Studies On Director Xu Xinfu

Since1920s, the film industry in Shanghai has produced so many brilliant film directors who were accomplished and with the eye of business involving Sun Yu, Bu Wancang, Yuan Congmei, Cheng Bugao, etc. However, some are absent among these splendid names for the reasons of the lack of historical material and relative researches. They had made numerous fims and unforgettable contributions to the early China film industry. Xu Xinfu is one of them.Through looking into his works and relative informations, the author has recognized that this man who loved making detective films has witnessed, joined and even helped to bring about many significant events in Chinese film history during his life. In1920, Xu built the Film Agency of China with his friends Chen Shouyin, Lu Jie and Gu Kenfu, etc. out of interest in films. And later they made Yan Ruisheng, which is the first full-length feature film of China, based on the authentic news story of a murder. This film has gained huge success, especially in boxoffice, and opened the door to a new world for the Chinese film.And then Xu was engaged in film industry and went around in different companies. When he worked in Ming Xing, he began to try to make detective films with a good start of Jadeite Horse. In the next two years, he continued to make the later series the Diamond and In Full Vigor and also achieved satisfying feedbacks and commercial profits. Later, he adapted the Hollywood popular series of Charlie Chan into Chinese version and helped Xu Shenyuan to be Charlie Chan of Chinese version. At that time, the cinemas were full of romance, family tragedies and social ethical drama and the people needed something new to watch. Xu Xinfu started a new genre and made it flourish so as to find a way out for the exhausted filmmakers suffering from thinking of new forms and subjects.In1948, Xu visited Taiwan as the director of Guo Tai Film Company to take charge of the distributions there. In1949, he came again to Taiwan and established Wan Xiang Film Company producing the first Mandarin film of Taiwan Alishan Feng Yun. He stayed in Taiwan for the rest of his life and became one of the pioneers of Taiwan film industry. During this time he made few works which carried forward the detective film’s style and pattern. And then he gradually turned to the administration in Nong Jiao as the head director of Taichung Studio.All in all, Xu Xinfu plays a very important role in Chinese film history because he not only represents the film directors of1930s but also shows constantly creativity for the new genre and expressional forms of film with his business intuitions and extraodinary artistic style.