I've talked before about the pioneering 16mm color films of Joseph Sunn Jue's Grandview Film Company. Recently, I had the good fortune of acquiring a few fliers for some of these movies from an eBay seller in Malaysia (which is proof of just how far they traveled).
Jue, along with director Moon Kwan, had established the Grandview Film Company in San Francisco in 1933. The studio's inaugural feature was Romance of the Songsters, starring Kwan Tak-hing (best known for playing Wong Fei-hung in the original 1950s series). One of the first Cantonese talkies, the movie was a big hit with Chinese American audiences and was popular in Hong Kong as well.
In 1935, with the support of Chinese American investors, Jue moved the studio to Hong Kong, where it quickly became one of the colony's "big four" film companies. Grandview's prolific output included patriotic appeals like Lifeline (1935) and Close Combat (1937), direct responses to Japan's increasing aggression against China, and light-hearted fare such as The Modern Bride (1935) and Stage Lights (1938), which provided momentary escape from the darkening clouds of war.
The Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941 put a halt to film production in the territory. Undeterred, Jue returned to San Francisco and continued making movies. Between 1942 and 1947, 21 features were made: all contemporary stories depicting the lives of Chinese Americans. The films were shot on 16mm, some in black-and-white and some in color. Most Hollywood movies were still black-and-white at the time, so Jue's decision to shoot in color was quite ambitious. After opening at his Chinatown theater, the films traveled to Chinese American communities across the United States. (I've been unable to determine if they were screened anywhere outside the U.S. during the war.)
In 1947, after the end of the war, Jue returned to Hong Kong and brought the films with him. They were enormously popular and helped raise the money needed to restart his Hong Kong studio. Eventually, the films were screened in Malaysia and Singapore, where the fliers below were printed.
The American productions of the Grandview Film Company deserve far more attention than they have received (especially here in the U.S., where they've been practically forgotten). At a time when the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and Shanghai resulted, respectively, in the cessation and co-option of Chinese film production, Joseph Sunn Jue helped keep Chinese cinema alive. That these films also depicted the lives of Chinese Americans at a crucial turning point in their history makes them even more important.
Luckily, a third of Grandview's American films have survived and are available for public viewing at the Hong Kong Film Archive. I'm planning on taking a look at some of them during my upcoming trip to Hong Kong, so stay tuned for a report. In the meantime, here are the fliers for four of Grandview's color films shot in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Joy and Peace
HK release: March 6, 1947
Prod: Joseph Sunn Jue
Dir/Scr: Chiang Wai-kwong
Cast: Sun Chu, Wong Chiu-mo, Tang Pui, Chow Kwun-ling (aka Patricia Joe), Man Ha, Wong Hok-sing, Leung Bik-yuk
Note: The flier's use of the Republic of China flag and the graphic "V" (for "Victory") indicates that this was one of Grandview's patriotic movies. It is not known whether the film survives.
The Returned Soul
HK release: October 9, 1947
Prod: Joseph Sunn Jue
Dir/Scr: Wong Kam-yan (pseudonym of Wong Hok-sing)
Cast: Leung Bik-yuk, Tang Pui, Wong Hok-sing, Sun Chu, Wong Kam-lung
Note: The studio also produced more typical genre fare like this detective thriller. It is not known whether the film survives.
A Strong Wind Banished the Swallow
HK release: September 6, 1948
Prod: Joseph Sunn Jue
Dir: Joseph Sunn Jue
Cast: Lai Yee (aka Marianne Quon), Tang Pui, Liu Kei-wai, Chiu Man-fai, Wong Kam-lung, Shum Lit-fu, Tam Chui-lan
Note: A copy of this film is in safekeeping at the Hong Kong Film Archive; a reference video is available for viewing at the Archive's resource center.
A Fair Lady by the Blue Lagoon
HK release: March 6, 1949
Prod: Joseph Sunn Jue
Dir: Esther Eng
Cast: Siu Fei-fei, Liu Kei-wai, Tang Pui, Wong Hok-sing, Wong Kam-lung
Note: The director Esther Eng is one of Chinese cinema's pioneering female filmmakers. Evidently, none of the nine films she made survives today.
References and Further Reading
- Hong Kong Cinema: A Cross-Cultural View by Law Kar and Frank Bren
- "The American Connection in Early Hong Kong Cinema" by Law Kar, from The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity
- Silver Light: A Pictorial History of Hong Kong Cinema, 1920-1970 by Paul Fonoroff
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