With its experience in successfully marketing films to overseas Chinese communities, Shaw Brothers was key in making the Hong Kong cinema a truly international phenomenon. Although many people still identify the studio with the great martial arts epics presented in Heroic Grace, in fact the Shaws produced work in a wide variety of genres, including adaptations of huangmei opera films, such as The Love Eterne and The Kingdom and the Beauty, among the most popular titles ever produced by the studio.

As a complement to Heroic Grace II — a series that itself features several Shaw Brothers titles —we decided to bring back a few of the most popular titles from our own 2004 tribute to Shaw Brothers, presented as a sidebar to the 2004 New York Film Festival. Join us for this brief reprise of some of Hong Kong cinema's most enduring classic films.