"After the heavy light in Hong Kong, the entertainment industry is booming day by day, especially in cinemas, where the audience is even more crowded. Every time a good film is shown, it is always full." There is also a saying that "the late 194s to the mid-196s was the peak period of Cantonese films. Every year, there are 2 Cantonese films, many of which are Cantonese dramas. " But in fact, since the 194s, besides Cantonese films, Mandarin films have also developed at the same time, which is due to the turbulent situation in Shanghai during the Civil War, with famous domestic filmmakers such as Zhang Shankun, Li Zuyong and Zhu Shilin. Actors have a spin, Yan Jun and Bai Guang have gone south. At this time, Zhang Shankun and Li Zuyong set up Yonghua Film Company (1947-1954) in Hong Kong, and in 1948, they made two sensational films, soul of china and The Secret History of Qing Palace. At the end of the 194s, there were other Chinese-language studios such as Greater China, Great Wall and Cathay Pacific. These studios even produced many famous films, such as "The Demon Queen" released by Great Wall, which became a generation of business cards for a while.
The 195s was hailed as the golden age of Hong Kong films. Since the post-war Hong Kong society has not fully recovered, and the influx of refugees has caused many serious social problems. At this time, in order to cater to the general public and provide cheap entertainment for the public, many rough and indiscriminate Cantonese films were introduced. These works are called "seven-day fresh" because these films can be filmed in one week. But at this time, there are also many serious works, such as "Home" by "Zhonglian" (based on Ba Jin's novel). Zhonglian was founded in 1952, with 21 founders, all of whom are elites in Cantonese films, such as Wu Chufan, Zhang Huoyou, Ma Shiceng, Ng Wui, Bai Yan and Man-lei Wong. They founded "Zhonglian" with the same goal: "to abandon Cantonese opera films that are divorced from reality and have vague content, and to produce social awareness films that are both entertaining and educational." The flood of
"Seven Days Fresh" films has made Hong Kong Cantonese films vulgar. In order to improve the crude atmosphere of Hong Kong films, a group of aspiring filmmakers, such as Wu Chufan, Ng Wui, Jian Qin, Luquan Gao, Sin Nui Hung and Yuet Ching Lee, launched a "Cantonese Film Cleanup Campaign" (pictured right) to improve the quality and development of Hong Kong films.
during the mid-195s and early 196s, the output of Cantonese films was amazing, and there were many types, including opera, martial arts, comedy, literature and art, ethics and so on. However, with the gradual growth of the post-war generation, the society is becoming more prosperous and westernized, and the younger generation has a higher level of education. The traditional Cantonese films can no longer satisfy their tastes, so there have been urban comedies with brokers, white-collar workers and factory women workers as the themes, detective action films imitating western spy films, totally westernized musical films, etc., and there has been a craze for youth idol films such as Chen Baozhu and Xiao Fangfang.
At the same time, "In fact, since the completion of Shaw's cinema in Clear Water Bay in 1961, it has made great efforts, opened up new cinemas and introduced new technologies ... The production of Mandarin films is beyond the reach of Cantonese films that have been shot indiscriminately in small books." In the 196s, nothing was more popular with the public than Chinese martial arts films. In 1967, Shaw launched Longmen Inn and One-armed Knife, which caused a sensation in the film industry, and Chinese films became popular in the 196s. On the contrary, due to the change of the market, the impact of Chinese films, and the opening of Hong Kong Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd. in 1967, the popularity of television attracted a group of viewers, and the output of Cantonese films increased. At the same time, the director at that time made many low-cost Cantonese erotic films in order to maintain the development. In the 197s, director Li Hanxiang began to make many erotic films based on romantic themes, and the rise of erotic films became a feature of the film industry in the late 196s and early 197s.
In p>1971, Bruce Lee's "Tangshan Big Brother" pushed kung fu films to the peak again. At this time, Hong Kong films were still dominated by Mandarin films. It was not until 1973 that a new Cantonese film "Seventy-two Tenants" appeared again. In the following year, Xu Guanwen's "Ghost Horse and Twin Stars" only surpassed Mandarin films in 1977, so Cantonese films revived in the 197s.
