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Why flop movie Shatter is a perfect 1970s Hong Kong time capsule
Shatter, featuring Peter Cushing, Lily Li and Ti Lung, was a box office failure in 1974, but offered a glimpse of a Hong Kong in transition
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Matt Glasby
Published: 9:15pm, 10 Jul 2026
This is the latest instalment in a feature series reflecting on instances of East meets West in world cinema, including China-US co-productions
In the 1970s, the UK film industry was in deep trouble. Hoping to diversify its output, British horror specialist Hammer joined forces with Hong Kong’s legendary Shaw Brothers Studio for a three-picture deal
The first was 1974’s martial arts mash-up The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, which failed to set the box office alight. The second, made the same year, was Shatter, a tough-talking Hong Kong-set action movie pepped up with bursts of kung fu.
It was a troubled production, with original director Monte Hellman replaced by producer Michael Carreras during shooting. “We ran into all sorts of problems, and like all pictures that are bad, I think it was badly conceived from the start,” Carreras said. “One did all sorts of things to try and save it, but it didn’t work.”
Shatter / Original Theatrical Trailer (1974)
Viewed today, however, the results are much more interesting than film history or Carreras would have us believe
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