22 October 2010

shaw brothers buying guide.


Many of us love Kung-Fu movies, and if you’re like me you have a particular affinity for the infamous Shaw Brothers Studios. Unfortunately, for years the picture quality of these movies was terrible. This is because SB never released or licensed their films for home viewing- NO officially released VHS, Laserdisc or DVD ever. Until recently.

Around 2004 a film company out of Singapore named Celestial Pictures bought the entire back catalog of SB and began re-mastering the bulk of them. Not limited to the Kung-Fu and swordplay films so many of us love, but also the opera, romance, horror and drama produced by SB. Celestial painstakingly restored 760 films for DVD release with many now available. Here are some notes on finding and buying the right ones.