Member Poelie Posted July 8, 2018 Member Share Posted July 8, 2018 Just a heads-up for those interested: there’s a new book “Ask for the Moon, Innovation at Shaw Brothers Studios” by Meredith Lewis. ‘In the 1960s Shaw Brothers Studios revolutionised martial arts filmmaking. Movie mogul Sir Run Run Shaw developed a way to churn out lavish blockbusters quickly and cheaply. An assembly line approach kept his filmmakers busy but access to an extraordinary pool of resources meant they could “ask for the moon”. This book is a case study exploring how a brilliant, driven entrepreneur and his audaciously creative filmmakers conducted a bold experiment in business and movie-making innovation.’ I just ordered this at askforthemoon.com.au and am looking forward to reading this! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted July 8, 2018 Member Share Posted July 8, 2018 (edited) Nice to see you back on the forum Poelie and thank you very much for this information. I hope that you'll let us know if this book is worth reading. Edited July 8, 2018 by ShawAngela Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Poelie Posted July 8, 2018 Author Member Share Posted July 8, 2018 Thank you and will do 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member teako170 Posted July 10, 2018 Member Share Posted July 10, 2018 Just ordered a copy. Thanks @Poelie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted July 10, 2018 Member Share Posted July 10, 2018 Do they use paypal ? I've been redirected to the French site that sells the book, but there is no information regarding the payment methods... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member teako170 Posted July 10, 2018 Member Share Posted July 10, 2018 15 minutes ago, ShawAngela said: Do they use paypal ? I've been redirected to the French site that sells the book, but there is no information regarding the payment methods... Try Lulus. Credit card and PayPal. And in English (lol). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted July 10, 2018 Member Share Posted July 10, 2018 Thanks. Yes, it's Lulu too here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member reason108 Posted July 11, 2018 Member Share Posted July 11, 2018 Interesting! Hope this is a good book with some quality info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member LuFengLover Posted July 14, 2018 Member Share Posted July 14, 2018 I also ordered a copy. If you are on Twitter, you can follow the author. She is @Futhoughts DangerMeredith. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member teako170 Posted July 19, 2018 Member Share Posted July 19, 2018 Got my copy today. Haven't had the chance to jump into it just yet. Happy to see the LHMC making it into the bibliography. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member masterofoneinchpunch Posted August 25, 2020 Member Share Posted August 25, 2020 (edited) second draft (well I keep editing it): “Analyzing the Shaw Brothers and their organizations requires that we draw from a whole range of theories that span a continuum of scales from the individual to the firm, the social-cultural, the state, and the global.” -- China Forever (2008) Edited by Poshek Fu Ask for the Moon: Innovation at Shaw Brothers Studios (2018) by Meredith Lewis This monograph is a lofty and worthy work of linking the seemingly disparate areas of the movie business, innovation, creativity with the Shaw Brothers Studio. This book specifically goes over the studio’s martial art films from the 1960s and 1970s in which the Shaw Brothers Studio influence on Hong Kong and global Chinese cinema was vast. It disrupted the local cinema of Hong Kong, even pushed the non-local language of Mandarin over the local dialect of Cantonese. It is hard to overestimate the influence. Seen Kill Bill? Quentin Tarantino can speak for hours about the studio’s martial art films. But the studio as a vast empire ended in with both the death of Runme Shaw and when it leased its circuits to D&B in 1985 (though you will occasionally see its name on films). What was the impetus for the fall? What failures in innovation caused this decline? Could some of these reasons be both the cause of its success and failure? This monograph gives salient reasons on these questions. The book starts with a simple and succinct history of the studio. The next chapter discusses the framework (I enjoy Jim Collins writing on this topic; it also reminds me as an important aspect of Niall Ferguson’s Civilization where frameworks can be both a boon and a bust for very large entities) of the Shaw Brothers. Then there is a chapter dedicated to Run Run Shaw, the most famous and most cinematically important of the Shaw Brothers. In film studies his should be a household name. In business studies his should also be a household name. There are three chapters dedicated to the most famous of their martial art directors: Chang Cheh, Chor Yuen and Lau Kar-leung. If you are not familiar with these directors than this book becomes even more important to have as this studio helped foster some of their most important work (I do think Chang Cheh might have done well outside of Shaws if he left when he was healthy and when given free reign Lau Kar-leung would be excellent as well). These were the directors who could ask for the moon and receive it from the studio (as long as it was on time and under budget). These are the directors, analogous to John Ford, that could work well and even innovate within a strict studio system. Then there are examples of the innovators that Shaws could not keep (King Hu) or land (Bruce Lee) that possibly led to the premature demise of the studio. I do not think King Hu could have ever fit well within the studio. It is analogous to Jean Renoir or Luis Buñuel working in