Liang 1

Cathy Liang 100122010

Professor Wenchi Lin

28 May 2014

Dancing with the Society: Shaw Brothers’ Mandarin Musicals in the 1960s

Hailed as “the Hollywood of the East,” Shaw Brothers (HK) Ltd.had great impact on the film industry of Hong Kong and helped elevate Hong Kong cinema to an international level. Shaw Brothers had a long history before it became the major film production company in Hong Kong. Founded in Shanghai in 1925 in the name of Tianyi Film Company, it thrived into a “transnational network of entertainment business” in the 1950s by vertically integrating production, distribution and exhibition (Fu 2). Like the major studios in Hollywood, Shaw Brothers also adopted Fordism to churn out films efficiently in a variety of genres (Chung 666). Starting from the very beginning, Shaw Brothers aimed at producing popular films. Not only did it invent its own “shawscope” (adopted from cinemascope, tohoscope, and dyaliscope) to attract audience, it always looked for film genres that would guarantee box office, such as Huangmei opera films, a greatly successful genre in the early 1960s, including the record-breaking title The Love Eterne (1963). As director Chang Cheh recalls in his book Thirty Years of Hong Kong Cinema in Reflection (Huigu Xianggng Dianying San shi Nian), Run Run Shaw’s decision to choose Huangmei opera instead of Peking opera for film adaptation was simply because Huangmei tunes were sung in a natural way and easier for the audience to accept while Peking opera was not (16).

It is not surprising that Shaw Brothers made mostly genre films, since genres have built-in audience and it’s easier to market.Besides Huangmei Opera films, Shaw Brothers was also known for popular genres such as Wuxia (Sword-fighting) films, musicals, comedies, soft-core porns, spy films, and drama.Though a relatively short-lived genre and less remarkable than Huangmei and Wuxia films, the musicals are still a genre worth studying. In 1960, Shaw Brothers embarked on making the first color musical film on Shawscope, Les Belles, as a new step after the Huangmei opera films were widely accepted. It was also launched as a strong competitor to other companies’ musical films, especially those of the Motion Picture and General Investment Film Company (MP&GI). Subsequently, the Shaw Brothers produced several “modern” Mandarin musical films like Les Belles. Their common feature is the “modern” outlook with the story set in the contemporary society and the characters in costumes of the period (Shizhuang). To emulate the trend of the musical films started by Hsin Hwa Motion Picture Company’sSongs of the Peach Blossom River (1956) and MP&GI’s Mambo Girl (1957), Shaw Brothers’ Mandarin musical films endeavored to take advantage of the new screening technology to present musical numbers with dashing choreography and gorgeous costumes and project the modern lifestyle that cannot be easily experienced.

The majority of studies on Shaw Brothers focus on the history of the company and its technical development. The Cinema Empire of Shaw Brothers illustrates how Shaw Brothers took advantage of its family-based business structure to expand its industrial enterprise from Shanghai to Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong in the 1950s. The expansion further provided Shaw Brothers the opportunity to adopt Hollywood industrial model of vertical integration to combine exhibition, production, and distribution. In her "Moguls of the Chinese Cinema: The Story of the Shaw Brothers in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore, 1924–2002,"Stephanie PoyinChung details this industrial history of Shaw Brothers to show how it created its “cross-border business network” (674). The collaborated article in Chinese by Zhao Weifang and Lei Chengyun “Modernization and Indigenization: The Interaction between the Films of Hollywood and Hong Kong-The Access to the Resurgence of the Film in Hong Kong” (xiandai hua yu bentu hua:hao lai wu yu xianggang dianying de shuangxiang hudong—jianlun xianggang dianying fuxing zhilu) turns to Shaw Brothers’ “modernized” production model and gives a good depiction of how it was influenced by Hollywood’s star system and its efforts to bring in advanced filming technology and construct big film studios (143). Wu Hao’s book-length studyShaw Films: Musical & Melodrama (shaoshi guangying xilie: wenyi gewu qingxiju) also discusses the new technology of filmmaking Shaw Brothers adopted to enhance the quality of its films, especially in sound and color. He pointed out Shaw Brothers was influenced by Hollywood musicals to use widescreen, to stage extravagant dancing performance and, and to have similar narrative structure for its stories (Wu 193-94).

