued him international stardom throughout Asia and parts of North America.
Five Deadly Venoms, also known as The Five Venoms, is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Chang Cheh. It was produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio. It stars Chiang Shieng as a martial arts pupil who faces five kung fu fighters, each of whom practices a unique animal-themed style: the Centipede, the Snake, the Scorpion, the Lizard, and the Toad.
Kung fu film is a subgenre of martial arts films and Hong Kong action cinema set in the contemporary period and featuring realistic martial arts. It lacks the fantasy elements seen in wuxia, a related martial arts genre that uses historical settings based on ancient China. Swordplay is also less common in kung-fu films than in wuxia and fighting is done through unarmed combat.
William Pfeiffer is chief executive officer of Celestial Tiger Entertainment, a partnership among Lions Gate Entertainment, Saban Capital Group, and Celestial Pictures. The company launched two TV channels in August 2009: KIX and Thrill.
Lam Ngai Kai (藍乃才), a.k.a. Lam Nai Choi, Nam Nai Choi, Simon Nam, is a Hong Kong-based cinematographer and film director. In the West he is mainly known for his overtly violent movie Story of Ricky.
Chinatown Kid is a 1977 kung fu film directed by Chang Cheh. Produced by the Shaw Brothers, it stars Alexander Fu Sheng and the Venom Mob. The film deals with drugs, police corruption and gang warfare in San Francisco's Chinatown district.
Killer Constable is a 1980 Hong Kong martial arts-action film directed by Chih-Hung Kwei, starring martial arts star Chen Kuan-tai. The movie was produced by the Shaw Brothers studio and is a loose reworking of the 1969 movie The Invincible Fist by the film director Chang Cheh, a frequent collaborator of Chih-Hung Kwei.
Kuei Chih-Hung was a filmmaker who worked for the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers Studios, directing more than 40 films throughout the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. Kuei found critical and commercial success working in a variety of genres, including the hard-boiled crime drama of The Teahouse (1974) and its sequel, Big Brother Cheng (1975), wuxia film Killer Constable (1981), The Killer Snakes (1975) and Hex (1980). Kuei often depicted the poverty of the public housing system, police corruption and colonial government rule.
Chen Kuan-tai is a Hong Kong martial arts actor, director, and action choreographer. Chen rose to fame in the early 1970s for his movies with the Shaw Brothers Studio and is credited as being one of the film company's first professionally trained martial artists.
Wang Lung-wei is Hong Kong martial artist, actor, director, producer, and action choreographer, who has starred in over 80 kung fu films, mainly for Shaw Brothers Studios. Wang's first Shaw Brothers film role was as the traitor Ma Fu-yi in the Chang Cheh-directed film Five Shaolin Masters. This became a pattern, in that he was cast as the villain in the majority of his movies, with Martial Club being a famous exception. In 1985, Wang moved behind the camera, choreographing fight scenes, writing, and directing many movies such as Hong Kong Godfather. He retired from the industry some time before 2009.
The Celestial's Shaw Brothers Film Library is the World's Largest Chinese Film Library consisting of over 760 feature films originally released over a forty-year time frame from the 1950s to the 1990s produced by Shaw Brothers Studio. The genres of the library range from Kung Fu, Action, Martial Arts, Erotica, Comedy, Horror, Situation Drama, Musical, Period Drama, Thriller, etc.
Celestial Tiger Entertainment (CTE), formerly Tiger Gate Entertainment, is a diversified media company based in Hong Kong that operates pay television entertainment channels in Asia and oversees Lionsgate distribution rights in Greater China and Southeast Asia. It is a joint venture co-owned by Saban Capital Group, Lionsgate and Celestial Pictures.
Todd Miller is an American-born media executive and the Chief Executive Officer of Celestial Tiger Entertainment (CTE), a diversified media company headquartered in Hong Kong. The company creates and distributes branded television services and is a venture between Saban Capital Group; Celestial Pictures, a company owned by Astro Overseas Limited; and Lionsgate, the world's largest independent filmed entertainment studio.
