[Concurrent] Hong Kong Film Restorer Zheng Zihong

  "In the Mood for Love", "Fallen Angels", "Happy Together", "2046", "Chongqing Forest", "A Fei's True Story", "Mong Kok Carmen"...

  [Explanation] In the eyes of Hong Kong film restorer Zheng Zihong, these Hong Kong films that are familiar to the audience have special meaning to him.

In the film age, Hong Kong films are prosperous and excellent works continue.

But as time goes by, the film of that year will be acidified, deteriorated, mildewed, and faded.

With the efforts of Zheng Zihong and his team, these classic films have transformed from reels of old film into ultra-clean and lively images. After a lapse of decades, they have been reappeared on the big screen of the theater and the fashionable 4K streaming media platform. Enter the audience's field of vision again.

  [Concurrent] Hong Kong Film Restorer Zheng Zihong

  Now my colleague is doing a repair called film. We are cleaning up a little stain on the surface and removing some of the tape used in editing, because the tape will affect the quality of the scan when it passes through the scanner. You see My colleague is using a knife to slowly remove the adhesive tape, but he must be very careful because he does not want to damage the image on the film frame.

When cleaning, we use very high purity alcohol and lemon oil.

  [Explanation] After the physical restoration is completed, the restoration engineer will start digital restoration, first scan the image on the film and convert it into a digital file, and then further deal with the picture fade, scratches, mildew, jitter, flicker, noise and other issues .

As an audiovisual art, in addition to the reproduction of light and shadow, the restoration of sound is also a particularly critical part.

The better the picture is restored, the thinner the mono sound of the film will be.

  [Concurrent] Hong Kong Film Restorer Zheng Zihong

  These are some optical vocal cords, so we actually see a lens here that turns the optical sound into a digital signal.

You may hear a small background sound that speaks English.

These Shaw Brothers movies are often accompanied by English dialogues, so that they can be sold to some English-speaking places, and they have also made Hong Kong's action movies popular around the world very early.

  [Explanation] After 30 years of cultivating the film industry, Zheng Zihong has witnessed the growth and development of Hong Kong films.

  [Concurrent] Hong Kong Film Restorer Zheng Zihong

  For example, when our company opened in 2015, we repaired a lot of (parts) Bruce Lee, and mainly some action movies, Jackie Chan. Later, we gradually made more drama movies, such as Guan Jinpeng and Wang Jiawei. This is actually a lot of foreign audiences. The process of cognition of Hong Kong movies.

  [Explanation] As the person in charge of the film restoration institute, Zheng Zihong and his team have restored a total of more than 50 film works by well-known Hong Kong directors such as Wong Kar Wai, Wu Yusen, Du Qifeng, and Chen Kexin. The behind-the-scenes work of film restorers has also been known to the public. Recognized.

  [Concurrent] Hong Kong Film Restorer Zheng Zihong

  Film restoration probably started in the 1990s, first in Europe and then in the Americas. In the mid-2000s, Hong Kong only started to come into contact with film restoration.

This year (2021) the Hong Kong International Film Festival has screened several famous films from the 1980s and 1990s in Southeast Asia, including a film directed by Jin Peng, such as "Rouge Button", "Ruan Lingyu", and Wong Kar Wai's " Many people know these movies, such as "In the Mood for Love" and "Fallen Angels".

Because these movies have a certain degree of popularity, even many audiences who are not very clear about the concept of restoration are beginning to notice.

  [Explanation] The blade dances lightly, the film rolls, and a small workbench is a long-standing adherence to the old, as well as the inheritance and development of culture.

  [Concurrent] Hong Kong Film Restorer Zheng Zihong

  It is a kind of cultural inheritance, a kind of cultural preservation. Especially when we watch Hong Kong movies in the 1980s and 1990s, we have seen a lot of Hong Kong society and recorded a lot of the old society in Hong Kong at that time, some streets and some buildings. Now many of these places are gone. In fact, for many people living in other places, film is the most direct and fastest way for them to get to know the culture of a place.

  Reporter Fan Siyi and Luo Siyu report from Hong Kong

Editor in charge: [Ji Xiang]