The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

98 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN August, 1953 I it in Progress in China An account, by Journalist ALEX McCRINDLE, of a visit to film studios in China, where production, exhibition, and audiences are groiving rapidly each year NOW I feel as if we might be in England or America," said Miles Malleson, as we drove into the courtyard of the film studios in Peking. And our tour of the premises so strengthened that impression that we were not surprised at the end of a take when the director used the word " cut " instead of its Chinese equivalent. But there are important differences nevertheless which became clear when we sat down round a big table with the head of the studios, producers, directors, actors, writers, technicians and trade union officials. For instance, the industry, which nowadays functions at Changchun and Shanghai as well as at Peking, is nationalised. This was not the outcome of policy (indeed, the Government tried hard by means of loans and priorities in men and materials to keep the privately-owned studios in existence). The private firms simply asked, in the end, to be taken over. Also, the trades unions in China are not organised on a craft but on an industrial basis. In other words everybody working in the studios in Peking is encouraged to become a member of an organisation which embraces directors, producers, writers, technicians, craftsmen and cleaners. The Bureau for the film industry, which consists of leading workers from every grade (including the trade unions) draws up a programme for the industry, based on its estimate of the needs and desires of the people and the Central People's Government. This is submitted to the Ministry of Culture and amendments are suggested where necessary. I asked if amendments were welcomed and they said yes since the Film Bureau had every confidence in the Ministry being in touch with the needs of the country. There is no casual employment among actors or technicians. So great is the need for all kinds of trained personnel that in 1950 a film college was founded which now has seventy students and another twenty are studying script writing. The course lasts two years. Those already trained are in great demand but even if there should ever come a time when their services were less in demand — and it is difficult to foresee any such situation in view of the huge waiting audience of 450 million in China — their salaries would still continue to be paid. A film in progress on the day of our visit was Dragon's Beard Drain by a writer who spent many years in Hollywood and only came home after the 1949 liberation. The film was adapted from the successful stage play of the same name. Dragon's Beard Drain was a particularly offensive open drain in old Peking, and the story tells how the lives of a group of people were changed and regenerated with its enclosure by the new Government. The Director (and he would have looked like a director in any country ! ) had recently produced a stage version of " Romeo and Juliet " but, according to him, without much success. While we examined a studio reconstruction of the famous drain, other members of our party were being shown the original one, now enclosed in a huge pipe. Another film being edited was an astonishing documentary on the Huai River Flood Control Project, in which 2,300,000 people took part. I told unassuming Miss Shih Mei, who is one of their ace documentary directors, that our Jill Craigie and Mary Field would envy her such assignments. This film, incidentally, is being prepared for non-theatrical showing in this country. Twenty-five other full-length documentaries are due from this studio in 1952. The film of course which they are proudest of and which they say marks the biggest step forward in the 30-year history of their industry is The White-Haired Girl. This is a collective work based on folk tunes and suggested by a story current in the recent war of liberation. It is a moving piece of work and I am looking forward to seeing it again in this country, where a copy has now arrived. The Chinese film industry has had its ups and downs since 1915 when American and Chinese capital began operating in 13 cities. Superstitious and often indecent stories were varied with banal treatments of modern themes in the early days. But from 1926 Russian films like Battleship Potemkin began to influence Chinese film makers. The Japanese invasion of Shanghai transformed the situation and many excellent film such as Song of the Fishermen, which I remember seeing at the London Film Society, were made about this time. From 1937 China has never lacked progressive films. After the liberation in 1949 The Ode on Three Women and The Peasant Lin's Wife (based on a story by China's greatest writer Lu Hsun) were made. In the last three years they have produced 86 features and 58 documentaries. Thousands of projection teams now travel to villages and factories showing films to people who had never before seen them. In 1950 cinema audiences amounted to 150 million, while in the first HALF of 1952 they amounted already to 210 million. One man in British films they seemed to know about was Laurence Olivier. They had all seen his Hamlet and were enthusiastic in their praise of it. In my shame I was unable to tell them about his present project, The Beggar's Opera. If it achieves the same high standards of his two previous productions then he will cerainly increase his popularity with Chinese film makers and audiences.