探索1930至1940年代香港映画 (English Edition) Exploring Hong Kong Films of the 1930s and 1940s Part 1: Era and Film History / Part 2: Genres · Regions · Culture

Recording film history is a difficult task that involves battling the loss of footage and other primary sources. The Hong Kong Film Archive has functioned as an archive by excavating and storing materials since its founding. It has engaged in the compilation and publication of academic books on various topics and research themes related to Hong Kong film history. In January 2021, as part of a series of events to celebrate the archive’s 20th anniversary, a symposium titled “From Silent to Sound: Hong Kong Films of the 1930s and 1940s,” was held at the Hong Kong Film Archive, with researchers at the forefront of Hong Kong film studies worldwide giving exceedingly content-rich presentations of their research over two days. The symposium’s contents were compiled into a Chinese-language book titled Tansuo 1930 zhi 1940 niandai Xianggang yinghua (Part 1: Era and Film History; Part 2: Genres, Regions, Cultures), published in 2022. Further, an English version titled Exploring Hong Kong Films of the 1930s and 1940s was also published as an e-book, which is now available for free download from the Hong Kong Film Archive’s website, along with the Chinese version.
 
The table of contents shows that this book, divided into two volumes, has diverse contents, so it is difficult to introduce all the chapters in detail. The following is an overview of each of the two volumes.
 
“Part 1: Era and Film History” explores how various factors influenced the Hong Kong film industry during this period and how filmmakers adjusted their management strategies and continued their creative work during the war. Hong Kong’s film industry goes back to as early as the 1910s, but it was not until the 1930s that it started to flourish. The first golden age coincided with a period when the world was embroiled in war. After the start of the war of resistance against Japan in mainland China, many films were produced in Hong Kong as it absorbed filmmakers and funds flowing in from the mainland. Meanwhile, there is much we do not know about the screening and filmmaking activities of Japanese people in Hong Kong after the start of the Japanese occupation in December 1941. The chapter that I wrote, “Japanese Film Viewership and Filmmaking in Hong Kong in the 1930s and 1940s/Han Yanli,” uses Japanese primary sources to explore in detail the Hong Kong film industry as a whole during the Japanese occupation and specific texts of films produced in Hong Kong at the time.
 
“Part 2: Genres, Regions, Culture” explores the various film genres produced at the time and analyzes the artistic and cultural value of the films. Back then, films were meant as entertainment. Still, a diverse range of films was produced, from the unique genre “national defense films” to period dramas and martial arts films with female main characters and satirical comedies that provided an emotional outlet for the general population. These films are suggestive of the possibilities of how Hong Kong films would develop in the postwar period. Moreover, Hong Kong’s film industry was closely related to mainland China at the time. Still, filmmaking with overseas markets in mind indicates that Hong Kong films had a global dimension from the outset.
 
This volume is a must-read in Hong Kong film studies as a groundbreaking publication to commemorate the archive’s 20th anniversary.
 

(Written by Yanli Han, Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences / 2023)