Chapter 46: The Glory Days of Hong Kong Cinema
Hong Kong is developed in Hong Kong with Luo Xingyi and Luo Xingyao with 10 "Yi" team of biochemical people, and the club established is called "Hualuo Society" or "Hualuo Group"! After nearly 10 years of development, the Hualuo Gang has squeezed into one of the top ten associations in Hong Kong, occupying an area of Kowloon, with a total number of nearly 5,000 people and more than 150 core club members.
At present, the most active Hong Kong triad gangs: 14K Wo Sheng and Xin Ngee An, Shui Fang Gang, etc., each gang is deeply rooted in Hong Kong, and at the same time it is gearing up for Macau and wants to intervene in the sphere of influence of Macau casinos.
1 The history of film development in Hong Kong
On December 28, 1895, the Frenchman Louis. Lumière screened the world's first films such as "The Gate of Lumière's Factory", "The Train Arrives" and "Watering the Gardener" in Paris, France. In early 1896, his assistants came to Hong Kong to screen these films, and the films were introduced to Hong Kong. 1898 American "Thomas Smiths. Edison's company sent a cinematographer to Hong Kong to shoot a number of documentaries: "Hong Kong Street View", "Hong Kong Governor's Palace", "Hong Kong Pier", "Hong Kong Merchants" and "Hack Artillery Regiment". They are all short. It was not until October 5, 1903 that the entire feature film was released in Hong Kong.
In 1909, a witty drama "Stealing Roast Duck" was filmed in Hong Kong, and the director of the film, Liang Shaopo, was also the protagonist of the film. The plot is very simple, but there is no lack of witty action. Its producer, Brasky, later collaborated with Lai Man-wai to produce the first feature film produced in Hong Kong, "Zhuangzi Tries a Wife", which gave birth to the Hong Kong film industry, and Lai Man-wai is known as the "father of Hong Kong cinema". The appearance of this film symbolizes the end of the enlightenment period of Hong Kong film history, and the embryonic period has officially begun.
According to the "History of the Development of Chinese Films", Hong Kong's first feature film "Zhuangzi Tries a Wife" was produced in 1913, with the choreographer and director Lai Man-wai, the cinematographer Lo Wing-cheung, and the main actors Lai Man-wai and Yim Shanshan. This film has set a number of Hong Kong film records:
(1) it is the first feature film produced in Hong Kong;
(2) the first Hong Kong film to be released in a foreign country;
(3) the first Hong Kong film with the participation of a film actress;
(4) It is also the first Hong Kong film with stunt photography.
From 1924 to 1925, Hong Kong's film industry gradually grew, but unfortunately due to the general strike of June 1925, the fledgling development of Hong Kong film was forced to stop. By June 1926, the film industry had begun to recover. However, at that time, the cinema mainly screened Western films and films produced by Shanghai Film Company.
In 1935, there was no silent film production in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong films officially stepped into the sound era. Influenced by the anti-Japanese upsurge, Hong Kong produced a number of patriotic films, including "Lifeline".
In 1936, social education films became the mainstream of Hong Kong films. "Guangzhou-Woman" and "Fraternity" directed by Shao Zuiweng are such works. In 1937, due to the occurrence of the "77 Incident", the anti-Japanese atmosphere in Hong Kong was high, so filmmakers also started to shoot anti-Japanese patriotic films, and "The Last Moment" can definitely be called a classic.
In the autumn of 1939, affected by the war in European countries, the production of Hong Kong films in 1940 declined.
The Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in December 1941 plunged the Hong Kong film industry into a low ebb. Hong Kong films were discontinued for four years before the first post-war Hong Kong film "Love Trap" was released in 1946.
After 1949, Hong Kong films gradually flourished. After 1949, a large number of mainland Chinese filmmakers moved south for political and economic reasons, set up film studios in Hong Kong, and cooperated with local filmmakers to shoot Chinese and Cantonese films, making Hong Kong the only and largest film center in South China. In addition, in the mid-50s, the transition of film influences to Hong Kong, as well as the impact of Hong Kong's original American, Japanese and European film cultures, made Hong Kong films mature in the embryonic form.
