They are designed to draw you into theaters but film trailers could turn out to be works of art in their own right, displaying as much creativity and even commercial savvy as feature films.
The thing is, while films stick in the collective consciousness and can be brought back to life through screenings time and time again, film trailers more often than not are lost to history once they have served their purpose.
READ MORE: Play it again, Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA)-hosted Coming to a Theatre Near You — Gems of Hong Kong Film Trailers exhibition shines a light on a sadly neglected area of the city’s famed film industry.
“Our team was looking at possibilities of new exhibitions and we got talking about how we kept finding these trailers while working at the archive,” explains Janice Chow, HKFA project researcher. “We all agreed that they are so special and some of them really are unique. So we knew we had to share them with the public who might otherwise never get a chance to see them.”
The staff found around 1,000 trailers in the HKFA vaults, though most of them — being too old and exposed to the endemic deterioration of film stock brought on by Hong Kong’s humidity — were in a state of decay. Some were already damaged because of poor storage conditions when the archive acquired them from film studios or private collections. Only around 300 were deemed fit for restoration.
In the end, the HKFA chose around 100 trailers for its exhibition. On a recent weekday afternoon, Chow took media members on a guided tour through the exhibition. The HKFA’s cotton-gloved conservation team was there to explain the delicate process of handling and restoring these cinematic gems.
Breaking the fourth wall
At the HKFA Exhibition Hall, viewers are surrounded by a number of digital screens, playing the trailers on a loop. The display boards offer plot summaries of the films the trailers are from as well as insights into the art of making a trailer, with QR codes linking to English translations.
Taken together, the visuals and text chart a course through the film genres that have entertained Hong Kong audiences over the years, from musicals (Butterfly and Red Pear Blossom, 1959), to martial arts actioners (The Big Boss, 1971) to dramas with a distinctly local flavor (Love in a Fallen City, 1984) to comedies (Kung Fu Hustle, 2004).
Highlights of the show include actor and film producer Patrick Tse breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience about his personal experiences of marriage and fatherhood as part of his campaign for the Chun Kim-directed comedy How to Get a Wife (1961). It must have proved a popular move as producers of the 1973 classic The House of 72 Tenants tried the same trick — having the likes of comedy giants Lydia Shum and Elliot Yueh appear as themselves rather than in character, as they talk up that film’s many charms.
The filmmakers behind Trouble on the Wedding Night (1964) take a different approach, leaning on the fame of the film’s composer Zhou Lan-ping to promote the movie, instead of directly focusing on its emotionally fraught tale of broken hearts — and vows.
ALSO READ: Lost and found
“Zhou was a very famous and popular composer and hence the filmmakers decided to show him conducting an orchestra. So we learn about more than just the film from the trailer. We are looking back at life in Hong Kong at that time,” Chow says.
If you go
Coming to a Theatre Near You — Gems of Hong Kong Film Trailers
Dates: Through Nov 3
Venue: Hong Kong Film Archive, 50 Lei King Road, Sai Wan Ho
