《吳鳳》：臺灣電影製片廠對「現代電影」的追尋

No Greater Love Wu Feng (1962): Taiwan Film Studio’s Pursuit for“Modern Cinema”

本文利用收藏於國史館臺灣文獻館，迄今少人研究的臺灣電影製片廠（以下簡稱「臺製」）的公文檔案、電影期刊與翻譯書籍，以及報紙與口述史材料來討論臺製於1950年代中期到1960年代初期如何開始現代化，學習攝製「現代電影」，並且實際執行的過程。臺製關於「現代電影」的想像在1956年已見雛形。在臺製的現代化計畫中，臺製需要以當時的新電影技術，配合符合經濟理性的管理方式，拍攝可以表達「民族風格」的電影，以打入國際影展和海外市場。此「現代電影」的想像在1960年代初期得到了實踐的機會。為了因應美援補助方式的改變，臺製轉變經營方針，從原本在官方設定下以拍攝宣傳片與新聞片為主，改為開始將劇情片攝製視為能賺取營收的主要手段，而《吳鳳》（1962）正是這個現代化製片計畫下的第一部劇情長片。透過檔案來探究這段時間臺製的電影製片與發行，筆者希望突顯臺製是臺灣、乃至世界電影文化的一環。這意味著臺製（乃至任何製片廠）的製片官員不斷觀察國外電影發展，並且試著擷取其中可用的要素，而國外的製片也以他們的方式，觀察並歸類臺製，以及臺灣電影之雙向過程。本文最後將以歐美映演市場對亞洲電影的分類，及其中隱含的東方主義意識形態來解釋為何《吳鳳》難以打入歐美市場。

Using understudied archival materials of the Taiwan Film Studio (TFS) held at the Taiwan Historica as well as film journals, translated books, newspapers, and oral histories, this article discusses how, from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, the TFS embarked on a process of modernization, acquiring knowledge about the production of“modern cinema”and executing related plans in practice. As early as 1956, the TFS bureaucrats had envisioned a version of this“modern cinema.”Central to the studio’s modernization endeavors was the need to integrate advanced film technologies with economically rational management practices. The objective was to produce films that embodied a“national style”suitable for entry into international film festivals and for overseas distribution. The realization of this“modern cinema”vision became tangible in the early 1960s. In response to shifts in the US aid programs, the TFS transformed its operation. Previously, under official directives, the primary focus of the TFS was on producing propaganda films and newsreels. However, they began to view the production of narrative feature films as a primary revenue-generating strategy. No Greater Love / Wu Feng (1962) emerged as the first feature-length film produced under this modernization initiative. Through examining archival materials detailing TFS’s film production and distribution during this period, this research aims to underscore that the TFS was not merely a component of the ideological state apparatus. It was, in fact, an integral part of both Taiwan’s local film culture and the broader global film landscape. This suggests that film bureaucrats within the TFS, as well as those in other film studios, consistently monitored international film trends and sought to incorporate relevant elements. This process was inherently reciprocal, indicating that other actors in the global film culture were also observing the TFS and film studios in Taiwan, seeking opportunities for collaboration or influence. This essay will conclude by examining the categorization of Asian films in the European and the US film exhibition markets, along with the underlying Orientalist ideology, to elucidate why No Greater Love struggled to penetrate the European and the US markets. Narrating the TFS’s transnational journey of film knowledge and its envisioning of global film markets implies that our understanding of Taiwanese, or any film culture for that matter, must transcend national borders and cannot be confined solely within the paradigm of“national cinema.”