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Movie mogul Run Run Shaw, 107, dies in HK

By Raymond Zhou ( China Daily ) Updated: 2014-01-08 08:14:22

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Studio system

Timeline: Shaw and his empire

Movie mogul Run Run Shaw, 107, dies in HK

Shaw remembered for his pioneering work in cinema

Top 10 films by Run Run Shaw

Shaw followed a studio system that employed talent at a time when the Hollywood studio system was disintegrating and beginning to use agency-based talent. He signed long-term contracts with newcomers, but refused to let them share the profits from huge hits. This strategy helped him to control costs but was also the cause of major talents, such Li Han-hsiang, leaving him - after Li had found fame. Shaw sued, but when Li failed to launch his own film business in Taiwan, Shaw took him back, a move uncharacteristic of Chinese employers.

As the global film industry moved away from the rigid employment system, Shaw's way of doing things resulted in missed opportunities and the loss of many talented individuals. When Bruce Lee returned to Hong Kong to begin his film career, he approached Shaw first and asked for $10,000 for a picture. Shaw wanted to reduce the actor's fee by 75 percent, and he was offended that an untested newcomer had the chutzpah to name his own price. In an about turn, Lee joined another studio, Golden Harvest, which had just been founded by Raymond Chow, a long-time Shaw lieutenant. The rest is history.

Shaw had lured Chow from journalism in 1959, and groomed him to be his right-hand man. However, when Shaw hired Mona Fong, a singer popular in Southeast Asia at the time, Chow sensed he was being sidestepped. He founded Golden Harvest in 1970 and quickly became Shaw's biggest competitor. While working for Shaw, Chow's laissez-faire management style provided an antidote to Shaw's more hands-on approach and was more in line with the trend for so-called independent productions.

In the 1970s, Shaw enjoyed bouts of successes, such as Li Han-hsiang's erotic genre and historical movies set during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Generally, though, Shaw's film business was going downhill, and market share shrank from 60 percent in the company's heyday to just 10 percent. The film production unit all but folded in the mid-1980s, only producing the occasional film every few years.

Hong Kong's film industry enjoyed one more decade of boom and glory, but Shaw was not part of it. However, Shaw Brothers made news in 2000 when it sold a film library containing almost 800 titles to Celestial Pictures for $84 million. Celestial digitally refurbished the movies and released them via channels such as DVD and television.