Shaw Brothers Question

[CatNap]

I was watching Cheng Pei Pei in the extras of COME DRINK WITH ME talking about her experiences in films and what led her to Shaw Brothers. She said since she didn't know English or speak Cantonese, she signed on with SB because they spoke Mandarin. I'm a big fan of Alex Fu Sheng, who worked for the studio, and did several films under this company. He was from Hong Kong and spoke Cantonese, but were all the films he did originally in Mandarin? I would assume that any movie from SB was originally filmed in Mandarin even if the DVD offers a Cantonese version too.

[Markgway]

Most of Fu Sheng's films were Mandarin, but not all.

[CatNap]

Given that Cheng Pei-Pei said Shaw Brothers spoke Mandarin in their films, I would have thought that all were originally shot in Mandarin and given dubbed Cantonese as an alternative, but which films were originally shot in Cantonese?

[Xenorama]

i thought it was general knowledge that all Chinese movies were shot silently and dubbed later in several languages.

David

[SamuraiDana]

Most Shaw Bros. films in the early 1960s, maybe even all of them, were shot in Mandarin, sync-sound. Up until about 1964 or so. At some point after that they made a practice of post-dubbing them all. You'll notice this if you watch a lot of early 1960s Shaw films, such as those starring Linda Lin Dai.

A number of other Hong Kong films were shot in Cantonese, sync-sound. These include a lot of Cathay productions and some others. I recently saw an old Connie Chan movie that was shot sync-sound in Cantonese, THE SUPREME SWORD, made in 1969. I forget which studio. It co-starred two major Cantonese-speaking HK stars, Walter Cho Tat Wah and Shih Kien (Han from ENTER THE DRAGON). Great chance to hear their real voices.

(By sync-sound, or direct sound, I mean dialogue recorded directly on tape during shooting, and synchronized with the film during editing, rather than dubbed later.)

[Chinatown Kid]

Speaking of Shih Kien, I believe his english voice in Enter the Dragon was dubbed by Keye Luke who played Master Po in the Kung Fu tv series. At least it sure sounds like Luke to me.

[CatNap]

It was dubbed, Kien doesn't speak English, just Cantonese. It may have been Keye Luke who did the English as I agree it certainly sounded like him.

[David Rees]

It Was Keye Luke, he also dubbed Bruce's father in Enter. Shih Kien could not speak English and had to mouth his words phonetically on set.

[SamuraiDana]

A number of other Hong Kong films were shot in Cantonese, sync-sound. These include a lot of Cathay productions and some others.

I believe I was mistaken about Cathay's productions being in Cantonese. I meant to check a few discs while at home over the weekend and forgot, but I checked my notes on one of them and I wrote that it was shot sync-sound--in Mandarin. So, until further notice, forget what I said about the Cathay films being in Cantonese.

Thanks.

[The Dragon]

It Was Keye Luke, he also dubbed Bruce's father in Enter. Shih Kien could not speak English and had to mouth his words phonetically on set.

You have... our... gratitude!!!
:D