Dragon Ray Motion Pictures - Lai Man-Wai: Father of Hong Kong Cinema (2001)
Dragon Ray Motion Pictures - Lai Man-Wai: Father of Hong Kong Cinema (2001)
DVDRip | 720 x 480 | .MP4/AVC @ 1933 Kbps | 2 h 19 min | 2.04 GB
Audio: English AAC 165 Kbps, 2 channels | Subs: None
Genre: Documentary
DVDRip | 720 x 480 | .MP4/AVC @ 1933 Kbps | 2 h 19 min | 2.04 GB
Audio: English AAC 165 Kbps, 2 channels | Subs: None
Genre: Documentary
This feature-length documentary on early Chinese film pioneer Lai Man-wai (Li Minhui) premiered at the 2001 Hong Kong International Film Festival, and has now been released on DVD. Directed by Choi Kai-kwong, it is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the origins of Hong Kong and Chinese cinema.
Lai Man-wai, born in Japan in 1893 and educated in Hong Kong, became arguably the central figure in the birth in Chinese cinema. The documentary's most valuable contribution to Chinese cinema history is to argue this thesis, patiently, carefully, with copious detail: using interviews with surviving collaborators and family members, contemporary photographs, newsreels, and especially extended excerpts from the films that Lai Man-wai directed, starred in (early in his career), or co-produced, through the Minxin and Lianhua Film Studios.
The film also argues that Lai's political convictions - he joined Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary party in 1911 - played a central role in his filmmaking. From crucial work in pioneering cinema in Hong Kong - along with Joseph Brodsky, he shot Hong Kong's first short film in 1913, Zhuangzi Tests His Wife (Lai played the wife) - through his trailblazing early documentary work shooting Sun Yat-sen's anti-warlord campaigns through southern China from 1921 to 1928, Lai arrived in Shanghai and helped to precipitate that city's "golden age" of cinema. After several spectacular (but money-losing) productions at Shanghai Minxin Studio, he established, with Lau Ming-yau (Luo Mingyou) Lianhua Film Company, the studio responsible for a series of masterpieces in the 1930s that remain among the finest works of Chinese cinema. Lianhua was the studio of the great actress Ruan Lingyu, as well as actors Jin Yan, Chen Yanyan, Li Lili, and Lai Man-wai's second wife Lin Chuchu.
The documentary offers generously long excerpts from Ruan Lingyu's Goddess, New Woman, and Love and Duty, among others, and takes a substantial excursion in order to recount her brief, illustrious career and tragic suicide. The film and stills of her funeral are perhaps the most moving sequences in the documentary.
Following Lianhua's financial decline from the mid-1930s, and the Japanese attacks on Shanghai (Lai felt compelled, characteristically, to record the attacks and destruction in an instant resistance documentary, along with cameraman Chu Shu-hung), Lai and his family left Shanghai for Hong Kong in 1938. The film's story ends with Lai and his family's flight as refugees through China (and their partially successful attempts to save parts of his film library), and his return to Hong Kong, where he died in 1953.
General
Complete name : Lai.Man.Wai.-.Father.of.Hong.Kong.Cinema.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 2.04 GiB
Duration : 2 h 19 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 093 kb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Tagged date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Writing application : Lavf54.63.104
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Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 2 h 19 min
Duration_FirstFrame : 67 ms
Bit rate : 1 933 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 3:2
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
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Encoded date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Tagged date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Audio
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Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 2 h 19 min
Duration_FirstFrame : 64 ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
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Encoded date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Tagged date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Complete name : Lai.Man.Wai.-.Father.of.Hong.Kong.Cinema.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 2.04 GiB
Duration : 2 h 19 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 093 kb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Tagged date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Writing application : Lavf54.63.104
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L3
Format settings : CABAC / 1 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, RefFrames : 1 frame
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 2 h 19 min
Duration_FirstFrame : 67 ms
Bit rate : 1 933 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 3:2
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.187
Stream size : 1.88 GiB (92%)
Writing library : x264 core 129
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=1 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x131 / me=dia / subme=2 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=8 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=abr / mbtree=1 / bitrate=1933 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.41 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Tagged date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Audio
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Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 2 h 19 min
Duration_FirstFrame : 64 ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 165 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 192 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 165 MiB (8%)
Default : Yes
Alternate group : 1
Encoded date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Tagged date : UTC 2017-06-17 14:39:02
Screenshots
Dragon Ray Motion Pictures - Lai Man-Wai: Father of Hong Kong Cinema (2001)
Dragon Ray Motion Pictures - Lai Man-Wai: Father of Hong Kong Cinema (2001)
Dragon Ray Motion Pictures - Lai Man-Wai: Father of Hong Kong Cinema (2001)
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