Celestial Pictures has signed a home video distribution deal with Movie Master for the DVD release of more than 500 films from Shaw Brothers film library in Malaysia over five years.

The titles include Justice, My Foot and Out of the Dark starring Stephen Chow and the Casino Tycoon series starring Andy Lau as well as martial arts classics such as Come Drink With Me and One-Armed Swordsman.

Movie Master is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Speedy Video Distribution, which owns more than 60 Speedy Video outlets across Malaysia. Speedy Video Distribution also owns two subsidiaries, Alliance Entertainment Malaysia which is the sole home entertainment licensee for Warner Bros, and Movie Magic, the sole distributor of Fox and MGM.

Separately, Celestial Pictures has inked an exclusive home video deal with South Africa's Sandon Associates for the launch of Shaw Brothers film library to eight African countries for the first time.

A package of Shaw Brothers martial-arts titles will be available in VHS, VCD and DVD formats in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The package consists of the work by pioneering Hong Kong filmmakers such as Chang Cheh, Liu Chia-Liang and Chu Yuan.

Sandon Associates was set up by Michael Woolf Sand in 1978. The company owns various entertainment labels, including Cinema Gems, TV Gems, Kids Gems, Video Gems, New Viking, New Viking TV, New Viking Video and Sandon Entertainment.

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