Golden Harvest Volume 2: Shining Stars
Explore More
■ Golden HarvestGolden Harvest, other otherwise known now as Orange Sky Golden Harvest (OSGH) is a Hong Kong film production company from 1970 to 2009. It dominated cinema box office sales from the 1970s to the 1980s, and played a major role in introducing Hong Kong action films to the world, especially those by Bruce Lee (Concord Production Inc.), Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Sammo Hung.
■ Shaw BrothersShaw Brothers was a legendary Hong Kong film studio, run by the Shaw family (especially Run Run Shaw), famous for its prolific output and pioneering the global popularity of martial arts (kung fu) films, operating like a factory with in-house stars and massive sets at its “Movietown” studio, creating iconic films like The One-Armed Swordsman and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, influencing cinema worldwide from the 1960s to the 1980s before shifting focus to television
By now you know that I love Shaw Brothers, but I am clueless when it comes to Golden Harvest (the competition), outside of the Bruce Lee films. I’m not sure why, but when I was growing up, I don’t think Golden Harvest films were distributed or available to me.
I’m happy to say that thanks to Shout Factory, who is releasing these Golden Harvest classic films – and giving me an education when it comes to the diversity of Golden Harvest.
So far, there are only two volumes of Golden Harvest – Part 1 is “Supernatural Shockers”, which are Category III (Adult) Hong Kong films. In my brief review, it simply came down to that I did not enjoy them, because they are just too sleezy and not my cup of tea.
Golden Harvest Volume 2: Shining Stars is something up my alley – only it’s not really. Let me explain, I love the classic Kung Fu movies of the 70s and 80s – there is a certain style associated with them. While Shining Stars contains two “classic” Kung Fu films – namely The Skyhawk (1974) and Shaolin Boxers (1974), they are too far few in this set.
I thought “The Skyhawk” (Wong Fei-hung) storyline was very similar to Bruce Lee’s “The Big Boss”. I had trouble loading up “Shaolin Boxers” (my computer disc player wouldn’t recognize it). I had trouble on my Xbox player too, but eventually it would load. There’s just something wrong with my copy of the film.
The rest of the set includes two Jet Li films: The Master (1992) and Hitman (1998). The “Hitman” is too “modern” for my taste… and “The Master” takes place in modern America (1992). Checking into it, but I used to own “The Master” on DVD, but I may have lost it during my move to Jacksonville. Still, there’s a little too much comedy in “The Master”, as Jet Li plays a naïve/fish-out-of-water character in America and fighting gangs and their masters. I really like the white girl (Anne Rickets) in the film.
More “modern” films include Chuck Norris’ Slaughter in San Francisco (1974) and Brandon Lee (Bruce Lee’s son) in Legacy of Rage (1986). As much as I like Chuck Norris, I never understood why the Hong Kong market idolizes him (pitting him against Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon). The same can be said for China O’Brien, who had a massive career in Hong Kong. As for Brandon Lee, he was just following his father’s footstep and becoming a shining star in his own right. Sadly, his life was cut short when a prop gun killed him while filming The Crow in 1993, at the age of 28.
The two films that I have no idea and have absolutely no interest in seeing are Beach of the War Gods (1973) and When Taekwondo Strikes (1973). “Beach of the War Gods” looks too epic and too fantasy for my taste… and “Taekwondo” just sounds too Japanese or Korean, as a Kung Fu-enthusiast like myself to enjoy. Although reading the description, I think “Taekwondo” might be really good.
As far as I know, there are no immediate plans to release any more Golden Harvest film. From what I understand, Should Factory only license 14 GH films, and they are all released within the two Volumes. If they decide to release more Golden Harvest, I just hope they concentrate on the Kung-Fu films of the 70s and 80s.
I feel like there are not enough fans or demands for the Harvest stuff, unlike the Shaw Brothers, which are well into Volume 8 (that’s like nearly 100 Shaw Brothers films if you collected all the previous volumes). I own up to Volume 5, and am waiting for the rest of those Shaw Brothers to drop in prices.