Other scholars are interested in the cultural and ideological aspects of Shaw’s genre films. Some emphasize on the Chinese culture presented in the films and their lineage with Shanghai cinema. In "The Shaw Brothers Diasporic Cinema" for instance, Poshek Fu points out that Shaw Brothers was determined to be a “diasporic Chinese business” in the global network since the 1960s (8). Therefore Shaw Brothers’ production often aimed at presenting the “Chinese flavor” to attract non-Chinese audience and projecting a “pan-Chinese community” for Chinese audience around the world (12). In “A Compromised Identification: Hong Kongness in Shaw Brothers’ Films in the Period of Cultural Revolution” (tuoxie de rentong: wenge shiqi shaoshi xiongdi dianying de xianggang xing) Liao Jinfeng goes further to argue that Shaw Brothers upheld the traditional moral value of Chinese culture in most their genre films made during the time of Chinese Cultural Revolution, including comedies, martial art films, melodrama, and musicals. In his view, despite the elements of pop culture, like pop music, dance, and party, Shaw’s musicals still convey strong “Great China Consciousness” (Da zhong guo yi shi) (345-46). Fu observes that Shaw Brothers endeavored to open new markets and become a significant enterprise that can compete with other film companies in the global network in the 1960s. He points out that Shaw Brothers thus emphasized on the cultural and artistic tradition of China on screen and delivered the sense of “cultural nationalism” in its film productions for the ethnic-Chinese audience. Liao also finds the Chinese culture and tradition in Shaw Brothers films significant, though he believes that they are in the film because the legacy of Chinese culture is deep-rooted in Hong Kong Mandarin cinema.

In recent years, several scholars began to pay attention to issues of modernity in Shaw Brothers’ Mandarin musical films. Hong Kong Nocturne (1967) provides a good text for them to examine Kong Kong’s modernity as represented on big screen. Li Siuleung for example contends that Hong Kong Nocturne presents “an imagination of modernity and local self-identity” (77). He observes that both signs of modernity and traditional Chinese culture are featured in the musical films, which makes the “locality” of Hong Kong interrelate with the “modern” and the “global” (82). In his “Three Readings of Hong Kong Nocturne,” Paul G. Pickcowicz indicates that the film shows the conflict between traditional value and the temptation of modernity as materialized in fashion and trends of western culture (97-98). In “Shaw’s Efficient Master of Entertainment: Some Significant Thoughts on Umetsugu Inoue” (paozhi yule de shaoshi kuaishou: Umetsugu Inoue de jige yiyi), Yeh Yuehyu and Darrell William Davis point out that Japanese director Umetsugu Inoue helped Shaw Brothers to develop various film genres with his efficiency and new techniques of filming. As a productive and skilled director, Inoue made good use of the modern spaces such as those of parties, night clubs, and scenic spots of different countries to illustrate the “spectacle of metropolis” on screen (Yeh and Davis 181). Inoue’s modern musical films, like Hong Kong Nocturne and the King Drummer (1967), presented eye-catching dancing performances with POP style of modern arts decoration as the setting or the stage performance. His works undoubtedly brought in trend of “modernity” and youth culture in Shaw’s musical films. He provided various new images that Shaw’s famous costume genre films like Huangmei and Wuxia films did not show (Yeh and Davis 183).

Critics in general agree that Shaw Brothers successfully expanded its business network by adopting Hollywood film production model of Fordism and vertical integration. The “modernized” facility and industrial structure enabled Shaw Brothers to produce numerous genre films with efficiency. One important aspect of Shaw Brothers’ modernization however has not been touched upon yet; that is, the modern society and stories about modern life it projected in the Mandarin musicals. Shaw Brothers remodeled the genre films to appropriate the current social situation into stories. Since Celestial Pictures’ restoration and release of Shaw Brothers’ seven hundred and sixty films on DVD and VCD, more scholars have noticed the display of modernity in Shaw’s Mandarin musical films. However, few have provided a systematic and diachronic analysis of how Shaw Brothers managed to be modern and at the same time upholding Chinese traditional culture to convey pan-Chinese consciousness as in Huangmei opera films and Wuxia films. Les Belles, for instance, presents a Huangmei sequence of ”Lady Meng Jiang” (Meng Jiangnu) as a stage performance, which exhibits ancient Chinese costumes, a touching legendary story, and gorgeous performance in Haungmei tunes. However, this Huangmei repertoire sequence in Les Belles is presented with shifting camera angles, including high-angle, and close-up shots. Love Parade (1963) also provides a sequence in which several models wearing cheongsam (qipao) in a setting of Chinese royal court with a stone sculpture of dragons. This sequence is followed by performances that display costumes of Malaysia and Japan. Before this sequence appears, there is a shot of a revolving globe to place the Chinese scene in an international context.

As Guofeng Shen argues in Concepts and Patterns: Genre Studies (guannian yu fanshi: leixing dianying yanjiu), genre films often reflect adopted values and ideologies of the general audience. As social situation changes, they will transform so as to “reposition and reaffirm certain changed faith and customs” (40). Shen emphasizes that genre films, as a mass culture, “is not consumption but a culture that actively create and deliver meanings and pleasure” (41). Shaw Brother’s Mandarin musicals of the 1960s testify to this nature of genre very well. The musical genre shows how Shaw Brothers responded to the modernization of Hong Kong in its films, which help constructed Hong Kong’s modernity. Shen’s notions of genre films points out the active interaction and close relations between cinema and the society as will be observed in the inception of Shaw Brother’s Mandarin musical films and the later stages of development in the 1960s. In “Fallen Women, Rising Stars, New Horizons: Shanghai Silent Film as Vernacular Modernism,” Miriam Bratu Hansen proposes the concept of “vernacular modernism” to argue that cinema not only promotes technological modernity but also serves as a “public horizon” that “the pathologies of modernity were reflected, rejected, transmuted, or negotiated” (12). The modernism she refers to is not judged as literary-intellectual modernism but as “vernacular” to emphasize the sense of its indigenous, popular, and everyday aspect. Accordingly the thesis will examine the soundtracks, costumes, settings, and lifestyles arranged and presented in the Mandarin musical films to show they are signs of modernity that both reflect the modern culture of the time but also contribute to its formation and the audience’s cognition of modernity.

