Author / No Thoughts
In Pakistan, there is an Urdu poem: "The beautiful image of a friend is in the mirror of my heart, and if I look down, I can see it." This poem is used to describe the true friendship between China and Pakistan, which is really very appropriate.
As everyone knows, "Long live the friendship between China and Pakistan" has always been a topic of conversation between the broad masses of the people of the two countries. However, China and Pakistan have a deep friendship, but in terms of film cooperation and understanding of each other, people seem to be less familiar.
In the face of the fertile land of the South Asian continent, everyone may know more about Indian cinema. However, as India's neighbor Pakistan, do you know that Pakistan's films have had a very glorious period in history, and even overtook India to become the center of the South Asian subcontinent. Not only that, but Pakistani films and Chinese films have also had a rather sweet "honeymoon period" in history.
So, what exactly has happened to the development of cinema in Pakistan? What about the development of the film industry in Pakistan today? What exactly are the film collaborations between Pakistan and China? With these questions in mind, let's walk into today's "Cultural Geography" column and set foot on the "holy land" of South Asia - Pakistan.
From glory to decay,
Political motivation is the biggest "fuse"
Some scholars refer to Pakistani films before the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 as "Lahore films", because Lahore was the capital of Punjab, the richest province in Pakistan at the time, and was also the cultural and artistic center of Pakistan. Thus, during this time, Lahore has been the center of film development in the Indian subcontinent.
In 1896, the Lumiere brothers' films were screened in Mumbai. It wasn't until 1924 that Lahore's first silent film, Daughters of Today, was released, and lahore already had nine cinemas showing films from Mumbai, Kolkata, Hollywood and London. The birth of "Fashionable Girl" undoubtedly became the beginning of local film manufacturing.
In 1932, India's first sound film " Alam Allah " was released , but compared to Mumbai , Calcutta and other places in India , Lahore's film industry is still not very profitable. It was not until two years later that Lahore's first Punjabi film, Hill and Longcha, was born. The film was not optimistic at first, as the most popular films at the time were Urdu and Hindi, but it was not expected that the film would make a lot of money in the Punjabi language circle alone, inadvertently opening a shortcut for Lahore sound films to enter the mainstream distribution market.
By the 1940s, Lahore cinema had reached a spurt, with a number of well-known local studios and companies established. By the time of the partition, Lahore already had 6 film studios.
However, the partition of 1947 brought about massive religious conflicts, which also caused the film industry to be hit hard. Many studios were destroyed, equipment burned, and creators scattered, leaving Lahore's film industry almost paralyzed.
Before the partition of India and Pakistan, the two most important film tycoons in Lahore were Roshan Lal Sori and Darsuk Benjoli.
The former founded kamra film company in 1924 and filmed his first film, Radhiam, in 1932, after the partition of India and Pakistan, his family fled to Mumbai, leaving the studio burned down by the mob. The latter, Ben Jolly studied film in the United States, and in 1931 established his own film empire, the Ben Jolly Film Studio, but also fled to Mumbai after the partition, leaving the studio to the legal counsel at the time, until 1949, when the Ben Jolly Film Studio declared bankruptcy.
As the situation stabilized, a group of filmmakers moved from Mumbai and Kolkata to Pakistan and began to revive the local film industry. In 1948, the Ben Jolly Film Studio produced the Urdu film Acacia, which is considered by many to be the first film in Pakistan. However, some scholars believe that most of the film's pre-work took place before the partition, so it cannot be regarded as the first film after independence, and the Urdu film "Shahida" released in 1949 was the first film after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Anwar Kamal Pasha was the first Pakistani filmmaker, and Agha.G.A. Gul (1913-1983) was the first distributor to experiment with local filmmaking, founding Evernew Studio in 1937 and taking over The Ben jolly Studio in 1948. In the 1950s, several films that Adja and Anwar collaborated on were so successful that they rivaled Indian films. Aja contributed greatly to the Pakistani film industry, and he became the first film tycoon in the true sense of the word.
In the early days of the development of local films after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the most difficult problem was to compete with films from neighboring India. In order to protect the local film industry and stimulate the shooting of domestic films, the government has formulated a series of measures, such as restricting the introduction of Indian films, importing an Indian film must be accompanied by the export of a domestic film, and even stipulating that the length of the cinema screening of domestic films must not be less than 85% of the total screening time.
As a result of such measures, Pakistani film production has indeed increased to a certain extent, from 19 in 1955 to 90 in 1966. Throughout the 60s and 70s, although there was a second and third war between India and Pakistan, the overall output was still in an upward stage, and there were new developments in films in various languages, and the content and themes were more extensive, but there were also some shoddy works.
