ENG-1974 — Page 217

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THE MEDIA

developments during the year were in Chinese programmes. A new bilingual live dis- cussion programme, 'Needlepoint', quickly became popular and is an excellent example of what can be done to bridge the communication gap in a multilingual society.

Among other things 'Needlepoint' set out to cross the language barrier, for while the programme was being transmitted in Cantonese a simultaneous translation went out on the English FM service.

With the public's appetite for news growing almost daily the flexibility of Com- mercial Radio's independent news service has improved the quality of all its news and current affairs programmes.

The station operated an 'open line' format for the first time, providing another channel for grievances, questions and answers. The high rate of involvement in public affairs was maintained with active participation in the Community Chest and all government campaigns.

Successful shows for charity were staged in conjunction with the Urban Services Department and welfare organisations. To combat the increase in prices of school textbooks, the station collected used books for distribution to needy students. More than 40,000 books were donated by 1,500 people and were given free to students.

Film Industry

Hong Kong's motion picture and cinema industries continued to do good business during the year although not maintaining the unprecedented boom and successes seen in 1973. This success had been mainly related to the local and world-wide interest in locally made kung-fu and other martial arts films which reached its peak in 1973. In 1974 there were signs that the popularity of these films was decreasing and that two of the major local film producing companies, Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest, were turning their attention to other and new subjects for their films. One such innova- tion which achieved immediate local success was the social satire type of film set in local and identifiable situations and produced in the Cantonese dialect rather than Mandarin which is the usual language for local films. A number of these films were made during the year and while they were commercially successful in the local cinemas they are essentially parochial in their appeal and cannot therefore expect the same degree of success overseas as that enjoyed by the kung-fu films. Nevertheless, a con- siderable number of local films continued to be subtitled and dubbed in many languages for showing in various parts of the world.

The four most popular films shown during the year were 'Games Gamblers Play', 'The Sting', 'The Godfather' and 'Papillon', achieving estimated gross receipts of $6,251,634, $3,600,000, $3,097,000 and $3,035,000 respectively.

During 1973 and 1974, the number of cinemas in Hong Kong decreased by 17 to a total of 80. This decrease is considered to reflect to some extent the increasing popularity of television. But another contributing factor has been the ever-increasing pressure on urban land which has stimulated property developers to demolish the