Cinema Hong Kong

Cinema Hong Kong is worth noting as a three-part documentary series shown on US TV's Discovery Channel. Screened in 2003, it was written and directed by Ian Wright, whose only other IMDb credit is as a cameo actor in a low-budget US pizza-horror movie. The segment with the widest audience appeal in the US was issued separately with the ghastly title Chop:Socky.

The three areas covered, from the 60s and 70s primarily, are the kung fu and wu xia (sword-fighting/martial arts) genres and the female star "Beauties" of Shaw Brothers' golden years. Focusing as it does on Run Run Shaw and his studio's movies, and never ever mentioning Raymond Chow and Golden Harvest, the documentary series can be identified almost surely as a Shaw PR project to promote the company's re-mastering and re-issue of some of the 800 films deteriorating in its library.

Nevertheless, self-promotion for Shaw (whose key producer, his brother Runme, is also never mentioned) is relatively muted, and the commentary clearly suggests that Shaw (now over a century old) was an all-powerful and manipulative studio boss as well as a production and marketing genius. Many former contract stars (such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li), directors (including John Woo) and fight choreographers provide concise interview comments that amplify the well-scripted well-read never-mispronounced commentary. A personal favourite is the director who recalls one day of working on different sets for eight features he was making.

There are many fascinating details, from Hong Kong movie pioneering techniques (such as "in camera editing") to snippets of star news (Bruce Lee in a US TV interview) and gossip (the early deaths of various stars seeming like eerie precursors of the next generation of similar tragedies).