In 1968, the annual output of films exceeded 100 for the first time, and in the next 12 years, the annual output remained above 80. By 1980, annual film production had fallen again to 61 films, and it was not until 1986 that it rose again to 108 films. However, except for 100 units in 1989, the annual output exceeded 100 units in a single year. Even since 2005, the annual output of domestic films has been less than 50. The least was in 2010, with an annual production of only 22 units.
It can be said that after entering the 21st century, the glory of pakistan's film industry is gone.
The Pakistani film "Purity" was introduced into China
Bottoming out, the "New Film Movement" revitalized the industry
Looking at the development of films in Pakistan, it can be said that it is inseparable from the political situation, social changes and changes in the economic landscape in the country.
After the 21st century, Pakistan's domestic situation has undergone tremendous changes. The domestic media turned to privatization, and the industrial and commercial capitalists believed that shopping malls could bring higher profits than cinemas, turning all cinemas into real estate businesses in the name of religion, and the film industry was once again hit hard. By 2010, the number of cinemas in The country had dropped from 1,585 at its peak in the 1970s to 385.
Not only that, but in the first decade of the 21st century, pakistan's domestic domestic film production was almost always hovering around 50. This is a world of difference from the film industry in Pakistan during the boom years. Most of the domestic studios founded in the 1960s (mostly owned by the National Film Development Corporation, a government-controlled down-party subsidiary to the Ministry of Culture and Sports), collapsed as the film industry continued to slump, until only two remained in 2010.
With the overall decline of the film industry, the slogan of "reinvigorating film" in China has also been constantly raised.
In 2003, young people in Karachi tried to create and distribute films with limited funds, but the number of television stations privatized at the time, the number of cinemas plummeted, and only a channel called Filmazia was willing to show these independently produced works and some old films. But the spark of a spark can ignite the plains. By 2005, many filmmakers had begun to look for opportunities in Karachi, and Karachi gradually replaced Lahore as the center of cinema in the new era.
In 2007, GEO, a private Pakistani satellite television station, funded the production of the Urdu film Khuda Kay Liye (2007) to great success. The film, which also became the first film to be released in India in 40 years, is seen as a sign of the revival of Pakistani cinema since the new century, while consolidating Karachi's position as the country's entertainment hub.
In the Name of God and Narration
In 2009, more than 1,400 film industry professionals in Pakistan joined GEO in launching the Pakistan New Film Movement, which aims to promote the production and distribution of new films. In 2011, Shoaib Mansoor, the director of "In the Name of God," made another film, Bol, which once again saved the domestic box office.
As several films achieved box office success, annual film production in 2013 began to pick up. That same year, the action thriller "War on Terror" (2013) became a symbol of a turning point in the domestic film industry, with a shooting budget of $2 million making it the highest-cost film in history, and once the highest-grossing film in history after its release.
In 2015, Pakistan's annual film production reached a new peak. The highest-grossing film of the year was an adventurous comedy called Jawani Phir Nahi Ani, which grossed $4.7 million, breaking the box office record set by "The War on Terror." Another animated film released in the same year, 3 Bahadur, Pakistan's first 3D animation, was equally a success, finishing 6th at the annual box office.
"Attack", "Youth Is No More Coming", "Super Brave Three Teenagers"
From 2015 to 2017, Pakistan's home-grown box office champions were all romantic comedies. The 2016 box office winner was "Janaan," which grossed $2.8 million, and the 2017 box office winner, Punjab Nahi Jaungi, grossed $4.8 million, breaking the record for "Youth Never Comes Again."
It is worth mentioning that the famous ARY Film Company is involved in the distribution of almost all of the above-mentioned high-grossing films. The company is also currently the top production and distribution company in Pakistan, having released 35 films since 2013 and participated in the production of sequels to many blockbuster films such as Jawani Phir Nahi Ani 2 (2018), 3 Bahadur: Rise of the Warriors (2018), War on Terror 2 (2020), etc.
Although from the data point of view, these popular films are still far from the world's standard box office blockbusters, and the domestic film market in Pakistan still relies heavily on the box office support of foreign films, on the whole, this "new film movement" still saves the decline of local films from a certain situation, and is a beneficial recovery and attempt by local filmmakers to domestic films that have fallen to the bottom under the existing conditions.
In addition, with the self-help of Pakistani filmmakers for the industry and cooperation with other countries, some local filmmakers have also been known to more audiences around the world.
Today, Pakistan's more famous filmmakers include Mahira Khan, one of the country's top actresses; Maya Ali, who starred in the high-grossing pakistani film Teefa in Trouble (2018); and Saba Qamar, one of the most famous and beautiful actresses in the country.
