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Shaw Brothers Classics Returning to Theaters

The American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) recently announced a partnership with Celestial Pictures to redistribute thirty new restorations of Shaw Brothers films to theaters this year. Founded in 1958, the Shaw Brothers Studio produced some of the best-loved and most influential martial arts titles in film history, including The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, King Boxer, The Five Venoms, and Come Drink with Me. “It’s a dream come true to help a new generation of film lovers discover the Shaw Brothers catalog,” said AGFA director Joe Ziemba in the organization’s press release. “These movies deserve a new life on the big screen.” A number of the films will be available to screen on 35mm in addition to DCP.

This is not the first time that the Shaw Brothers Studio has been linked to AGFA in the press. In 2009, the archive received a donation of nearly 200 prints of Shaw Brothers films found beneath the stage of a defunct movie theater in Vancouver. The remarkable collection had amassed organically – the result of the theater stashing film prints rather than paying to ship the heavy reels back to Hong Kong at the end of their theatrical runs. After the theater closed in 1985, the trove of films was forgotten and only rediscovered thanks to the efforts of the Portland, Oregon-based film programmer and film collector Dan Halsted who arranged for the collection to go to AGFA.

For a full list of the Shaw Brothers films slated for reissue in the coming year, consult the AGFA website.

Posted January 31, 2018.