Protection of old footage has long way to go

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A scene from "The Life of Wu Xun" [Photo: douban]

The preservation and restoration of old films in China has prompted concern of late as most film footage in Chinese archives remains in poor condition.

The issue came to the forefront of public attention recently following a report by Beijing News that a restored version of an old Chinese biopic entitled "The Life of Wu Xun" ("Wu Xun Zhuan") would be sold in DVD format. Starring actress Zhao Dan and directed by Sun Yu, "The Life of Wu Xun" was originally released in 1951 and received harsh criticism from the mainstream newspaper People's Daily for Wu Xun was considered a big landlord. People forgot about it for the next 60 years, but it emerged again this year after its DVD format appears in the market.

The news about "The Life of Wu Xun" preceded a press conference held by the China Film Archive and Italy's Laser S. Films on March 19 in Shanghai to introduce and showcase three other old Chinese films that had been restored, including "A Spring River Flows East," "Eight Thousand Li of Cloud and Moon" and "Crossroads."

At preesent, the China Film Archive has more than 30,000 films.

"The preservation of the footage requires a constant temperature and humidity level," a staff namely Mr. Sha from the China Film Archive said. "Otherwise, the films easily succumb to mold and other elements that can cause serious damage. We must spend a great amount of money to keep air-conditioners and other electrical equipment running."

Furthermore, personal collections of old film footage have raised concern because of a lack of knowledge regarding film preservation techniques or even a desire to protect them.

The restoration of old films faces several other challenges as well. One is the separation of restoration techniques and cinematic creation. A good restoration project requires close cooperation between restoration staff and film researchers, but in many cases, this is lacking.

Another is a shortage of funds. Some industry insiders say restoring an old Hong Kong film, for instance, costs HKD700,000 (US$90,1200) in Hong Kong or 500,000 yuan (US$79,200) on the mainland.

"Now we mainly rely on government funding to complete the restoration work," an unnamed employee at the China Film Archive said. "In the future, we hope to collect more money from public donations to manage the restorations."

The government-funded Digital Restoration Project of Film Archives, started in 2007, has allocated 265 million yuan to various film archives on the mainland. To date, more than 100 films have been restored, including "Captain Guan," "Liu San Jie" and "Ashima."

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