New Friend (1927)

Genre

silent film

Country

Malaysia

How it feels

This silent film is about a Chinese immigrant who has just arrived in Singapore. It was made in 1927 and was the first film fully shot in Singapore and Malaya. The story focuses on the immigrant's experience in a new land.

historicalmelodramaticstraightforwardnostalgictheatricaltraditionalearly cinema styleethnic tale

What happens

New Friend (Chinese: 新客; pinyin: Xin Ke; lit. 'The Immigrant') was the first Singaporean film shot entirely in Singapore and Malaya. It was produced by Nanyang Low Pui-kim's Self-made Motion Picture Company (南洋劉貝錦自製影片公司), in association with Low Pui-kim (劉貝錦, 1902 to 1959), who served as the producer and Kwok Chiu-man (郭超文), who was both the director and cinematographer. The film production company originally planned to produce its second film production, silent movie "(行不得也哥哥)", however, as the film production company was closed on 10 May 1927, this film is pending. The silent film New Friend (新客) is a melodrama about a newly arrived Chinese immigrant to Singapore. It was first screened in Singapore at the Victoria Theatre (維多利亞戲院) on 4 March for a public test, entertained more than 500 guests, just showed 6 reels of film, two erotic dances (Chinese sword dance and Malay butterfly dancer) were also shown in the showed film. Its official premiere was at Marlborough Pub and Theatre (曼舞羅戲院) on Beach Road (小坡海墘十二間), and Gaiety Picture Place (牙池電影戲), the cinema was located in front of a Chinese temple - "(太師公廟)", the junction between Albert Street (芒果律) and Bencoolen Street (小坡五馬路), Singapore. After public showing in Singapore, it was reported that it used another Chinese film title as "(唐山來客)", released in the "Chung Wo Cinema (中和影畫場)" in Kau U Fong (九如坊), Hong Kong, from 29 April 1927, Friday to 2 May 1927, Monday, totally four days, so it is the first film production of Singapore, and the first export film production too. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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