Period Drama

Since the 1920s, Tianyi Film Company, Shaw’s precursor, had created a period drama fever. With “to place an emphasis on traditional morals and ethics; to promote Chinese culture and avoid westernization” as its promotional slogan, it produced numerous period drama titles adapted from folklore and classical novels. They included Humanities (1926), The Disheartening Story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai(1926), Lady Mengjiang (1926), The White Snake (1926), Flirting Love (1926) and Mulan Joins the Aramy (1927). This tradition was continued by Shaw’s. The building of the large-scale “Period Drama Street” in Shaw Studios at the very beginning, clearly indicates that the production of Period Drama was to be one of its highest priorities.

When Shaw Studios was inaugurated in 1958, Shaw’s hired the up-and-coming Li Han-hsiang to direct Diau Charn (1956), The Kingdom and the Beauty (1958) and Empress Wu (1963). With an artistic background, Li Han-hsiang had also engaged in backdrop painting in the early days of his film career. His artistic sense gave his films highly stylized framing, sets and props, colourful costumes and grand scenes -- all in all a rich visual feast. At the same time that Shaw’s was producing its series of period dramas, it was also introducing colour and wide-screen filming technology which further enhanced the artistic, visual effects. Under Shaw’s, the period drama tradition lived on. The most famous outputs in the genre include Beyond the Great Wall (1959), The Magnificent Concubine (1960), The Dream Of The Red Chamber (1961), Last Woman Of Shang (1964), and, later, The Empress Dowager (1975) and The Last Tempest (1976). The films cover thousands of years of Chinese history, from the early Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) through the Tang Dynasty (618-907) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). The historical things, places and events re-created on screen were eye-openers for the audience and brought solace to many overseas Chinese.