Tai Kwun Movie Steps

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From the Small Screen to the Silver Screen: Classic Hong Kong adaptions

From the communal TV dinners of a bygone era to the one-person-one-screen of the streaming era, how has the meaning of “television” changed for you?

When Cantonese cinema began declining in the 1970s as television sets became commonplace (and then essential) in homes across the city, the silver screen began to consider ways of recapturing their old audience.

Beauty pageants became major events and series theme songs populated the charts, even commercials were the talk of the town. Illicit recordings of videotapes were sent overseas to friends and relatives to keep them company in their far-off adopted homes in the 1980s.

Beauty pageants and broadcast training programs became feeders for studios and producers. Popular series and gag shows were adapted into films (oftentimes with TV stars reprising their roles) in attempts to attract the at-home audience to go back to the cinema.

Films, more than television series, also had the advantage of income from the diaspora communities across South East Asia. Beginning with the long-running variety show Enjoy Yourself Tonight being adapted into the 1968 film We All Enjoy Ourselves Tonight, iconic TV characters such as Lam Ah Chun and Ar Chan also appeared on the big screen.

This summer, Tai Kwun presents a list of 6 rarely available adaptations of your (mother’s) favourite shows, including Games Gamblers Play, the long-awaited cinematic debut of the multi-talented Hui Brothers who extended their TV sketch comedy show The Hui Brothers Show; Sunshine Friends, an adaptation of two gag shows from the then broadcast rivals TVB and ATV into a comedy in which two broadcasters battle it out; Mad Mad 83, renowned director Chor Yuen’s second attempt to adapt the long-running sitcom Hong Kong 83; The Bund I & II, recut from the 25 episodes starring Chow Yun Fat, Angie Chiu, and Ray Lui; and finally, Plain Jane to the Rescue, the iconic TV character Lam Ah Chun brought to screen by director John Woo.

Screenings
Date and Time: Every Sunday, 4pm

24.04.2022
12.06.2022

Game Gamblers Play (1974)

01.05.2022
05.06.2022

Sunshine Friends (1990)

08.05.2022
26.06.2022

Mad Mad 83 (1983)

15.05.2022

The Bund (1983)

22.05.2022

The Bund II (1983)

29.05.2022
19.06.2022

Plain Jane to the Rescue (1982)