From the Moving Image Research Collections at the University of South Carolina comes an extraordinary piece of Chinese movie history: rare newsreel outtakes shot in January 1934 showing the production of a film at what is believed to be the Tianyi studio. Founded in Shanghai in 1925 by four brothers named Shaw (you may have heard of them), the Tianyi Film Company (天一影片公司) was a pillar of Chinese moviemaking during the 1920s and 30s (just like the family's Shaw Brothers studio some 30 years later). You can read more about the studio at The Chinese Mirror, my top one-stop shop for information about early Chinese cinema. But let me just point out that, as far as I know, none of the approximately 120 films made by Tianyi between 1925 and 1939 have survived, which makes this newsreel footage very precious indeed.
I've not had any luck in positively identifying the film or its stars. But I'm going to hazard a guess — even though I always fall on my ass whenever I go out on a limb — that the leading lady seen in the footage might be Fan Xuepeng (范雪朋), 1920s wuxia queen and star of Red Heroine / 红侠 (1929), one of the earliest surviving Chinese martial-arts movies. She worked at Tianyi from 1934 to 1937 and made a half-dozen or so films for the studio. One of them, Spring Dreams in the Dance Hall / 舞宫春梦 (1934), seems likes a possible match for the production shown in these outtakes.
Needless to say, I'm seeking the help of anyone who might be able to shed some light on this mystery film. Okay, enough talking. Click HERE to watch the clip.
5 comments:
Hi duriandave --
So sad to hear that none of the approximately 100 films produced by the Tianyi Film Company have managed to survive. Am guessing that they were all destroyed during the second world war -- or did the destruction come after? :S
That newsreel clip is a rare treasure indeed, thanks for sharing it. I would guess that you are probably correct in identifying the film and its leading lady. Unfortunately, I don't recognize the others in the clip.
Estimates are that some 95% of the silent era Chinese films were lost, but the figure for the US and Europe isn't all that much better: about 80%. And while war, revolution and political upheaval likely played a part in China, the most destructive force in both East and West was lack of preservation techniques.
-- Hi YTSL! According to the history on the Shaw Organization website, their Shanghai studio was destroyed in 1937 when the Japanese attacked the city. That probably resulted in a major loss of original materials. Still, it's odd that no distribution prints, which surely traveled throughout the Chinese diaspora, have survived. I sometimes imagine that the China Film Archive has a top-secret vault of "reactionary" films. And one also has to wonder what early films are held in Shaw's own archive. Even the status of their Cantonese films from the late 50s and early 60s remains a mystery.
-- Hi Deejay! I was hoping you'd drop by. :)
So far, you and I constitute two votes for Fan Xuepeng, while two friends have said they are not convinced (one decidedly so). Hopefully, some others will come forth with a yay or a nay.
And you're quite right, poor preservation techniques or a complete lack thereof have ended in the loss of many films. But miraculously, lost films from the silent era are still being discovered. Nonetheless, even those that have been kept in good storage conditions over the years are on their last legs and will soon deteriorate for good unless they are copied to longer-lasting acetate film.
Hi duriandave:
I like your blog more and more... I learn with every entry that you publish. It is a very interesting material.
In my new post there is to link to your blog with to very special dedication.
From Argentina
Natalia
Thanks for the dedication, Natalia! That's very sweet of you. :D
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