Asian Film Awards to Honor Raymond Chow
Mr. Chow’s storied film career began at the legendary Shaw Brothers studio in 1958, first in publicity and then as head of production. He left in 1970 to co-found with Leonard Ho, Golden Harvest, a movie production and distribution company that became synonymous with Hong Kong cinema’s golden era. Mr. Chow retired in 2007.
“It is unimaginable to think of Hong Kong motion pictures today without Raymond Chow,” said Wilfred Wong, chairman of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, which organizes the awards, in a statement. “It is through him that our talents became international superstars, and it is through him that Hong Kong martial-arts films became world-wide classics,” Mr. Wong said. “Throughout Asia and beyond, his imprint on cinema is indisputable.”
Stars such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan helped make Golden Harvest the leading Hong Kong film company in the 1970s and 1980s with a string of box-office hits. In the mid-1970s, Mr. Chow and Golden Harvest ventured into foreign productions with Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” (1973), a Hong Kong-Hollywood co-production, and “The Man from Hong Kong” (1975), a Hong Kong-Australia film starring Jimmy Wang Yu as James Bond-type character.
Enter The Dragon (1973 Trailer)
I grew up with these movies and they inspired me to take Tae Kwon Do!
A very popular miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain in 1980 was “Shogun” and just like everyone else, I couldn’t get enough of it! It is more important than ever to learn about and to preserve the history of Japan. It is incredibly fascinating!
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Another great one is “The Man from Hong Kong” (1975) if you are a James Bond fan like I am! The action adventure scenes in this movie blow away the scenes in the special effects movies of today! I will never forget a scene in a Bond movie where a speeding car drove sideways down a narrow alleyway as a child. It blew my mind!