The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple

1928 film by Zhang Shichuan

The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple
Lobby card
Directed by	Zhang Shichuan
Written by	Zheng Zhengqiu Shang K'ai-jan
Starring	Hu Die
Production company	Mingxing Film Company
Release date	1928–1931
Running time	1,620 minutes
Country	China

The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple (simplified Chinese: 火烧红莲寺; traditional Chinese: 火燒紅蓮寺; pinyin: Huǒshāo Hóngliánsì) is a lost Chinese silent film serial directed by Zhang Shichuan, widely considered to be the founding father of Chinese cinema.^[1]^[2] The film is adapted from the novel The Tale of the Extraordinary Swordsman.^[3]

The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple, in 16 parts, is among the longest films ever produced and the longest major release,^[specify] running 27 hours in total. The Mingxing Film Company production was released in 19 feature-length parts between 1928 and 1931. No copies have survived. The craze of the film series eventually led the Kuomintang to ban all wuxia films by the early 1930s because wuxia was thought to be inciting anarchy and rebellion.^[4]

References

^ Havis, Richard James (7 March 2021). "The martial arts choreographers who brought fight scenes to life in wuxia and kung fu films". South China Morning Post.
^ Zhu, Ying (11 September 2023). Hollywood in China : behind the scenes of the world's largest movie market. New Press. ISBN 978-1-62097-218-2. OCLC 1347092643.
^ Nick Belardes (2009). Random Obsessions: Trivia You Can't Live Without. Viva Editions. p. 168. ISBN 978-1-57344-501-6.
^ Teo, Stephen (2009). Chinese martial arts cinema : the Wuxia tradition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-3251-0. OCLC 398493357.