Update: I have written a book about Shaw Brothers Studios called Ask for the Moon. It features illustrations by Rebecca Stewart. You can find out more about the book here or buy it here. I am quite addicted to martial arts fu movies, which is odd when you consider that I hate violence. But when…
Interview on Bedrock Games Podcast
Recently I was interviewed for the Bedrock Gaes podcast...
Why ‘Ask for the Moon’?
I have been neglecting this blog because I have been busy researching, writing, and now promoting a book on Shaw Brothers called Ask for the Moon. Check out the blog I wrote about it.
“The good thing about working for big studios was that you got classy, quality support. Even if you asked for the moon, they could get the moon for you, which was amazing.”
~ Shaw Brothers Studios director Chor Yuen
Someone recently asked me why I called my book Ask for the Moon.
Cover design by Rebecca Stewart
Ask for the Moon is part film criticism, part history, part musings on the nature of innovation. It describes a daring adventure in filmmaking, both creatively and in terms of business and production models. Entrepreneurialism, as demonstrated with such flair by producers Run Run and Runme Shaw, and martial arts movie making, as demonstrated with equal flair by the likes of filmmakers like Lau Kar Leung and Chor Yuen and others, might seem like odd bedfellows, but at Shaw Brothers these two seemingly disparate things came together in a venture that saw benchmarking…
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“The good thing about working for big studios was that you got classy, quality support. Even if you asked for the moon, they could get the moon for you, which was amazing.” ~ Shaw Brothers Studios director Chor Yuen. “Strange things happen in the night fog. This is ‘Moonlit Sky’, a well-known scenic place by […]…
Donnie says: “This is action filmmaking”
Since March 2016, around the edges of my day job, I have been writing a book about Shaw Brothers studios and some of their directors, framed against the theme of innovation. As you can imagine, this has been a lot of hard work but also highly enjoyable. It has been particularly interesting to track down…
‘Monkey’ – Kung Fu Movie Podcast
Hello dear reader! I see that the last blog I posted was 3 April. Yikes! I have sort of been caught out, with my lack of blogging progress this year now being highlighted, but in the very best and nicest way, by the Kung Fu Movie Guide's latest podcast. The reason for this is that…
How Princess iron Fan Burnt Down the Heavenly Gate (1959)
You can find a list of cast and crew on the Hong Kong Movie Database here. This old black and white film hasn’t aged well, I am afraid – compared to the lively and lovely animations of the Wan Brothers about the same set of characters, and compared to the live action kung fu films…
The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven (1961, 1964)
Mainland China. Directed by Wan Laiming (Northsiders in Melbourne:) available to loan from City of Darebin Libraries, Everyone else: can be bought on YESASIA. Made by the same brothers who made Princess Iron Fan in 1941, this film features absolutely beautiful animation – the colours are glorious and the shapes and lines are graceful and…
Princess Iron Fan (Mainland China, 1941)
I dutifully watched this old animated film revolving around the Journey to the West stories about Princess Iron Fan in the interests of research, allowing for the fact that the film is so very old and such an early example of animation from Asia*. Before watching I assumed that I would find the film dated and that I…
In the worlds before Monkey, primal chaos reigned…
“The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!” Remember the Japanese TV show ‘Monkey’? Did you know that it was an adaptation of an ancient classical Chinese novel; or that the story has been remade oodles of time as Chinese Opera, theatre, animation and kung fu movies? I am working on a talk about this most enduring…
My new project: Journey to the West
“Dangerous Meredith’s rapturous rant about cult classic Monkey Magic…” So raves a small part of a promotional blurb about an event being held at the end of February at which I am pledged to give a talk. Some long time and very dear friends are organising this event. Over the years they have been exposed,…
Fu Thoughts 