With production values that were uniformly several notches above the majority of Asian studios and a willingness to go after the genre markets with gusto - if not abandon - Shaw Brothers pictures came to epitomize what many U.S. The studio took an extended break from feature films between 19, during which time they concentrated instead on cranking out all manner of television programming, yet it's their Golden Age output of the '70s and '80s which brought the company most of its international fame. Eventually, in 1958, the brothers Shaw assumed control of a related Hong Kong-based film production business, and the rest, as they say, is history.įrom 1958 through 1987, Shaw Brothers Studio cranked out more than 1,000 (yes, you read that right) feature films in a wide variety of genres, from historical martial arts epics to hard-boiled detective stories to contemporary romances to slapstick comedies to horror and sci-fi B-movies. Way back in 1925, brothers Runje, Runme and Runde Shaw started a film production company in Shanghai (they'd release Hong Kong's first sound motion picture in 1934), which eventually led to a movie distribution firm in Singapore that also boasted their youngest male sibling Run Run Shaw in a management capacity. No? Think a bit harder, and they may strike a chord.

Shaw brothers films