Why Bruce Lee Never Made A Movie With The Biggest Kung Fu Studio

Why Bruce Lee Never Made A Movie With The Biggest Kung Fu Studio

Shaw Brothers was the biggest and most respected kung fu studio, but they never did work with the iconic Bruce Lee despite his stardom. Here’s why.

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Why Bruce Lee Never Made A Movie With The Biggest Kung Fu Studio

Despite being the top martial arts star in the industry, Bruce Lee never made a movie with Shaw Brothers, who were regarded as the kings of kung fu films. Instead, Bruce Lee made one movie with Warner Bros. and four with Shaw Brothers’ chief competitor in Hong Kong, Golden Harvest. Shaw Brothers, a giant in the martial arts genre, produced hundreds of kung fu movies from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. Most of their movies were costume period pieces filled with intense sword, spear, and hand-to-hand combat battles.

Their films contributed a great deal to the kung fu craze of the 1970s. They unfortunately faded away during the 1980s, but their legacy remains. Several of the most beloved kung fu movies of all time came from Shaw Brothers, including Come Drink With Me, The Five Deadly Venoms, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, and The One-Armed Swordsman. Much of the studio’s success was driven by the public’s interest in the genre, as well as an impressive number of high-profile stars, including Gordon Liu, Ti Lung, Alexander Fu Sheng, David Chiang, Cheng Pei-pei, the Venom Mob, and many more.

While Shaw Brothers had more kung fu stars at their disposal than any other studio ever, they lacked the most important one of them all: Bruce Lee. Lee never worked with Shaw Brothers, even though he was active during their heyday. That being said, that doesn’t mean the opportunity never came. Lee’s kung fu movie career started when he signed a two-movie contract with Golden Harvest and landed a role in The Big Boss, but he actually had negotiations with Shaw Brothers first. But they fell through because Bruce Lee wasn’t satisfied with the terms of the deal or the money they were willing to pay.

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With Shaw Brothers’ reputation, it’s not surprising they were his first choice, but they weren’t the only studio in the business of making kung fu movies. There was also Golden Harvest, a young company run by former Shaw Brothers executive Raymond Chow. At the time, Golden Harvest was far from the level of Shaw Brothers in terms of their money and popularity, but to help them get their feet off the ground, they were willing to play Lee what he wanted. Thanks in large part to Lee’s work with them, Chow’s company thrived for quite some time in the Hong Kong movie industry. They even managed to nab Jackie Chan away from Shaw Brothers, which means the studio missed out on not one, but both of the biggest names in kung fu movies.

As for Lee, it appears that even though he initially passed on working with Run Run Shaw, a deal was eventually reached for him to star in one of their costume period pieces (a kind of film Lee never got to be involved in). However, his death in July 1973 prevented this from ever happening. It would have been interesting to see what the movie would have been, or what would become of Lee’s career if he had joined Shaw Brothers’ assembly of stars. Looking at the high-quality, well-choreographed films they produced in the 1970s, a Bruce Lee-Shaw Brothers collaboration would have been fun to see.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/bruce-lee-no-shaw-brothers-movie-kung-fu/

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