Shaw film history?

Relive the Brilliance of Shaw's Films (1)

For many people, Shaw's movies are already classics, and they are even more important signs of light and shadow in the history of China movies.

When it comes to the most glorious era of Shaw Brothers Film Company, people always think of its advertising slogan: Shaw's stars are like stars in the sky. Shaw is almost the film kingdom in Hong Kong's most scenic period, and its success and momentum are certainly not achieved overnight. And all this needs to start from scratch.

From the mid-1950s, when the film industry in Southeast Asia was still in its infancy, Hong Kong's film industry began to flourish, which can be said to be the leader of the film industry in Southeast Asia. In the mid-1950s, there were actually three major forces in the Hong Kong film industry, namely Shaw, Dianmao (Cathay Pacific) and the leftist Great Wall Phoenix Company. Their characteristic is that China movies are the mainstream, the number of movies is large and stable, and the production is more serious and rigorous than other independent film companies.

At that time, Shaw's strength and reputation were not as good as those created by movie mogul and Loke Wan Tho. At that time, electric cats were rich and powerful, with a strong lineup of stars and directors. Speaking of stars, there are Lin Dai, You Min, Cui Lin, Glen, Ye Feng, Helen Li Mei, Kitty Ting, Wang Lai and Su Feng. Zhang Yang, Lei Zhen, Chen Ho, Roy Chiao and Ching Tien. The director lineup of Dianmao includes Feng Yueh, Du Qing, Don Juan, Wenyi and Wang Tianlin. There are also senior staff members Song Qi and Qin Yifu, and even more screenwriters from Zhang Ailing. Under the leadership of Zhong, the results are thriving.

Catch up with and compete with electricity

In the early 1950s, Shaw, who was still Shaw's father-son film company, was at a disadvantage, and the star lineup was not as strong as Dianmao. In addition to He, only those who were transferred to the Great Wall later, and Shi has already jumped ship, only Zhao Lei is famous for his role. During this period, even Li Lihua, Yan Jun and Zhang Zhongwen were spared. They all worked for electric cats at first.

In the mid-1950s, Shaw was reorganized into Shaw Brothers Film Company, led by Runme Shaw and Shaw Brothers of Singapore and Malaysia. In order to compete with Dianmo, Shao Yifu even went to Hong Kong from Singapore to take charge of film production. It can be said that Hong Kong's film industry was actually founded by Singapore-Malaysia tycoon Nanyang Gang. Run Run Run Shaw is a business genius. Under his leadership, Run Run Shaw washed away the bad wind, caught up with it, and even came from behind, leaving the electronic watch behind.

The main difference between the early Maomao movies and Shaw movies is simply that the movie era of Maomao is full of flavor, and the leading ladies in the movies are all dressed in western-style dresses. Shaw is still mostly wearing Tang suit shirts and trousers. For example, Diandi's famous 4,000 daughters, Mambo girls, Yu Nv Yan Yu, young children, and stewardesses are all typical women in Hong Kong's new cities in the 1950s. They all wear swaying western-style umbrella skirts. In Xiao's films of the same period, such as Infinitely Beautiful Spring, Feng Dan Street, Cordate telosma, My Fair Lady, Yellow Flower Daughter, Cold Night, etc. The heroines still wear the Tang-style shirts and trousers that most women wore in those years, some of which were first worn by the people.

From the clothing alone, we can see the different styles of Shao's and Dianmao's films in the early 1950s. Dianmao is more urbanized, while Shaw emphasizes localization and Chinatown flavor.

After Shao Yifu took over Shao Yifu, the situation was obviously different. First of all, he wooed the most popular actors of the year, Lin Dai and Li Lihua, and became the basic actors of Bernard Shaw. The minority lineup has also been strengthened. In addition to Zhao Lei, the emperor who was initially in charge, Chen Ho was also recruited to join the company. Later, Guan Shan also joined Bernard Shaw from the left-wing camp. He joined Bernard Shaw after falling in love with Zhang Zhongwen.

It is not enough to have a big star. At this time, Shaw invested a lot of money to shoot blockbusters, and the film was changed into a complex. It also invested heavily in making color films, and audiences flocked to it. It is in this situation that "Jiangshan Beauty" came into being and became the most popular Chinese film in Hong Kong. There is a "joke" that because of the film "Beauty of Jiangshan", the Hong Kong audience only knew at this time that besides Ren Jianhui and Fang Yanfen, there was another star named Lin Dai. It is not surprising that there are such jokes. At that time, the mainstream market in Hong Kong was Cantonese films, while Chinese films were mainly shown in Singapore, Malaysia and Nanyang.

