Hong Kong's Celestial Pictures has signed a licensing agreement with Japan's King Records for distribution of more than 20 titles from its world-famous Shaw Brothers library.

Among the titles included in the deal are Hong Kong Nocturne, from Japanese director Inoeu Umetsugu who joined the Shaw Brothers studios in 1967; King Hu's Come Drink With Me; Taylor Wong's Behind The Yellow Line and The Mighty Peking Man, directed by Ho Meng-Hua. King will release the titles on both the VHS and DVD formats in Japan.

'Other than a glimpse at last year's Tokyo International Film Festival, these film treasures had not been released in any form [in Japan] since their original theatrical release,' said King CEO Takehisa Koike. 'We will make sure the films will be dubbed in Japanese or presented with Japanese subtitles in the best possible manner for the Japanese audience.'

Celestial also recently announced distribution deals for titles from the Shaw Brothers library with France's Wild Side Films and mainland China's Hong Xiang. The company also has licensing agreements in place with Miramax for North America and five other distributors across Asia.