The man who filmed revolution when cameras were still magic.
In the life of Mr. Lai Man-wai, he had seen the most turbulent times of recent Chinese history. From the fall of the Qing Dynasty to the founding of the Republic, from the Sino-Japanese War to the founding of the People’s Republic. With a patriotic spirit, he joined the revolution and used the theatre to promote the revolutionary course. For a ‘stronger China’, and ‘education for all’, he chose film as his life long goal and career. Lai was more than the father of Hong Kong cinema was; he was also one of the pioneers of the Chinese cinema. He made Hong Kong’s first short fiction film ‘Zhuangzi Tests His Wife’. He opened the first Chinese owned cinema, the New World Cinema, in Hong Kong…. In the several decades, Lai had devoted his life and fortune in writing this glorious inaugural chapter in early Chinese film history. The technical enhancement, the introduction of foreign techniques and equipment were all part of his contribution to the Chinese cinema.
Production
Rare archival footage resurrected from crumbling nitrate.
Direction
Choi weaves personal tragedy into national narrative.
Writing
Context that finally explains why Hong Kong cinema matters.
Director
Clifford Choi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Lai's 1913 'Zhuangzi Tests His Wife' was so controversial that he played the wife himself—male actors in female roles were still standard, but a founder cross-dressing in his own debut? Legend.
The New World Cinema opened in 1907 when Hong Kong was British colonial property; a Chinese-owned theatre showing Chinese stories was quietly radical.
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