Catering to taste brings Huangmei tune craze

Shaw's movie box office was later better than electronic movies because Shaw was better at doing business and knew the tastes of Nanyang audiences. In the past, movie audiences were mainly women. They not only liked The Great Tragedy of Family Ethics and Literature, but also liked songs and records. The more songs, the more popular they are.

In the early stage of taohuajiang and Mambo Girl, Shaw's music records lost their rhythm, but what is even more proud is that it brought another Hong Kong-style Huangmei film craze that was more popular with the audience and had a longer sensation period. After Beauty in Jiangshan, butterfly lovers and A Dream of Red Mansions, large-scale color productions such as Wang Zhaojun and Yang Guifei really polished Xiao's gold-lettered signboard, which was eclipsed by his main rival, the electric cat.

Under the leadership of Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run also invited the great directors of the year, Feng Yueh and Du Qing, whose influence was even greater. Xiao and Li Hanxiang and others started shooting various types of blockbusters for Xiao.

Feng Yueh can shoot fashion films such as Strange Woman and Spring Scene, costume films such as Lotus Lantern and da ji of Mulan, and even martial arts films such as Stealing the Sword and The Soul Clock, which are quite versatile. Although Doe Ching is not good at making costume movies, Shaw's representative works "I can't get over it" and "Xiao Feng Canyue" are his works. Doe Ching was one of the few directors who could make musical films in those years, and his works included Charm, Blooming in Spring, Flowers in Flowers, and Sudden Release of Spring.

At this time, the development of Shaw Company is ahead of China Telecom, not only because it is on the right track of ancient costume songs, but also because Shaw is directly in charge of business in Hong Kong, and major events of China Telecom have to be reported to Singapore for approval, so the pace has fallen behind.

Another key point of Shaw's success is to expand business, establish Shaw's studio, have multiple studios, and set up costume scenes, which is convenient for shooting, saving time, effort and money.

Another success of it is that it has trained a large number of new people. It opened a "Southern Actor Training Class" to recruit new people, and then signed potential new people to make them promoted and become red stars. The biggest advantage is that you don't have to pay an amazing salary to attract the emperor's superstar to join. Hu Yanni, Cheng Peipei, He Lili and Jing Li are famous stars of Bernard Shaw. Even Xiao Juan, who made Fujian films in his early days, was praised by Bernard Shaw as the smash hit Ling Bo.

Writing here, I think that Shaw's actor training class is called "Southland" and its official propaganda publication is called "Southland Film". Does it imply that its roots are in Nanyang Singapore and Malaysia?

Shore peak period

Shaw became the overlord of Hong Kong film kingdom in the mid-1960s for two external reasons. One is that Loke Wan Tho, president of Cathay Pacific, died in an air crash while attending the Asian Film Festival in Taiwan Province. At that time, Loke Wan Tho had made up his mind to fight Xiao, but he died before he could conquer him. Cathay Pacific, which was justified, was leaderless, and its production went from bad to worse. The big stars stopped filming, and the film performance was not satisfactory. Finally, the filming ended.

Another external reason is 1967 Hong Kong riots, which led to the decline of left-wing film companies.

At this time, only Shaw Company was left to monopolize the world.

Shaw company is witty and accurate. When Huangmei tunes and folk songs were tired of being watched by the audience, under the leadership of director Zhang Che, the "Martial Arts Movie Century" headed by The Three Heroes in the Border Town and The Wonder of the Jianghu was opened in time, which set off a lasting upsurge of masculine movies and changed the atmosphere in which Hong Kong films always focused on heroines. Since then, films have been made by young actors like Wang Yu and Luo Lie.

This is the peak of Bernard Shaw.

Subsequently, everyone knew that Xiao began to cut production or even stop production. But over the years, when it comes to Hong Kong movies, people first think of Shaw movies, which is impressive enough. After Shaw, no film company can be called "film kingdom".

Review the Brilliance of Shaw's Films (Ⅱ) —— Costume Films and Huangmeidiao Times

The courage and courage of the Shaw brothers in doing business is the main reason why Shaw became the film kingdom of Hong Kong. Li Hanxiang's colorful costume blockbusters and Huangmei movies for Shaw not only made financial resources flow into Shaw, but also made the China film industry at that time present another new atmosphere. In retrospect, we call it a classic.