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The Hong Kong Film Archive has compiled and published four books so far under
the title ¡§Hong Kong Filmography,¡¨ being an attempt to list systematically and
chronologically the complete film output of Hong Kong. So far, the series has
reached the end of the fifties, but the first volume only covers up until 1941,
the pre-war years.
It is in many ways an amazing and fascinating book to read. But at the same
time, it is frustrating as well. It lists an amazing 600 feature films and
documentaries produced in the pre-war years, but tragically, only five have
survived ¡V four feature films and a documentary. Only fifty film stills have
been preserved. So in essence the book is only a fragmentary assemblage of
information pulled from secondary sources about movies we will never see.
The first movie listed is CHUANG ZHU TESTS HIS WIFE (1913), a silent film
written by Li Minwei and directed by Li Beihai, the fathers of Hong Kong
cinema. The story itself concerns Chuang Tzu, a man who decides to test his
wife¡¦s vow not to marry again after his death. He fakes his death, she hooks up
with a young man (Tzu in disguise, naturally, and when he sees she wants to
marry him, he reveals himself, and she, in her shame, hangs herself. A
typically Confucian turn of the screw. But the film wasn¡¦t even released
theatrically in Hong Kong (it was released in Los Angeles). The first
theatrical Hong Kong release doesn¡¦t appear until 1924¡¦s THE CALAMITY OF MONEY,
a film about which nothing much besides the title is really known. The first
feature length fiction film appeared the following year, ROUGE, about a murder
and an embroidered shoe. Hong Kong¡¦s first picture with sound was THE IDIOT¡¦S
WEDDING NIGHT, a slapstick comedy released in 1933.
It was not until 1934 that Hong Kong began to show life as the filmmaking
center it is recognized as today. Between 1913-1933, a mere 20 movies were
released. 1934 nearly doubled that amount, and each year after the amount of
films released increased rapidly, until 1939, which saw 125 new releases.
Unfortunately, the book is silent about what was happening over in China¡¦s
other great filmmaking center, Shanghai. However, it can be assumed that, as
more filmmakers and actors fled Shanghai to temporary refuge in Hong Kong
during the sino-Japanese war, the one industry declined while the other
prospered.
Some genres of the period are unfamiliar to modern viewers. There were the
National Defense pictures, called on to patriotically promote the Chinese war
effort. Director Kwan Man-ching shot a legendary trilogy of films, beginning
with the rather straightforward RESIST! (1936). 1937¡¦s BLOOD AND TEARS AT THE
BORDER drew a harder line in its story of two brothers, one an officer, the
other a traitor, selling food to the enemy. The officer does his duty for his
country over the pleas of his family and kills his brother. The third film,
PUBLIC ENEMY (1938) dramatized the plight of the common people during wartime,
as pretty much all the principals end up dying defending the homeland. Other
National Defense features tried to inspire people in all walks of life.
LIFELINE (1935) told the story of a poor man, unable to pay for his mother¡¦s
funeral and causing hardship to his pregnant wife, who is nonetheless able to
work proudly on China¡¦s railway system, ¡§for the country¡¦s defense and
progress.¡¨ NATIONAL HEROINE (1937) motivated women, and was also the first Hong
Kong film ever directed by a woman, one Ng Kam-ha. In 1938, the Hong Kong film
industry rallied together to make AT THIS CRUCIAL JUNCTURE to raise funds for
disaster relief as a result of the war. In it, a group of students manage to
inspire everyone in the community to unite to fight the Japanese. According to
the synopsis, the film is considered to be one of the top 100 Chinese films
ever made.
There were also didactic films, designed to instruct their audiences. These
films cautioned viewers to not spend too freely, or go out with too many women
or men. Those that did ended up ruining their lives. Rich men become rickshaw
drivers; adultery leads to suicide and imprisonment. Take FALLEN ANGEL (1938),
the story of a country girl who becomes a famous star. She becomes a rich man¡¦s
wife, and ¡§burns a $500 note to light her cigarette.¡¨ Naturally, ¡§from there,
she soon falls to the gutter, becoming a criminal, a beggar, a drifter, and a
prostitute.¡¨ As if that isn¡¦t enough for one movie, she eventually redeems
herself and returns to the countryside and ¡§marries a cowherd, advocating
conservation and promoting agricultural production.¡¨
Other genres look, well, pretty much the same. Comedies of the period tended to
rely heavily on slapstick, with interchangeable idiots, fops, bumbling
detectives, and country bumpkins who have a series of misadventures while
trying without much success to negotiate life in the sophisticated big city.
The Little Rascals would have felt right at home. There were erotic films as
well, complete with lead actresses who disclaim their involvement afterwards.
Snakes and she-demons were then, as now, popular topics.
Early horror films look quite enticing, and reading about them makes me all the
more sad that the films most likely no longer exist. Take HOUSE NUMBER 36
(1936), a true-crime docudrama about a jealous wife who kills her husband¡¦s
mistress, cuts her into pieces, stuffs the remains in a sack, and tosses it in
a pond. Anthony Wong could have gotten some tips for his Bunman performance if
only he could have seen CANNIBALIC WOMAN (1939), about the wife of an army
officer who has discovered a taste for human flesh. And then there are the more
traditional horror films. MIDNIGHT VAMPIRE (1936) involves two brothers, one of
whom kills the other over an inheritance. Then, in proper Tales from the Crypt
fashion, the dead brother returns for vengeance. Even more sinister was THE
EVIL SCIENTIST (1936), who ¡§creates freaks, such as a giant of sixty feet and a
dwarf of six inches.¡¨ THE WALKING CORPSE appears in 1939, along with female
vampires who roam the streets of Hong Kong (VAMPIRES OF THE HAUNTED MANSION),
and hiding out in its own underground kingdom, THE THREE THOUSAND YEAR OLD
VAMPIRE.
And what about kung fu? A modern genre, I once thought, but again the book
surprises. T first Hong Kong film to feature martial arts directors appeared in
1938: THE ADVENTURES OF FANG SHIYU, a film popular enough to spawn a sequel the
following year. Even the fighting swordswoman has already made an appearance by
1939 in LADY IN RED.
There are many more surprising discoveries than the sample I¡¦ve listed. HONG
KONG FILMOGRAPHY VOL. 1 is a large, heavy volume filled with information. But
it is information about movies we will never see, so it is about equal parts
fascinating and depressing. Additionally, the book provides no context for the
films, no overview of the studios at the time, no information about the major
stars, nothing about the war. It is a list of films, each detailed with what
information was on hand, nothing more, nothing less. A difficult book to
recommend, but the right reader may lose hours in its pages.
HONG KONG FILMOGRAPHY, VOL 1: 1913-1941 is published by the Hong
Kong Film Archive for $235 HKD. Visit their site to find purchasing
information.
Written by: Peter Nepstad
Date: 9 December 2003
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