United Photoplay Service

United Photoplay Service Company
Company type	Private
Industry	Film production
Predecessor	Lianhua Productions
Founded	March 1930; 96 years ago
Founder	Luo Mingyou, Lai Man-Wai
Defunct	1937
Fate	Ceased operations after Nationalist government retreat from Shanghai
Headquarters	Shanghai, China
Area served	China
Key people	Luo Mingyou, Lai Man-Wai
Products	Films

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article United Photoplay Service, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 30 November 2025

The United Photoplay Service Company () ranked among the top three leading film studios in Shanghai during the 1930s, alongside the Mingxing Film Company and Tianyi Film Company, the latter of which later transformed into Hong Kong’s renowned Shaw Brothers Studio.

Names

Initially established as Lianhua Productions, the company was also referred to as China Film Company, United China Film Company, and United Photoplay Service. Its complete later designation was "Lianhua Film Production and Processing Company, Ltd."

History

Founded in March 1930 in Hong Kong by businessman Luo Mingyou and filmmaker Lai Man-Wai, Lianhua sought to challenge the American film industry's dominance in Shanghai by creating artistically ambitious movies through strict control over production and distribution. The company’s structure was designed to emulate Hollywood’s vertically integrated model. Their strategy included establishing studios in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, alongside an academy dedicated to training actors and technicians.

By 1931, the company shifted all its activities to Shanghai. That same year, Lianhua merged with the Bright Moonlight Song and Dance Troupe, founded by Li Jinhui, marking a groundbreaking fusion of C-pop music within cinema. This partnership played a crucial role in introducing the first wave of shidaiqu music. Prominent actresses such as Wang Renmei, Li Lili, and Chen Yen-yen featured prominently in numerous commercially successful films.

Lianhua consisted of four subsidiary studios—China Sun, Dazhonghua Baihe, Shanghai Yingxi, and Xianggong Yingye—which were originally separate entities from the 1920s that Luo unified under his leadership.

The outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in the mid-1930s dealt a heavy blow to Lianhua. Japanese military operations destroyed vital facilities including Studio No. 4, resulting in significant financial setbacks. By 1936, Luo had stepped down from management; subsequently, Lai Minwei revived Minxin as an independent studio operating out of Studio No. 1. The Nationalist government’s retreat from Shanghai in late 1937 effectively ended Lianhua’s operations, while competitors such as the Xinhua Film Company gained prominence after the war.

Following World War II, filmmakers like Cai Chusheng returned to Shanghai to rejuvenate Lianhua under the banner of the Lianhua Film Society. This organization eventually evolved into the Kunlun Film Company (崑崙影片公司), responsible for producing landmark films of the 1940s including The Spring River Flows East (1947) and Crows and Sparrows (1949).

Notable films

Associated with the leftist cinema movement, Lianhua was behind many influential productions during its time, such as:

Two Stars in the Milky Way (dir. Shi Dongshan, 1931)
Love and Duty (dir. Bu Wancang, 1932)
Wild Rose (dir. Sun Yu, 1932)
Night in the City (dir. Fei Mu, 1933)
The Big Road (dir. Sun Yu, 1934)
The Goddess (dir. Wu Yonggang, 1934)
Song of the Fishermen (dir. Cai Chusheng, 1934)
New Women (dir. Cai Chusheng, 1935)
Song of China (dir. Fei Mu, Luo Mingyou, 1935)
Blood on Wolf Mountain (dir. Fei Mu, 1936)
Lianhua Symphony (anthology, 1937)

Talent

Lianhua cultivated a dedicated internal roster of creative professionals, including directors, actors, actresses, and screenwriters, many of whom had previously been affiliated with its subsidiary studios.

Directors

Actors and Actresses

Bibliography

Fu, Poshek (2003). Between Shanghai and Hong Kong: The Politics of Chinese Cinemas. Stanford University Press.
Pang, Laikwan (2002). Building a New China in Cinema: The Chinese Left-Wing Cinema Movement, 1932-1937. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Rea, Christopher (2021). Chinese Film Classics, 1922-1949. Columbia University Press.

External links

Chinese Film Classics (chinesefilmclassics.org) – academic platform offering Lianhua films with English subtitles
Partial compilation of Lianhua filmography
IMDb catalog of Lianhua productions
Lianhua profile at the British Film Institute