During this golden period, Cantonese films had the following mainstreams:
1. Cantonese opera films, "The Flower of the Emperor" (1959), "The Story of the Purple Hairpin" (1959), "Queen Li" (1968), etc. Among them, there are many familiar actors: Ren Jianhui, Bai Xuexian, Xinma Shizeng, Xue Juexian and Lin Jiasheng and so on.
2. Literary films, such as Li Tie's "Spring Dawn in a Dangerous Building" (1953), "Forever and Forever" (1955), Chu Yuan's "Pity the Heart of the World's Parents" (1960), etc., are all well-known works.
3. Costume martial arts films, most of the costume martial arts films in the fifties are based on the familiar chivalrous stories of gods and monsters among the people, and the martial arts scenes do not pay attention to the sense of reality.
4. Comedy and farce, most of these movies are witty and funny, such as the "Two Fools" series.
2 The boom in Chinese films created new martial arts films, including an adaptation of Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng's martial arts work: Hu Peng's The Legend of the Condor Heroes (1959). In 1963 alone, 61 martial arts films were produced, and the masterpieces of martial arts films were Hu Jinquan's Dragon Gate Inn (1966) and Zhang Che's One-Armed Knife (1967). The emergence of martial arts stars such as Dillon and Wang Yu can also be seen as a prelude to the rise of Bruce Lee in the 70s.
The 70s were the golden years of Hong Kong cinema, which was affected by the popularization of television, social and economic development, and the changing mentality of Hong Kong people.
At this time, Bruce Lee cooperated with the rise of Zou Wenhuai's "Golden Harvest Film Company". From his debut film "Tangshan Big Brother" (1971) to "Jingwumen" and "Raptors Across the River" filmed in the following two years, Bruce Lee entered the international film industry and created a myth of Hong Kong's film industry.
In 1973, Bruce Lee suddenly went berserk, and the kung fu movie boom failed to continue. However, with the popularity of local culture, Hong Kong audiences gradually lost interest in kung fu films that were far from reality, and instead favored films that reflected the social conditions of the time and satirized reality, which explains why Chu Yuan's "Seventy-Two Tenants" became the highest-grossing film in 1973.
Since the mid-70s, the dominant mode of reading has been television, and many film themes or inspirations have come from television content, such as The True Story of Ah Fu (1974), Daxiangli (1974), New Laughing Marriage (1975), Ghost Horse and Twin Stars (1974), Half a Pound and Eight Taels (1976), Deed of Sale (1978) and so on.
In 1978, Yuan Heping directed "The Serpentine Trickster" and "Drunken Fist", which established the status of kung fu comedy, making it the most representative film genre of the late seventies.
The year 1979 was an important milestone for Hong Kong cinema, and it was the beginning of the new wave of Hong Kong cinema. A large number of behind-the-scenes TV workers, including Tsui Hark, Ann Hui, Cheung Kwok-ming, Tam Ka-ming, Yim Ho, Yu Yun-kang, etc., have made many personal films based on their passion for film, as well as the creativity and social sensibility unique to young people, opening a new page for Hong Kong cinema.
The earliest are three works in 1979: "Crazy Robbery" (directed by Xu Anhua), "Butterfly Change" (directed by Tsui Hark), and "Pointing Soldiers" (directed by Zhang Guoming). These new directors are all called "New Wave directors", but in fact, each of their works is very personal and does not fall into the traditional model of Hong Kong cinema. Ann Hui's works exude a deep humanism and a high degree of feminine sensitivity; Tsui Hark has a nervous tension; Fang Yuping's style is simple and realistic; Yan Hao wanders between youthful violence and indifferent subtlety; Tan Jiaming walks middle-class aesthetics; Zhang Guoming is good at making police movies and so on.
In the early 80s, a large number of directors emerged: John Woo, Tsui Hark, Lin Lingdong, Gao Zhisen, etc., concocted a commercial film, among which comedy was the mainstay. What these films have in common is that they are created in the mode of collective creation of TV stations, full of dense jokes and action, all based on catering to the audience's tastes, such as the Hui Brothers' "Best Partner" series and Chow Yun-fat's "True Colors of Heroes" and "Dragon and Tiger".
Sammo Hung started the trend of psychedelic films with "Ghost Fight" (1987), and the subsequent "Mr. Zombie" series also followed a similar style. And his other series of films "Five Lucky Stars" and "Five Lucky Stars of Fortune" also achieved good box office results.