Xu Xinfu

Xu Xinfu (; 1897 8 May 1965) was a Chinese director and producer. Born in Jiangyin, Jiangsu, he moved to Shanghai for schooling. In 1921, he became involved in the production of ''Yan Ruisheng'', considered the first feature-length film in mainland China. Over subsequent decades, he was involved with numerous films with Shanghai-based companies, mostly Mingxing. Towards the end of the Chinese Civil War, he travelled to Taiwan on a filmmaking project; when his backer pulled funding, he sold his own property to fund the production of ' (1950). Xu remained active in Taiwan through the 1950s, with his film ''Women in the Army'' submitted to the 1954 Southeast Asian Film Festival.

Biography

Early career

Xu was born in Jiangyin, Jiangsu, in 1897. He attended school at the Collège Saint Ignace in Xujiahui, graduating in 1920.; With Gu Kenfu and he established a film studies group. In 1921, Xu was involved in the production of Ren Pengnian's film ''Yan Ruisheng''. Working with Gu Kenfu and Chen Shouzhi, he adapted the notorious murder case into what has been identified as the first feature-length film produced in mainland China. He subsequently joined the Great China Film Company, with whom he co-directed ''Battle Exploits'' (1925) alongside Lu Jie.

Xu joined the Shanghai-based film company Mingxing in 1931. With them, he directed several films, including ''Three Arrows of Love'' (1931), ''Who is the Hero?'' (1931), ''Blood Debt'' (1932), ''The Uprising'' (1933), ''The Classic for Girls'' (1934), and ''Passionate and Loyal Soul'' (1935). ''The Uprising'' sympathetically depicted salt miners rebelling against the capitalist business owners, while ''The Classic for Girls'' was an omnibus that also featured the work of Cheng Bugao, Shen Xiling, Zhang Shichuan, and Zheng Zhengqiu. While with Mingxing, Xu married the actress , whom he had directed in ''The Uprising''; the couple also advocated for Gu's sister, , to be given acting roles.

After 1938, Xu worked with several production houses in Shanghai, including Xinhua, Zhonghua, and Cathay. Films directed during this period included ''Gunshots in a Rainy Evening'' (1941), and ''Shadows in an Ancient House'' (1948), as well as ''The Pearl Tunic'' (1938), ''Butterfly Love Flower'' (1938), and ''Clairvoyance'' (1942). In the late 1940s, he directed two films that offered sexualized thrills: ''Pink Bomb'' (1947) and ''Beauty's Blood'' (1948); he also adapted the American Charlie Chan stories for Chinese audiences, with Xu Xinyuan as the titular character. In 1945, Xu was one of forty-three filmmakers and stars involved in a fundraiser for constructing housing for military families.

Move to Taiwan

Xu later moved to Taiwan, where he established the Wanxiang Film Company in 1948. He produced ' in 1949, the first Mandarin-language film made in Taiwan. Directed by Chang Cheh, the film was initially intended to be produced by Cathay Pictures. However, the company pulled funding after the crew had been in Taiwan for a month. Believing that Cathay had been taken over by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) amidst the Chinese Civil War, Xu sold his own property to raise funds and continued production. ''Storms on Ali Mountain'' was a commercial success, later receiving screenings for Taiwanese President Chiang Kai-shek as well as the Chinese diaspora in New York.

Subsequent films directed by Xu included ''Never to Part'' (1951) and ''Women in the Army'' (1952). The former film was a piece of propaganda, depicting tensions between the Kuomintang government and the Taiwanese indigenous peoples as stemming from CCP manipulations,; while the latter co-directed with Wang Yu was submitted to the inaugural Southeast Asian Film Festival in Tokyo in 1954. In the 1950s, Xu took several office roles. He was the director of the 's Taichung office, remaining in that role after the corporation was merged with the Taiwan Film Company to form the Central Motion Picture Corporation. He also took several consulting roles. Films he completed later in the 1950s included ''Sun Moon Lake'' and ''Sword of the Lone Star in the Cold Night'' (both 1956). Xu died in Hong Kong on 8 May 1965.

Analysis

Writing for the '' Encyclopaedia of China'', Sun Chengjian describes Xu as pioneering the detective genre in Shanghai cinema. Plot elements such as gangsters, police, and spies were used to cultivate a sense of suspense, something that was emulated by Xu's peers.

Partial filmography

*''Yan Ruisheng'' (, 1921)
*''Battle Exploits'' (, 1925)
*''Three Swords of Love'' (, 1931)
*''Who is the Hero?'' (, 1931)
*''Blood Debt'' (, 1932)
*''The Uprising'' (, 1933)
*''The Classic for Girls'' (, 1934)
*''Passionate and Loyal Soul'' (, 1935)
*''The Disappearing Corpse'' (1937)
*''The Pearl Tunic'' (, 1938)
*''Butterfly Love Flower'' (, 1938)
*''The Radio Station Murders'' (, 1939)

*''Charlie Chan Smashes an Evil Plot'' (, 1941)
*''Gunshots in a Rainy Evening'' (, 1941)
*''Clairvoyance'' (, 1942)
*''Pink Bomb'' (, 1947)
*''Shadows in an Ancient House'' (, 1948)
*''Beauty's Blood'' (, 1948)
*''Charlie Chan Matches Wits With the Prince of Darkness'' (1948)
*' (, 1950)
*''Never to Part'' (, 1951)
*''Women in the Army'' (, 1952)
*''Sun Moon Lake'' (, 1956)
*''Sword of the Lone Star in the Cold Night'' (, 1956)

References

Works cited

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Further reading

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Xinfu

1897 births
1965 deaths
Chinese film directors
Taiwanese film directors
People from Jiangyin