El Rey Network Will Air Shaw Brothers Kung-Fu Classics Later This Year

I’ve said before that the El Rey Network is THE network to watch. What other channel can you watch The X-Files AND Mexican lucha libre? What other channel would put on a marathon of Godzilla movies? El Rey seriously won my heart a few weeks ago when they were promoting their Godzilla marathon and casually used the word “tokusatsu” like it was no big deal.

This year, they’re bound to get even better. Details are sparse, but El Rey will be airing well over 200 Shaw Brothers kung-fu movies starting this year, announced on their Facebook page.

Shaw Brothers Studio was founded by brothers Runje, Runme, and Runde Shaw and at one point were the largest film production company of Hong Kong. They produced over a thousand movies of varying genres, but they are commonly remembered for their vast library of kung-fu movies. The studio has an incredibly rich history, from originating in Chinese operas to producing the first Chinese sound-on-film talkie Spring on Stage (1931) to suffering setbacks during the Japanese occupation of World War II. From  the late ’60s and throughout the ’70s, the studio produced some of their most well-known kung-fu movies, including One-Armed Swordsman, Five Fingers of Death, and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, which yes, is what the Wu-Tang Clan named their first album from. My cousins grew up watching the 1982 classic Five Element Ninjas, which was released in the states as Chinese Super Ninjas.

In 1985 the studio ceased film production facing numerous problems, be it piracy or competition from Golden Harvest (who found success producing the 1973 international hit Enter the Dragon starring Bruce Lee). The studio attempted television in 1987 and returned to film in 2009, but their output was considerably smaller and movie releases farther in between; in 1979 they produced 37 feature films. In 2009, they only made one.

The studio’s last two films were the 2011 romantic comedies I Love Hong Kong and The Fortune Buddies before ceasing operations that year. Currently, the Shaw Brothers legacy lives on in the fans and in their deep library of genre movies, which are now owned by Hong Kong-based Celestial Pictures. I suspect it was through Celestial Pictures that El Rey got this kick-ass broadcasting deal.