Shnanghai Daily news

In 1905, the first Chinese movie ``Ding Jun Shan,'' showing excerpts from Peking Operas, was screened.
The film was made in Beijing but Shanghai was not far behind.
``In 1913, Zheng Zhengqiu shot the first Chinese feature film, `The Difficult Couple' in Shanghai and the Chinese film industry was really up and running,'' says Professor Li Yizhong, director of the Department of Film and TV with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
The Shanghai at that time was already a movie paradise -- Hollywood blockbusters would be screened shortly after their premiere in the United States. And Chinese film directors began pursuing their own dreams of making movies in the country. ``In the 1920s, filmmaking was such a fresh term to many Chinese businessmen, who were eager to set up their own film studios and copy the way Hollywood worked,'' Professor Li says. ``You may say the domestic film industry lacked somewhat in original creativity during this period.'' However, in the 1930s, Shanghai's filmmaking matured with the arrival of the ``left-wing movement'' (resistance against imperialism and feudalism).
Representative works of this genre are Xia Yan's ``Torrents'' (1933), Yuan Muzhi's ``Street Angel'' (1937) and Shen Xiling's ``Crossroad'' (1937).
Many acclaimed Chinese actors and actresses such as Hu Die (``Butterfly''), Ruan Lingyu, Zhao Dan, Zhou Xuan and Shu Xiuwen also gained national fame.
Filmmaking in the 1940s imposed a higher standard all round on screenwriters, directors, actors, cinematographers, music composers and art designers.
``I yearn for a return to the golden days of films made in Shanghai,'' says Wang Guangdi, a 60-something retiree. ``Those touching pictures and great stars were part of my childhood and adolescence. It is a pity that contemporary Shanghai films are not as impressive as those in earlier years.''
After the 1950s, Beijing, Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, Changchun in Jilin Province and other Chinese cities began to develop their own filmmaking industries. But today, Shanghai still remains a leading filmmaking center in China.
``Some Chinese filmmakers nowadays seem to cater to the tastes of foreign juries and consider the international market rather than thinking about how to reach a bigger home audience,'' says Li.
``I don't think it's a wise approach to ignore the home market. Never forget to win applause of the Chinese people -- the home market is always the biggest.''
And maybe that is the ultimate goal of the Shanghai International Film Festival which, after all, was established to educate the home audience and help advance the domestic film industry.