[2014.01.08] LAW KAR: STUDIO BECAME A FACTOR FOR BOTH SHAW SUCCESS AND FAILURE

The Shaw studio in 1968

Shaw ruled the Southeast Asia film industry from the 50s to the 70s.  In 1975 Sir Run Run Shaw sat on the dragon chair and posed with Shaw stars like Wong Yue, Elliot Yuen and Ku Feng.

Sir Run Run Shaw and his third brother Shaw Yan Mui (four left) founded Shaw Brothers.  Shaw Yan Mui came to observe Shaw businss in 1966 and met artists (left) Yang Fan, Lily Ho, Chow Do-Ven, Raymond Chow, Essie Lin and Jenny Hu

Mr. (third left) and Mrs. Shaw (second right) visited the the Universal Studio in 1960s.  Universal arranged for a Run Run Shaw special.  Then studio president's wife (second left) guided the tour

Nora Miao, Raymond Chow and Bruce Lee
courtesy of mingpao.com

The entertainment tycoon of a generation Sir Run Run Shaw (Siu Yat Fu) had a connection to film since childhood. With his sharp film senses he successfully created a film kingdom. Veteran film researcher Law Kar dissected the Shaw development journey in an interview. He pointed out that Siu Yat Fu went to try his luck in Singapore and Malaysia early on, was responsible for film distribution and built a good foundation. With his unique insight in the 1950s he followed the Hollywood studio format to build a film kingdom that truly belonged to him and made many critical and commercial hit films. He began the Huangmeidiao and new style martial art hero film fever. However the studio's massive operation burden was weighted on Shaw. With Golden Harvest threatening it lost talent repeatedly and declined. Law Kar felt that despite Shaw's success and failure, Uncle Six's contribution to Hong Kong film cannot be harmed.

In 1923, Siu Yat Fu's brother Siu Yan Kit was rather interested in Chinese opera. With his family's support he sold the dye shop to operate the "Laughter Stage" theater. The brothers together founded a film business. The Shaw Brothers in 1925 founded the "Tianyi" film company. Siu Yat Fu and his third brother Yan Mui were responsible for distribution. Tianyi's development gradually got on track as Siu Yat Fu and Siu Yan Mui left Shanghai to try their luck in Singapore and Malaysia, where they opened an amusement park and a cinema, gradually building their enormous film entertainment business and founding the "Shaw Company" in Singapore.

Law Kar pointed out that Uncle Six and his third brother Siu Yan Mui in the 20s were assigned to be "trailblazers" in Singapore and Malaysia to distribute films. He was rumored to ride bicycle and carry films to cinemas in big cities and small towns. That experience built a good foundation for his future of building a film kingdom in Hong Kong.

In the early 30s, the world economy was in a depression. Siu Yat Fu suggested to purchase recording equipment from overseas to coordinate with film screening and brought Chinese film from silent films into the new sound century. Shaw produced in Hong Kong the first Cantonese film with sound WHITE GOLD DRAGON (BAK GUM LUNG) with famous opera star couple Sit Hok Sin and Tong Suet Hing and caused quite a stir. Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong built the Tianyi Hong Kong Studio. Originally it was smooth sailing, during World War II half the studio was burnt down. The Japanese military arrested Siu Yat Fu under the charge of "making anti Japanese films" and sent to prison for 7 days.

Law Kar said, Uncle Six loved film very much. "He kept on watching movies, studying where their selling points were and knew the market could accept what genre of films." After WWII, Siu Yat Fu in the 50s came to Hong Kong from Singapore and step by step built his film kingdom. In 1957, the 50 year old Siu Yat Fu founded the Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) and served as the president. At the same time he bought land in Clearwater Bay to build the Shaw House.

Law Kar said that Siu Yat Fu came to Hong Kong in the 50s, followed the Hollywood studio format and built the Shaw House. Because he was able to fully control production, his unique insight came to great use as he was able to make a massive amount of critical and commercial hit films.

However, the studio format lacked flexibility. "Keeping a large group of actors on long term payroll", the cost was hefty and was also one of the reasons behind Shaw's later slide. Shaw's studio format from top to bottom completely relied on whether the operator decision was correct; when Chow Man Wai first founded Golden Harvest he permitted starting from the bottom. Thus he was able to successfully land Bruce Lee, Hui Brothers, and later Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung Kam Bo. They made Golden Harvest gradually stronger and replaced Shaw's position."

According to rumors, back then Michael Hui Koon Man was unsuccessful in negotiating profit sharing with Shaw and thus went to Golden Harvest. However he said that he chose Golden Harvest because Sam Hui Koon Kit has already signed with Golden Harvest. He has never tried to sell GAMES GAMBLERS PLAY (GWAI MA SEUNG SING) to Uncle Six.

The Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers chief Ng See Yuen felt Siu Yat Fu's passing was very regrettable. He praised Siu Yat Fu as a Hong Kong film industry giant who made great contributions to the film industry, made many good films, cultivated many workers, directors and actors. For example Golden Harvest's Chow Man Wai and famous martial art director Lau Kar Leung both came from Shaw. He felt that Siu Yat Fu built a solid foundation for Hong Kong film.

Siu Yat Fu single-handedly created the Shaw film kingdom and became the dream factory tycoon. Uncle Six always had the principle of "customers always comes first". He absolutely would not make movies that viewers disliked and even burnt "bad" films. Thus he won the gold painted plaque of "Shaw Release, Good Film Guarantee". Later Uncle Six's subordinate Raymond Chow Man Wai resigned and started his own company Golden Harvest, they became rivals. Shaw missed out on talent many times like Bruce Lee and the Hui Brothers, leading to its slide in the middle 1970 as it gradually reduced production.

