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PRESS, BROADCASTING AND CINEMA
to Kwun Tong, Tsuen Wan, and Sha Tin in the New Territories and further developments are under consideration.
FILM INDUSTRY
Although accurate figures for the purposes of comparison are hard to establish it may well be that Hong Kong is the world's largest film producing centre. The best figures available for the year 1963 show that Hong Kong film companies produced a total of 310 feature films, compared with 271 made in India, 225 in Japan and 155 made by United States film companies. It is possible, however, that Hong Kong may not be able to hold the first place this year as the number of films produced is down to 238, partly as a result of typhoons which held up several productions during the summer. Nevertheless it is obvious that Hong Kong holds a major position in the film world, and one that may soon be more and more appreciated in the west although all of these films are at present made with an entirely Chinese audience in mind. Many of this enormous number of productions are the work of small studios on low budgets but the industry has its moguls and its extravaganzas in full colour and wide screen. It was in one of these Lady General Hua Mu-lan from the Shaw Brothers Studio- that Miss Ivy Ling Po won the title of Best Actress of the Year at the Asian Film Festival this year. Two other Hong Kong films, starring the late Miss Lin Dai, were shown at a San Francisco cinema during the trade fair in which Hong Kong participated. At times there were queues a block long to see these films and the cinema owner reported that by no means all of them were Chinese.
Hong Kong continues to be a favourite setting for film companies from abroad, although not always as itself. The streets, waterways and country-side of the Colony appear regularly on the screens of the world disguised as not merely China but half a dozen other Asian locations as well since in Hong Kong the film maker finds not just the authentic background that he seeks but the modern services and the skilled technicians equally necessary for his purpose. Even when Hong Kong appears as, ostensibly, itself it may seem to be disguised since the Colony provides a popular background for entertainment on the lighter side, liberally sprinkled with drug- runners, spies and gangsters more sinister than anything in police files. These occasional extravagances can be taken lightly since