Celestial Pictures aims to change all that. Its 24-hour movie channel, Celestial Movies, claims to have the largest Chinese film library: 1,300 movies, including 760 digitally restored Shaw Brothers titles from the late 1950s to the 90s, and 450 Golden Harvest movies and first-run features from Asia's major film studios, all of which carry English subtitles.

Celestial already has deals in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and will move from pilot to official launch tomorrow as a channel on exTV, the TVB and Intelsat pay-TV joint venture. The target audience is between 30 and 50 years of age (because that's the age group most likely to be picking up exTV's monthly bill of $168). But Celestial senior vice-president Tony Watts says he believes the younger generation will be just as interested in films from 40 years ago, because these productions are well-made and the forerunners of the action and martial arts movies we watch today.

'In western movies, James Dean is cool, whatever generation is watching. In the same way, The One-Armed Swordsman is still cool today. It still hits chords,' Watts says.

The One-Armed Swordsman is one of Celestial's key movies. The 1967 macho martial arts classic was directed by Chang Cheh, whom John Woo credits as his mentor, having served as the director's assistant during the early 1970s.

'Now we know when we watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that it comes from Come Drink With Me,' Watts says of King Hu's 1966 film that is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest martial arts films of all time and the first to introduce a poetic touch to the genre.

Celestial has been periodically releasing DVD collections of films from the Shaw Brothers archives, including The One-Armed Swordsman and Come Drink With Me. But Law Kar, a researcher into Hong Kong cinema, believes there are other worthwhile films that have been hard to track down since they were made 20 to 30 years ago.

'I'm looking forward to seeing Liu Chia-liang's films such as The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin and Heroes Of The East,' he says. 'His films of the late 70s and early 80s were very interesting variations on Chinese martial arts movies. He didn't just portray sword fighting or hand fighting, he incorporated animals, boxing and psychological depths in his movies.'

The films in the Shaw Brothers library are enough for five to six years' worth of programming. But Law says that, as with any studio, Shaw Brothers backed both good productions and mediocre ones over the years.

'Even Chang Cheh, who's known as the master of martial arts, repeated himself in the 70s,' Law says. 'He made almost 100 films in two decades, so only a small number of those are good. Not every film is a masterpiece. But, as a whole, he is important to the historical development of films in Hong Kong because he inspired and trained people who became successful actors, directors or screenwriters like David Chiang, Ti Lung and Woo.'

Ruth Kan Ying-che, vice-president (marketing and sales) for exTV, says Celestial wants to tap into the nostalgia people feel for local films. 'This is built for local audiences,' she says, referring to the deal with Celestial. 'Some pay-TV services have a large number of channels, but we want to provide programming that the audience really wants.'

Surveys consistently show that, after news, movies are what most draw people to pay-TV channels. And Kan says exTV's research shows the same.

Of Celestial's programming, 50 per cent comprises Shaw Brothers movies, 30 per cent are Chinese-language movies, and 20 per cent Asian movies. Of the 100 movies Celestial screens each month, it guarantees 15 will be premieres. And the company says it plans to add to its stock with its own productions and new films each year, particularly first-run works from Japan and South Korea.