Among the actors are Fawad Khan, one of Pakistan's highest-paid actors; Imran Abbas, a well-known actor and model in Pakistan; and Kumail Nanjiani, who is now gaining momentum in Hollywood, starring in the American drama "Silicon Valley" series and the movie "The Great Sickness".
In terms of directing, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a well-known documentary filmmaker, journalist and social activist in China, and the best Pakistani director in Hollywood. Her "Save the Face" and "Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" have twice won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film. Next, she will direct Marvel's fourth-stage major work, Ms. Marvel. Marvel), which will be Marvel's first animated Muslim hero.
Samui Obeid Chinoy, who won the Oscar
Old friends, new collaborations,
New trends in China-Pakistan film exchanges
At the Sub-Forum on China-Pakistan Cooperation of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in 2019, the signing of the first Pakistani film "Soaring Ambition" in recent years was completed to introduce china.
If you search the Internet for information about Soaring Ambition, you will find many articles that state that the film is "a Pakistani film reintroduced in China after 45 years".
In fact, there is a misunderstanding in this.
Veteran filmmaker Lao Yu corrected in the article: Until the 1990s, Pakistani films were still imported into China. It turned out that 45 years ago was 1975, which was the release time of the Pakistani film "Eternal Love" in China. However, the film was introduced to China in 1980. Moreover, the translation and production of this film was completed by chang film studio, and it also won the 1980 Ministry of Culture Excellent Translation and Production Award (the predecessor of the Huabiao Award).
According to Lao Yu's statistics, from 1957 to 1991, China imported a total of 12 Pakistani films. Among them, there are also a number of well-known works such as "The World of Man", "Can't Live Without You", "Purity", "Iron Heart", "Skynet Restoration" and so on.
In the second half of the 20th century, there was a "honeymoon period" in film exchanges between China and Pakistan, but at the beginning of this century, after the disintegration of nafdec, pakistan's national film development company NAFDEC, there was no suitable parallel institution to host international film exchange activities, which led to a lack of awareness of Chinese audiences for China's current new films. Similarly, today's Chinese audiences have a completely unfamiliar impression of Pakistani films.
China and Pakistan have a long history of cooperation in the military field since the establishment of diplomatic relations, and in 2013, the concept of "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor" was proposed in the economic field as an important part of the "Belt and Road" project. With the concept entering the second stage of development, cooperation in the fields of people's livelihood, education and culture is also unfolding.
In this context, China and Pakistan completed their first co-production film "Pakistani Iron Girl" last year. Directed by Yang Jin and supervised by Wang Xiaoshuai, the film tells the tender story of "mutual redemption" between a Chinese girl and a group of Pakistani girls.
The film was led by the Chinese side and was mainly filmed in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, and the Pakistani partner company Hunerkada Films assisted the Chinese side in completing the site selection and shooting scene construction in Islamabad, and the actual shooting cycle was nearly two months. It can be said that this film has created a precedent for co-production between China and Pakistan, which is of landmark significance. At the same time, during the filming process, the working teams of both sides have established a deep friendship and relationship.
In addition, with the reform in Pakistan in the past two years, the film department has been established within the Pakistan National Arts Council, which has also brought new possibilities for Sino-Pakistani film exchanges. In July 2019, the Chinese Film Festival was successfully held at the National Arts Commission of Pakistan, screening many high-quality films such as "Mekong Action", "The Great Cause of Nation-Building" and "A Generation of Grandmasters".
In September of the same year, with the joint efforts of many parties, the "China Film Day" event was successfully held, and the Chinese science fiction commercial film "The Wandering Earth" was successfully screened at the National Arts Commission of Pakistan. This also laid the foundation for the future screening of China's commercial films in Pakistan.
All along, the title of "Pakistan Railway" has been widely circulated, and the friendship between China and Pakistan has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
With the birth of the first China-Pakistan co-production film and the normalization of film exchange activities between China and Pakistan, continuing to sail on the "Belt and Road" boat, I believe that the cooperation between the two countries in film has just begun, and the future cooperation will be deeper and broader. At the same time, it is also expected that pakistan's local film development can continue to recover and return to glory.
Resources:
1. Jin Qiang: A Study of Mass Media in Pakistan
2. Wang Shan: Pakistan's Film Industry and Creation
3. Wang Shan: "Pakistan's Film Industry under the Changing Times"
4. Yu Yong: "Pakistani Film, All-Media Collective "Amnesia""
5. Wang Shan/Li Yue: "Analysis of New Breakthroughs in China-Pakistan Film and Television Cooperation under the Background of the "Belt and Road""