In my thesis, I will argue that Shaw Brothers’ Mandarin musical films in the 1960s present a celluloid world of modernity which reflects contemporary Hong Kong society. They show Shaw Brothers’ sensitivity to social trends, such as youth culture, and how it quickly incorporated them into the films. As Poshek Fu points out, Mandarin was “the language that represented the modern nationhood of China” while Cantonese was comparatively a language that represented the sensibility of the locals (7-8). Fu considers that Shaw Brothers adopted Mandarin as its official business language because it can bring Chinese-language cinema to a worldwide audience (8). Therefore, by analyzing Shaw Brother’s Mandarin musical films one can well see how the society was facing a rapid change of modernization and economic boom. Nine Mandarin musical films of the Shaw Brothers during 1960s will be the major film texts examined in the thesis to illustrate how these joyful and entertaining musicals are not just entertainment of escapism. They in fact encompass social situations and phenomena related to contemporary society. The thesis will have three main chapters. In each chapter, three musical films will be discussed to analyze their main themes, key spaces, types of music selected, and dance numbers choreographed. In a word, the film form of these films will be examined to see what new technique was used and the audience targeted. It is the hope of the thesis to clearly demonstrate that these musical films are closely related to the contemporary society of Hong Kong, while mapping out the short history of Shaw Brothers’ Mandarin musicals of the 1960s.

Chapter Overview

In chapter one, I will examine three films directed by Tao Qin: Les Belles (1961), Love Parade (1963), and The Dancing Millionairess (1964) to explain how the new musical genre of Shaw Brothers incorporates signs of modernity in the films. Tao Qin was known for his musical films and comedies when working at MP&GI. He was hired by Shaw Brothers particularly to launch its new genre of the musicals. The three films were the very first batch of modern Mandarin musicals. In the first attempt, Les Belles, Tao made the storyline easy to follow. It is a back stage story in the line of romantic comedy with the leading couple played by famous stars Chen Ho and Lin Dai. In the film the stubborn Ma Ying (played by Chen Ho) was the leader of the dance troupe that Ran Ran (Lin Dai) was in, but they could not get along well. However, they accidently became pen pals and fell in love without knowing each other’s identity. They finally performed together in Japan. It was then they found out they were each other’s pen pal. The film ended with their performance and suggested marriage. This film is also filled with lavish singing and dancing numbers. Other than the attraction of the stars and the luxurious numbers, Shaw Brother’s newest Easterman color and shawscope also gave the film a more modern look than those of the MP&GI.

The well-calculated attempt and promotional strategies proved to be successful. Les Belles was a huge success in Hong Kong, and its extravagant musical performance and settings could almost compete with Hollywood musicals (Wu 192). Shaw Brothers subsequently worked with Tao Qin to make two more musical films, Love Parade and The Dancing Millionairess. Love Parade is about the marriage life of a couple of very different personality and lifestyle. The wife, played by Lin Dai, is a hard working gynecologist while the husband, played by Chen Ho, is a swab fashion cloth designer. It has a romantic comedy plot, in which the couple was always at odd with each other, with scenes of fashion shows and musical numbers. The Dancing Millionairess on the other hand tells a love story involved with identity misunderstanding. The film also stars Chen Ho as a talented dance performer and Loh Thi as a CEO of the family corporation. It tells a story about staging a successful dance performance, which eventually was supported by the rich lady, who decided to follow her true love for dancing instead of being bounded by her duty.

I will argue that the three musical films directed by Tao Qin present a strong sense of modernity. Other than the new screening technique, the sense is also generated by the plot, the musical performances, and the visual style of the films. The stories of these musical films are all related to the contemporary Hong Kong society. Les Belles and The Dancing Millionairess are about mistaken identity, a modern issue. The two films celebrate individualism, presenting protagonists who learn to accept their own true selves. Both Love Parade and The Dancing Millionairess involve middle-class professionals, such medical doctor, cloth designer, and company CEO. Besides, they present a consumer society, in which oppositional social values became a problem. The singing and dancing performances in the three films also provide signs of modernity to attract the audience. There are fashion shows and stage performances of high-arts such as ballet, modernist dance, and the new dance drama performed with a narration. These modernist performances were not available to most audience, who could not afford them. The performances became a modern spectacle in the film for them to see at that time. In addition, various typical dances and music numbers from China, Japan, Malaysia, etc. are presented in these films, which provide an international perspective for the audience. The cinematic photography and mise-en-scène help add a modern style to the performances by intercutting among medium shots, long shots and high-angle shots, which provide a fast rhythm and freshness for the film.