The San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting piece up right now that looks at how Kung Fu Hustle in specific and the movie industry in general owes a debt of gratitude to the work of the Shaw Brothers. There’s also a short history of their studio and movies, talk of how they influenced more than just movie making and a little information on upcoming remakes and reissues.

The Shaw Brothers (SB) virtually defined Hong Kong cinema in the 1960s and ’70s, and not just through its own media empire, but also as a result of the rebellions it spurred — most notably Golden Harvest studios (which, started by two SB managers, wooed Bruce Lee away and also launched Jackie Chan’s career). SB’s influence has rippled all the way to Hollywood through its protégés (such as John Woo) and fans (Quentin Tarantino among them), who in turn have forever changed the way action looks on screen. Its sensibility infused blaxploitation, which adopted the themes of the common man fighting his oppressors, and its aesthetic style found its way into American pop culture — rap stars like the Wu-Tang Clan and the Five Venoms took names and sampled dialogue straight from the Hong Kong movies.

“The Shaw Brothers are the missing link or the Dead Sea scrolls of Asian cinema,” says Ric Meyers, author of “Great Martial Arts Movies.” “Imagine if the Warner Bros. studios or MGM, the creators of the greatest musical and gangster films, put their movies in a library and did not release them for the next 20 years. The history of American cinema would have been changed, because [filmmakers and audiences] would not have been able to see them for comparison.”

Full article here.

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