Yuen Tai-yung, who introduced elements of humor and quirkiness to poster art in the golden era of HK films, is back with his latest creations, soon to go on show at Comix Home Base. Honey Tsang reports.

Yuen Tai-yung stepped up to face a poster he had drawn for the film, The Private Eyes, in 1976. He gazed at his own drawings of the well-known film stars - Hui Koon-man and Hui Koon-kit - set off against a backdrop of bright hues. There's a comic-book feel to the poster - a jokey vibe about it that was a hit with moviegoers as well as cartoon geeks way back in the 1970s. Yuen recalled how he manipulated the use of light and shade in the image, making each strand of hair stand out.

The poster for The Private Eyes was only Yuen's second artwork for a film. It was a turning point in his career, says Yuen, now 75. The movie was a huge box-office hit, leading to several more commissions for Yuen to produce work on the same lines.

"In the 1970s, film posters in Hong Kong used to be painted in a traditional Chinese artistic style," said Yuen. "But the ones I drew had a contemporary feel to them."

Usually Yuen did not get a chance to meet the movie stars he drew. He would leaf through albums containing hundreds of 3R-size film stills taken on the set of a movie. Then he would pick the faces and situations that seemed to him might make for potential selling points for the movie. The next step was to adapt the chosen photos in the form of sketches and portraits.

The over 200 film posters he created were admired for the fun and whimsy he invested them with. Over the three decades from the 1970s to the 1990s, Yuen had drawn hundreds of famous figures. However, drawing martial arts hero Bruce Lee has always been a major challenge. "The facial expression of Lee is not easy to grasp," he said. In the 1980s, Yuen created a series of posters for the kung fu movie The Way of the Dragon, starring Lee. The likeness of Lee that he was able to create earned him appreciation from beyond Hong Kong.

The high demand for his work also had to do with the fact that the film posters created by him became a rage among the public. There was a buzz in the film circles that drawings by Yuen on the poster could go a long way in drawing in the audience. It was believed Yuen's sketches could actually make a film a hit.

"My posters might have helped a bit", said Yuen, laughing at the suggestion. "I had imbued the posters with attractive elements, or included illustrations of some interesting plot points. These could have drawn the attention of audiences."

Interestingly, Yuen did not receive any formal training in art. Drawing was more of a hobby he would indulge in, ever since he was a child. It was during his time as an art director in an advertising firm in the 1960s that he started fine-tuning his drawing skills.

Hui See-wai, the son of Hui Koon-man, says that the meeting between Yuen and Hui's father and uncle - the producers of The Private Eyes - was serendipitous. Yuen's ground-breaking artwork for the film marked the entry of a new genre of film poster design in Hong Kong. Hui said many filmmakers refer to Yuen as the "godfather" of film poster art in Hong Kong.

"The public's first impression of a movie is through its poster," said the younger Hui. We live in a time when film posters are mostly made up of photographic images taken from the film itself. Hand-drawn sketches or illustrations in film posters are indeed very rare, if not on the verge of extinction. Hui, however, feels the artistic value and nostalgic appeal of hand-painted images in film posters are hard to match.

As a tribute to Yuen's art and the tradition he represents Hui produced a documentary this year called The Posterist.

Starting over

Yuen immigrated to New Zealand in 1992 to be with his family and had stopped drawing for years. It was after his wife passed away in 2007 that he went back to sketching again. Now he draws every day.

He is looking forward to the first exhibition of his recent artworks, which opens at Comix Home Base on Aug 13. "The exhibition has to bring something new to the crowds," says Yuen. Not one to rest on his laurels as a maker of poster art, Yuen has tried out other artistic forms. Besides a new set of paintings by him, the Comix Home Base show will also feature sculptures, including a life-size statue of Bruce Lee, which Yuen feels will contain an element of surprise for the viewers.

His film posters, celebrating the golden age of cinema in Hong Kong, are now hot property. Art collectors are on the lookout for these images from a bygone era.

"As a Hong Kong citizen, it's gratifying to know I have contributed a little bit in the fields of art and movie," said Yuen. His plan now is to make sculptures of all the celebrities he has drawn on film posters.

"As long as I'm physically fit, I want to do more, both drawing and sculpting," he said. "I hadn't made any plans in my life before. But now that I got one I want to make it happen."

Contact the writer at honeytsang@chinadailyhk.com

(China Daily 08/11/2016 page10)