Brian T

For those who might be interested:

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/a...-shaw-dies-106

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...dies-at-668752

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/mo...-106.html?_r=0

DJariya

RIP...a very long and illustrious career. at him finally retiring at 104.

I have a few of the old classic Shaw Brothers movies on VCD and Region 3 DVD. They are a good watch every now and then.

Brian T

Liza Wang's comments (in the SCMP) about Shaw building Hong Kong into "Hollywood East" couldn't be more apt. Japan may have had more technical and storytelling refinement during that era (and the eyes of the western critical elite), and Korea may have ultimately surpassed Hong Kong in populist output and gloss when they finally started swinging for overseas fences in '99, but for my money no Asian cinema ever came as close to emulating Hollywood's diversity and gamut of quality (not a bad thing) over the long haul as Hong Kong's did. Obviously, that wasn't just due to Run Run Shaw — the city enjoying ties to a massive global diaspora which other Asian industries lacked was an obvious boon — but he was certainly a guiding force. I suspect many will throw on one of his studio's martial arts shows in tribute, but if I were into doing that kind of thing, I'd just as likely reach for one of his many candy-coloured MGM-style musicals or compelling "social issue" films.

Solid Snake

Damn. I thought he had already passed. That man had a very nice career in the industry.

islandclaws

That is one helluva run.

Pun slightly intended.

Rypro 525

i didn't know he was a producer on Blade Runner

PhantomStranger

I love most of the classic kung fu movies produced by the Shaw Brothers. He made Hong Kong cinema into a real powerhouse.

Mondo Kane

Wow.

Is Raymond Chow still alive?

riotinmyskull

Solid Snake

He is.

Ash Ketchum

I remember submitting a review of a Shaw Bros. film to IMDB on the occasion of Shaw's 100th birthday in 2007.

I have most of the Shaw Bros. releases from Celestial Pictures. I need to watch something to commemorate this, preferably one of the costume epics like THE MAGNIFICENT CONCUBINE or EMPRESS WU. Those are beautiful.

He had quite an impressive run. As someone who's studied the careers of Hollywood moguls like Harry Cohn, Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn and Adolph Zukor, I have to say that Run Run Shaw outdid them all in most respects. Granted, I don't think Shaw ever made films that are as good as the best works generated by Warner or Goldwyn (e.g. CASABLANCA, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES), but I think the average Shaw Bros. film is on par, entertainment-wise, with the average Hollywood studio product of the Golden Age. I've seen a lot of mediocre Shaw films, but there's a high ratio of good-to-mediocre among the Shaw Bros. output.

I found this paragraph from the NY Times obit most interesting and am eager to hear the whole story:
The SCMP piece has an error:
I believe all his children were from his first wife, who died in 1987. He didn't marry Mona Fong until 1997, the year he turned 90!
(Mona Fong produced a lot of great Shaw Bros. kung fu films, most notably those directed by Lau Kar Leung.)

mrhan

I thought they both died a long time ago. Same with Kien Shih (Mr. Han) from ETD who died back in 2009 @ 96. Damn, these dudes lasted a long time.

Solid Snake

No shit? Damn. That WW2 bit is interesting. I'd also like to more about him in that period.

Ky-Fi

Yes, I think Shaws rarely hit the artistic peaks of the best of Hollywood, Europe or Japan, but they made a heck of a lot of very good, incredibly entertaining movies. As far as the martial arts movies go, in the 60's they were certainly influenced by samurai films, and even brought over Japanese cinematographers and other technical people to work on their films--but they didn't just copy the Japanese--they really brought in their own Chinese sensibilities to the films. The fights were longer and the choreography more intricate, and they had the obvious Peking Opera influence in the scenes which the Japanese didn't really have. I think Shaws really were a great example of a people being influenced by the films of other countries, but really using the medium to express their own cultural history and values.

I think I've got over 150 Shaw dvds, and the range and quality of their filmmaking is pretty impressive. They really broke a lot of new ground with various genres and subgenres, and there were a heck of a lot of very talented people working for that company at all levels.

Brooklyn

In the words of the immortal Slade, Run Run away.

Ringmaster

RIP. I love all the Shaw Bros. movies I've seen and he co-produced Blade Runner, so he'll be appreciated for that too.

Sex Fiend

Agree with all of the foregoing tributes. Love Shaw Bros films - always immensely entertaining and I never understood the condescension with which they were treated by mainstream American critics.

And 107 is a great run. RIP to Mr. Shaw.

mrhan

There was a mini series documentary released 10 years ago called Cinema of Hong Kong. It was a three part series and one of the ep. was called "The Beauties of Shaw Studios" It talked about movies they made outside of the Kung Fu genre. Really good doc if you can find it.

http://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1661...he-shaw-studio

caligulathegod

He has earned his rest. Thanks for the flicks.

Brian T

All three of those were excellent. It's a shame one of the American distributors of Shaw product didn't license those for inclusion as bonus features. Mind you, the "Shaw Beauties" doc probably wouldn't have found a home because martial arts kung fu martial arts.

At the time those came out, I hoped they might create additional documentaries exploring the wide range of genres covered by the studio rather than just pandering to the two genres with the farthest reach, particularly in North America (wuxia and kung fu), especially as the docs were barely seen or available here anyway. A documentary on the studio's fantastic musicals (both contemporary and Huangmei) would've been essential (and still would be), not to mention episodes illuminating their popular/populist comedies, horror shows, contemporary crime pictures and social issues films.

More interestingly, I think, around the same time those three docs hit DVD, IVL/Celestial also released a "Shaw Musicals" music video collection DVD (also VCD) featuring key numbers from both the classic Huangmei opera adaptations as well as the contemporary pop musicals. At one point, VCD versions of this item came shrinkwrapped with certain Shaw DVD editions. There was also an expanded two-disc "Shaw Music" CD collection released at the same time, featuring everything on the DVD plus several more gems. Both of these are little treasures in my collection.

I'd post links, but can't seem to find them online anymore, possibly because both may not have had English text on their packaging as they weren't really intended for non-Chinese audiences, and I'm not at home at the moment to confirm either way (or take pictures).

Brian T

Looks like another documentary will make it's debut on Hong Kong Celestial Classic Movies (a channel I'd kill for over here!) some time next week, Shaw Showcase: In Memory of Sir Run Run Shaw.
http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/cele...te-1201035844/
Considering that many of the stars launched by the studio are barely (or not even) into their golden years and are still actively working in the industry (and still looking good, to boot!) , it'll be interesting to see who makes an appearance!

Ash Ketchum

I remember that disc with musical clips. I forget which VCD it came with. What bothered me is that the clips weren't identified in English, so I had difficulty figuring out what films they came from. I probably have all those movies, too, since I made a point of acquiring the Shaw musicals.

Brian T

Yeah, pretty sure that's why it's so hard to Google in English -- I don't recall any English text on the package. Only the Shaw logo and the photos were the giveaway. I had better luck ID'ing the contemporary sequences than the classical opera films, though I'd probably score a better average if I saw if for the first time now. Again, not certain, but I think the DVD version had a karaeoke subtitle track in addition to the traditional Chinese subs, but no English. I also have the VCD version (possibly two), which came bound with one of the IVL DVDs; I'd imagine the subs are burned-in on that one.