On October 25th, the 15th Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival kicked off in Hangzhou. Ten films with different styles, such as Myth, Riding Alone for a Thousand Miles, House of Flying Daggers, world without thieves, Zhang Side, Kung Fu, New never to lose and Huo Yuanjia, were shortlisted for this year's Hundred Flowers Award.
For the first time, Hong Kong films compete with mainland films for "Golden Rooster" and "Hundred Flowers" on the same stage. Whether this will be a beneficial promotion to the award system of Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, which has had many yellow eggs, is hard to know for the time being. However, the opening of the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival to Hong Kong films may mean that Hong Kong and mainland films have achieved formal cooperation and gradually moved towards real integration.
In the 198s, after Shaolin Temple successfully knocked on the door of mainland movies, Hong Kong-made films flooded into the mainland. Although there are many martial arts films, gunfight films soon became the mainstream, and the hot scenes of Hong Kong-made films left too many novel impressions on mainland audiences. During this heyday, Hong Kong produced more than 3 films a year, setting a record. Although not every film has achieved excellent box office receipts, it is an indisputable fact that most films eventually broke into the mainland and were widely acclaimed by mainland audiences, and a number of Hong Kong movie stars also stood out.
The popularity of Hong Kong films in the Mainland in the 198s was mainly due to the cultural shortage in the Mainland. This shortage does not mean the number of mainland film and television works blindly, but the quality of mainland film and television works itself is uneven and can not stand the impact of Hong Kong films. However, with the rapid development of economy, mainland films have gradually gained a firm foothold, and a number of internationally influential films have gradually regained the market. On the other hand, because Hong Kong filmmakers are "salivating" at the vast film business opportunities brought about by the rapid economic development in the Mainland, they began to intentionally or unintentionally add some "mainland elements" to their films in order to win the favor of mainland audiences. When the mainland audience began to get tired of the fighting and killing of Hong Kong-made films, Hong Kong filmmakers had to seriously consider the tastes of mainland audiences. This kind of production style, which takes into account the "taste" of mainland audiences, will inevitably lead to the loss of local audiences in Hong Kong. However, compared with the vast market of hundreds of millions of viewers in the mainland, who cares about the past tinkering around the edges?
In addition, in the face of the rapid rise of the mainland film and television industry, Hong Kong films are forced to use more and more mainland stars. We saw Chen Daoming in Infernal Affairs, and Chen Baoguo appeared in Baby Project. On the other hand, both Zhang Yimou and Xiaogang Feng are trying to find a balance between the two cultures, including Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Rene Liu in House of Flying Daggers and world without thieves.
In this way, the decrease of box office revenue in Hong Kong should be the inevitable result of cultural integration between the two places. This also shows that Hong Kong films have entered the "post-Hong Kong film era". In the "post-Hong Kong film era", on the surface, the phenomenon of the number of local artists in Hong Kong is quite prominent. At present, it is still controlled by a few evergreen trees such as Jackie Chan and Andy Lau. But we don't seem to have to worry too much about it, because more and more Hong Kong artists have started their "drifting north" career and devoted themselves to the development of the mainland. Tony Leung Ka Fai once appeared in Taihang Mountain, and the handsome young Wei Junjie also played the hero He Shichang in the recent TV series Red Memory. Although the audience was skeptical at first, Wei Junjie's excellent performance was finally accepted by the audience.
The "post-Hong Kong film era" is a symbol of history of film in Hong Kong, but it is definitely not the end of the Hong Kong film industry. At least from the perspective of the vast domestic film market, the integration of Hong Kong films and mainland films is inevitable. Since it is integration, after the pain, it will always return to a relatively balanced state, and this should probably be the best state of Hong Kong local films. Besides, although it seems that there are fewer local films in Hong Kong on the surface, in fact, more filmmakers "going north" have promoted the progress of the entire mainland film industry, and the "Hong Kong element" of mainland films has also increased.
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