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Industry | Entertainment |
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Founded | 2000 |
Headquarters | , |
Owner | Astro Overseas Limited |
Subsidiaries | Celestial Tiger Entertainment (JV) |
Website | www.celestialpictures.com |
Celestial Pictures is an entertainment-based company focused on Asian-language film and content, encompassing production's, aggregation, distribution, and TV channels. It is headquartered in Hong Kong, and owned by Astro Overseas Limited.[ citation needed ]
Celestial Pictures owns the Shaw Brothers Film Library, which is one of the world's largest collection of Chinese film. The library comprises over 760 feature films, including The Five Venoms, Hex, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, One-Armed Swordsman, King Boxer, and The Flying Guillotine. These films have been digitally restored for global distribution. [1]
The company purchased the Shaw Brothers film library in 2000 [2] when it was then called "East Asia Filmed Entertainment Ltd" and owned by the Malaysian media group Astro Holdings Sdn Bhd. Astro Holdings were in turn controlled by Usaha Tegas Sdn. Bhd., a Malaysian investment holding company.
In 2001, under the Chinese name 星藝映畫, the company produced two films: Comic King (漫畫風雲) and Stowaway (驚天大逃亡). It took up the current Chinese name 天映娛樂 in 2002.[ citation needed ]
Celestial's television channel operations include Celestial Movies, Celestial Classic Movies, and WATA, a Chinese infotainment channel. Additionally, Shaw Bros. movies distributed by Celestial are shown in America on El Rey Network as part of its "Flying Five Finger One Armed Eight Pole Shaolin Exploding Death Touch Tuesdays" block.
Samuel "Sammo" Hung Kam-bo is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film producer and director, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a fight choreographer for other actors such as Kim Tai-chung, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, and Yuen Wah.
Shaw Brothers (HK) Limited was the largest film production company in Hong Kong, operating 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 Crown 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.
Orange Sky Golden Harvest (OSGH), previously known as Golden Harvest from 1970 to 2009, is a film production, distribution, and exhibition company based in Hong Kong. It dominated Hong Kong cinema box office sales from the 1970s to the 1980s, and played a major role in introducing Hong Kong action films to the world, especially those by Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Sammo Hung.
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.
Gordon Liu ; born Sin Kam-hei is a Chinese actor and martial artist best known for his martial arts films. He entered the Hong Kong film industry as a stuntman, eventually having minor roles in several kung fu films, including the Shaw Brothers-produced Five Shaolin Masters (1974). He went on to appear in many Shaw Brothers films, often portraying Shaolin monks.
Five Deadly Venoms, also known as The Five Venoms, is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts mystery film directed and co-written by Chang Cheh and produced by Runme Shaw for the Shaw Brothers Studio. It stars Chiang Shieng as Yang Tieh, a martial arts pupil who aims to follow his master's dying wish: to find the new identities of the master's five previous pupils, and kill them if they have turned towards evil. While doing so, Yang stumbles onto a web of murders and investigations involving all five pupils. Each of the master's previous pupils practices a unique animal-themed style, with the animals being based on the Five Poisonous Creatures of Chinese folklore.
Angela Mao Ying is a Taiwanese actress and martial artist who is best known for appearing in martial arts films in the 1970s. Born in Taiwan, she studied at a Peking Opera school, the Fu Sheng Opera School, from the age of six to fourteen. In addition to training in stagecraft, Mao took lessons in martial arts and this led both to her discovery in the late 1960s by director Huang Feng and a contract with the famous Golden Harvest company. Following the wuxia pian swordplay picture The Angry River (1971), Mao was teamed in 1972 with Carter Wong and Sammo Hung in Hapkido, after which she became known as "Lady Kung Fu." She acquired another nickname after the 1972 revenge flick, Lady Whirlwind.
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.
The Clones of Bruce Lee is a 1980 Bruceploitation martial arts film capitalizing on the death of actor and martial arts star Bruce Lee in 1973.
Jackie Chan began his film career as an extra child actor in the 1962 film Big and Little Wong Tin Bar. Ten years later, he was a stuntman opposite Bruce Lee in 1972's Fist of Fury and 1973's Enter the Dragon. He then had starring roles in several kung fu films, such as 1973's Little Tiger of Canton and 1976's New Fist of Fury. His first major breakthrough was the 1978 kung fu action comedy film Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, which was shot while he was loaned to Seasonal Film Corporation under a two-picture deal. He then enjoyed huge success with similar kung fu action comedy films such as 1978's Drunken Master and 1980's The Young Master. Jackie Chan began experimenting with elaborate stunt action sequences in The Young Master and especially Dragon Lord (1982).
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.
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.
Dean Shek, also known as Dean Shek Tin, was a Hong Kong film actor and producer with over 72 film credits to his name. Shek was perhaps best known as Professor Kai-hsien in the 1978 film Drunken Master, Lung Sei in the 1987 film A Better Tomorrow II, and Snooker in the 1990 film The Dragon from Russia.
Wang Lung-wei is a 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 Yu Pi in the 1974 Chang Cheh-directed film Shaolin Martial Arts. 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.
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.