Hollywood, they just worked best outside of an overly rigorous factory system. I completely agree with her that the “alienation of [Leonard] Ho and [Raymond] Chow” are top among the mistakes of that studio for it lead to Golden Harvest, which led to Bruce Lee going to Golden Harvest, which led the Hui Brothers going to Golden Harvest. Michael Hui is vastly underrated today even though he was insanely popular in the 1970s and would out-box office Bruce Lee. He too started off at Shaw Brothers. As always, I do have a few minor comments and critiques. I am wary of the use of the term Kung Fu in this book, which while the Cantonese definition of 功夫 is martial technique which can be applied to many areas, in the cinematic lexicon it tends to define the open-handed technique of martial arts while wuxia (武俠); tends to point to sword-fighting films especially in what is known as the jianghu (江湖, literally rivers and lakes but is an idiom meaning the martial art world especially for wuxia films). Also Kwan Tak-hing was doing kung fu films earlier than Chang Cheh. Since the majority of Shaw Brothers films are not martial arts, I would love to read a book on how these movies collaborated to the rise and fall of the studio. Especially the rise and fall of Huangmei Diao (operatic; The Love Eterne), the comedies (Winner Takes All), melodramas (Madam Slender Plum), crime (The Big Holdup (Chor Yuen)), the spy thrillers (The Golden Buddha), and the horror, the horror films (seriously watch The Boxer’s Omen). I would have loved some discussion on certain auteurs like Sun Chung (The Deadly Breaking Sword) and I think it still could have been in scope of the discussion. I would love an index for this book. This is easily a book worth adding to your cinematic literature, especially if you are into Hong Kong cinema. There is a dearth of books on the Shaw Brothers, and this was a fun and informative read. Both Planet Hong Kong (Second Edition) by David Bordwell and the book of essays on the Shaw Brothers China Forever: the Shaw Brothers and Diasporic Cinema edited by Poshek Fu are two of the bigger influences on this book and should also be part of your collection if they are not. I would add The Shaw Screen: A Preliminary Study (Hong Kong Film Archive) too. Lewis writes with a sagacious wit, opines well (there will always be disagreements, I am a bigger Bruce Lee fan then her) and is a fluid writer. I like the illustrations from Rebecca L. Stewart. Most important, you will have a better understanding of a production studio that was once one of the biggest in Asia and one of the most important. Edited August 26, 2020 by masterofoneinchpunch 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Poelie Posted August 31, 2020 Author Member Share Posted August 31, 2020 (edited) Nice review. I liked it too. However, I would have liked it even better if the author had contacted/interviewed some Shaw people, as long as they are alive... Her research is based on existing sources. Still worth it, though. Edited August 31, 2020 by Poelie 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member masterofoneinchpunch Posted August 31, 2020 Member Share Posted August 31, 2020 26 minutes ago, Poelie said: Nice review. I liked it too. However, I would have liked it even better if the author had contacted/interviewed some Shaw people, as long as they are alive... Her research is based on existing sources. Still worth it, though. Did you disagree with anything of hers? NOTE: the author did retweet my review but I have no idea if she read the review. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member massa_yoda Posted August 31, 2020 Member Share Posted August 31, 2020 Based on the positive reviews here, I went ahead and purchased this. It’s already on the way! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Poelie Posted September 2, 2020 Author Member Share Posted September 2, 2020 On 8/31/2020 at 10:41 PM, masterofoneinchpunch said: Did you disagree with anything of hers? NOTE: the author did retweet my review but I have no idea if she read the review. Sorry, can’t remember the specifics. It’s been a while since I read it. I do remember that I wasn’t too impressed with the illustrations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Shaolin Patriot Posted July 28, 2023 Member Share Posted July 28, 2023 I certainly enjoyed reading the book. The author herself will be featured in an upcoming Shout! Factory blu-ray release (Shaw Brothers Classics Vol. 2). She'll be featured on disc 7 of the 12 disc set. Looking forward to it! Shaw Brothers Classics Vol. 2 An Iron Will - Meredith Lewis, Author of Ask For The Moon: Innovation At Shaw Brothers Studios, A 77-Minute Documentary On the Genesis, Rise, Peak And Fall Of The Shaw Brothers Movie Empire 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member teako170 Posted August 3, 2023 Member Share Posted August 3, 2023 On 7/28/2023 at 3:44 PM, Shaolin Patriot said: I certainly enjoyed reading the book. The author herself will be featured in an upcoming Shout! Factory blu-ray release (Shaw Brothers Classics Vol. 2). She'll be featured on disc 7 of the 12 disc set. Looking forward to it! Shaw Brothers Classics Vol. 2 An Iron Will - Meredith Lewis, Author of Ask For The Moon: Innovation At Shaw Brothers Studios, A 77-Minute Documentary On the Genesis, Rise, Peak And Fall Of The Shaw Brothers Movie Empire That should be a very interesting extra. I've spoken with Meredith in the past and this is something to look forward to. I also just saw that old KFF alumni venoms5 has recorded a half dozen audio commentaries - wow! He's a knowledgeable Shaw fan, so those should provide some nice incites. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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