Shaw built the Shaw Film City in Clearwater Bay. It was like the "Eastern Hollywood" as it made almost 800 films, dominated the Southeast Asian film industry for decades and won numerous honors. In 1958 the Linda Lin Dai starred, Lee Han Hsiang directed DIAU CHARN won 5 awards at the 5th Asia Film Festival like Best Actress and Best Director; in 1959 THE KINGDOM AND THE BEAUTY (GONG SAN MEI YUN) won the 6th Asia Film Festival Best Picture.

The mid 60s was Shaw's peak, with its numerous famous directors and stars. In 1963, LOVE ETERNE (LEUNG SAN BAK YU JOOK YING TOI) broke box office records in Hong Kong and Taiwan and started a Huangmeidiao opera film fever. In 1966, the King Hu (Wu Kam Chuen) directed COME DRINK WITH ME (DAI JUI HUP) began the actor driven masculine genre; the next year, the Chang Cheh directed ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN (DUK BEI DOH) made over HK$1 million at the box office. It symbolized the start of the new style martial art trend.

In 1972, Lee Han Hsiang returned to Shaw. In 1975 he made THE EMPRESS DOWAGER (KING GOK KING SING), which was Shaw's final epic. Later Shaw went international, in 1973 with KING BOXER (TIN HA DAI YUT KUEN) it broke into the American film market; in 1978 the Shaw Brothers invested US$16 million in Hollywood to make METEOR with Sean Connery, Natalie Wood and Henry Fonda.

In April 1970, Chow Man Wai left Shaw to found the Golden Harvest film company and made handsome offers to director Lo Wei and Bruce Lee. With their first film THE BIG BOSS (TONG SAN DAI HING) the company made a name for itself and also made Bruce Lee an overnight success; the second film FIST OF FURY (JING MO MOON) set Hong Kong film industry box office record. Then WAY OF THE DRAGON (MANG LUNG GOR GONG) even successfully broke into the international film scene and launched Golden Harvest into the stratosphere. Shaw missed out on talent numerous times and in mid 70s began to slide as it gradually reduced production. Chow Man Wai and Siu Yat Fu professionally were like fire and water, but Chow Man Wai once said in an interview, "I have never thought of him as an enemy. Without Siu Yat Fu, there would be no Chow Man Wai."

Siu Yat Fu has been passionate about helping education. Over the years he donated at least 610 million to various universities and many building constructions. In 1986 he even built Shaw College in the Chinese University. According to the China Education Ministry, Siu Yat Fu donated over HK$4.75 billion to Mainland education, 6,013 construction projects that reached all over the country. Many Mainland universities, high schools and elementary schools all had the Shaw name on their buildings. Friends of Siu Yat Fu pointed out that Siu Yat Fu believed that the nation had to rely on education to be strong and wealth. Thus over the years he contributed money and effort to Chinese education.

In 1980 various Hong Kong universities lacked funding for expansion. Siu Yat Fu's major donations came to the right place at the right time. The Shaw College's second head Yeung Yue-Man revealed that Siu Yat Fu in the 80s was on the Chinese University board and was familiar with university head Ma Lin. At the time the 3 colleges of Chinese University were all full. Ma Lin invited Siu Yat Fu to visit Chinese University and praised the location for its beautiful scenery and good fengshui. "If someone would donate money to build a fourth college, it would be built here." Siu Yat Fu two days later called Ma Lin and said, "If I can help the university and help Hong Kong, I am very willing." Finally he donated 110 million to build the Shaw College.

Siu Yat Fu in his 80s was still passionate about helping education. Every year through the Chinese University invitation he sponsored Mainland educational organization representatives to share their experience in and learn from Hong Kong. He also invited them to dinners and chats at his mansion, watch movies at his personal cinema. He did not act like a big shot at all.

Siu Yat Fu 10 years ago even established the "Eastern Nobel" prize, the Shaw Prize. So far around HK$240 million have been rewarded to honor 54 scientists from around the world. 7 of them after receiving the Shaw Prize won Nobel prizes. The Shaw Award council member Kenneth Young said that Siu respected scholar and expert opinions very much, which made the Shaw Prize very renowned in academia. It served an important purpose.

Born and raised in Zhejiang, Siu Yat Fu after succeeding did not forget about building Mainland China. Starting in 1985 he through his fund made donations to the Mainland to build educational facilities and hospital development. According to the Chinese education ministry, Siu Yat Fu donated over HK$4.75 million to Mainland education on 6013 projects. Currently many Mainland universities, high schools and elementary schools had the name Shaw on their buildings.

The Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong chair and the Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry Association chief Hung Cho Sing said that over 30 years ago he met Siu Yat Fu through his son. Because both were Hong Kong film professionals, they became familiar very quickly. Hung even went to the Mainland with Siu Yat Fu every year to visit the Shaw Fund constructed schools. Hung Cho Sing said, every September Siu Yat Fu would take about 40 friends to the Mainland. Every trip would visit two to three provinces and countless schools. Many were built in the poor and remote mountain regions. He kept up with this habit for over 20 years. He also said that Siu was very happy each time he visited a school. He not only visited the buildings and teaching facilities but also chatted with teachers and students.

Hung Cho Sing recalled, Siu Yat Fu said to him more than once that for a nation to be rich and strong cultivating talent was the most important. Young people had to study, had to have culture to be able to strengthen the nation. Thus he made long term donations to Mainland education facility constructions. The goal of his assistance was not just Hong Kong but the entire China.

Aside from education, Siu Yat Fu also made many contributions to Mainland medicine. For example in the 90s he donated to build the Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Last year he also donated money to the Zhejiang University to build the Sir Run Run Shaw Medical center and Medical Science Research Center.