Esther Eng
| Esther Eng | |
|---|---|
| Chinese name | 伍錦霞 (traditional) |
| Pinyin | Ng Kam-ha (Mandarin) |
| Born |
24 September 1914 San Francisco, United States |
| Died | January 1970 |
| Occupation | Film director, producer |
| Years active | 1936–1961 |
Esther Eng (September 24, 1914 – January, 1970) was a Chinese–American film director. Eng was the first female director to direct Chinese-language films in the United States. Eng made four feature films in America and five in Hong Kong.[1][2] Eng died of cancer at the age of 55 in January 1970.
Career
Esther Eng was born in San Francisco on September 24, 1914.[2] Eng was the fourth child in a family that would have ten children.[3] Eng's Grandparents originally came to American from the Toy Shan (Taishan) county in southern China's Guangdong province.[2] Eng was a fan of Chinese Opera and having lived in San Francisco she was able to socialize with the Chinese singers and actors who performed there. San Francisco had hosted theaters were successful that had hosted some of the best actors in all China.[2]
When she was 19, she had her father and his business partners to create a film production company with Eng as a producer.[2] A studio was made and based at 1010 Washington Street while Esther looked for a studio in Los Angeles. Esther's first screen credit was being a producer on the film Heartache (1936).[1] Heartache is set in San Francisco. Directed by Frank Tang, Heartache was shot in six days with two reels shot in color.[2][3] The film was made at a rented studio down in Hollywood.[3]
In 1936, along with friend and the film's leading actress Wai Kim Fong, Eng went to Hong Kong for a premiere at the Queens Theater under the title Iron Blood, Fragrant Soul.[1][3] After China entered war with Japan, she directed the film National Heroin (1937).[1] The next year, Eng made the film National Heroine (1937) about a female pilot that fights who fights for her country.[1] The film was a success which lead to Eng staying in Hong Kong where she directed her two next film: Ten Thousand Lovers and Storm of Envy both released in 1938.[1] She also co-directed the film Husband and Wife for One Night with Yuen Peng and Leung Wai-man.[1] In 1939, she created the film Womens World which had an all female cast showcasing 36 women in different professions.[1]
In 1939, she returned to San Francisco to begin distributing Chinese films in both Central and South America.[2] In 1941, Eng directed the film Golden Gate Girl in San Francisco. which received a favorable review in Variety that year.[1] Eng returned to Hong Kong to make a war film between 1946 and 1947. After months of preparation that including location hunting in southern China, Eng had to abandon the project.[2] By mid-1947, Eng returned to California where she made The Blue Jade that starred another Cantonese Opera singer Fe Fe Lee.[1][2] Eng followed it up with another film with Lee titled Too Late For Springtime (1949) about a Chinese girls' relationship with a Chinese-American GI.[4] This was followed up by a film shot in the Hawaiian Islands titled Mad Love Mad Fire about a romance between a mixed race women and a Chinese sailor.[4]
Eng stopped making films to go into the restaurant business.[2] In 1950, she her friend Bo Bo, a Chinese actor who had been stranded in New York. Eng supported him and managed his stage career in America and later named a restaurant she co-founded as "Bo Bo". This was the first of her five Manhattan restaurants which included the Esther Eng Restaurant which opened in 1959.[2] In 1961, she earned her final film credit being the New York location shooter for Yuen Woo's Murder in New York Chinatown. Esther Eng directed all the exterior scenes of the film.[4] Eng died of cancer at the age of 55 in January 1970.[4]
Style
Most film productions that Eng worked on are lost films. Eng's film were mostly standard romantic dramas, generally with women at the center.[3]
Personal life
Eng was openly lesbian.[3] Her sexual preference did not affect her career negatively partly because homosexuality was an accepted part of the Chinese opera, which she was associated with.[3] Around the time that Heartache was released, Esther Eng changed her family name from Ng to the more easily pronounceable Eng.[3]
Legacy
On April 1, 2013 the documentary about the life and career of Esther Eng titled Golden Gate Silver Light premiered at the Hong Kong Film Festival.[3][5] The film was directed by Louisa Wei and was inspired by the 2006 discovery in of Eng's photo albums that dated between the years of 1928 and 1948. During production on the film, Wei found more albums but no audio or film records of Eng.[3]
Filmography
- Heartaches (as producer)
- National Heroine (1938)
- 100,000 Lovers
- Tragic Love (1938)
- A Night of Romance, A Lifetime of Regret (1939)
- It's a Women's World
- Golden Gate Girl
- Blue Jade
- Too Late for Springtime
- Mad Fire, Mad Love
- Murder in New York Chinatown (as location Director)
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Taylor, 2011. p.16
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 Bren, Frank (January 23, 2010). "Electric phantom - the indomitable Esther Eng". China Daily. Archived from the original on April 10, 2012. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Elley, Derek (June 4, 2013). "Golden Gate Silver Light". Film Business Asia. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Taylor, 2011. p.17
- ↑ Kerr, Elizabeth (April 1, 2013). "Golden Gate Silver Light: Hong Kong Review". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
References
- Taylor, Kate E. (2011). On East Asian Filmmakers. Columbia University Press. ISBN 190666031X. Retrieved June 4, 2013.