Sending Rescue Signals:
Besides putting on this festival for nostalgic purposes and for looking at the past to reflect on the present, says Wu Chung Li, the deputy director general of the Government Information Office, "We also wanted to give a message to society about the problem of preserving cultural resources." The movies are an integrated manifestation of the arts and the people's life in miniature.
In reality, the original negatives of the black and white films screened by the National Film Archive at this festival had long been in a state of total decrepitude. Hence, the archive had to find copies, from which they clipped together a new master that was used to make copies for showing in theaters. But because they were 30 to 40 years old and hadn't been stored properly, these 16 millimeter copies had become distorted, mildewed, cracked, torn and blurred. This made the restoration process extremely difficult.
Take Little Cabbage, for instance. "You couldn't even see the characters' noses," says Tung Yueh-chuan, who established Hsinhua Studios with her husband Chang Shan-kun. The National Film Archive took the films to a developing company, which gave them an ultrasonic cleaning, repaired the sections that were ripped and falling apart and then used all sorts of special printing machines and chemical techniques to blow up the negatives one frame at a time. Now the films look pretty much like they did back when they were released. All told, in personnel and materials, it cost about NT$400,000 to have these films preserved for another 50 years.
"There are another 680 films that are still slated for urgent recopying," says Ray Jiing. "They are all extremely old, and their negatives are in a total shambles. Within five or ten years they will have deteriorated too much, and there won't be any way to save them."
In weaving dreams, movies have made history.
[Picture Caption]
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Li Li-hua's performance in Little White Cabbage took the world by storm and is still nostalgically recalled by film fans today. It also made her one of the era's highest paid stars. (photo by Huang Lili)
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Li Li-hua, the evergreen of the silver screen, hosted the opening ceremonies of "Warmth and Joy--The National Film Touring Exhibition." (photo by Huang Lili)
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In The Transformation of the Woman. Lin Tsui played a Man. What a figure she cut in a suit and tie! The performance gave her the moniker, "the student lover." (photo courtesy of The National Film Archive)
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Does this little waif look familiar? It's Hsiao Fang-fang, who's still active in the world of films. Many a tear fell for her rendition of "In the World, Only Mama is good."
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A movie with a message, Long Alley challenged age-old Chinese male chauvinism.
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The Tears of the Peach Blossom was a representative of the early films that combined tragedy and comedy, separation and reunion, ambition and tenderness.
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Back when times were hard, seeing a movie was a luxury, an eagerly awaited treat. That's probably why they're still so fresh in the mind. (photo courtesy of Lin Chin-yun)
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After these reels of film are restored, they'll serve as visual evidence of an era. (Sinorama file photo)
Back when times were hard, seeing a movie was a luxury, an eagerly awaited treat. That's probably why they're still so fresh in the mind. (photo courtesy of Lin Chin-yun)
After these reels of film are restored, they'll serve as visual evidence of an era. (Sinorama file photo)