Mandarin Films Distribution Company Limited (Hong Kong)

Background : After Cinema City (???) closed down in early 1990s, one of its founders Raymond Wong (???) set up Mandarin Films (????) with remarkable productions like "Dragon Tiger Gate" (???) and "Ip Man" (??). Wong later sold Mandarin, using the proceeds to start up another label, Pegasus Motion Pictures (????), together with his son.

1st Logo (1991-1992)


Logo : On a time lapse sequence of a sunrise over a river, a silver Tweety-like bird flies towards us and tilts a bit. The bird slides to the left of the screen and then throws some blue sparkly powder that form the text "Mandarin Films Limited" in a TNR font with fancy capital letters and some Chinese characters in blue. The capital M in "Mandarin" is in a Vivaldi-like font. The bird materializes in wind streaks and sparkles and disappears through a whirlwind, as the company name zooms in to the middle, making the "M" flash.

FX/SFX : Extremely choppy and outdated animation.

Music/Sounds : A rising ominous synth tune with drums is heard at first. A cheerful piano tune is heard when the bird is seen, quickly-rising harp notes when the text appears, and then a cartoon-like trombone tune is heard.

Availability : Extremely rare. Seen on 90's movies such as Happy Ghost V, Daddy: Father: Papa, The Great Pretenders, Beyond's Diary, Lucky Encounter

Editor's Note : The synth tune at the beginning, the creepy sunrise animation, and the bird appearing out of nowhere may surprise some.

2nd Logo (1992-1999)


Note: The 1st Video is the High-Pitched Version, The 2nd Video is the Low-Pitched Version, and the 3rd Video is all the logo variants all together.

Logo : On a black background, a white flash appears below and a sun rises to illuminate an ocean. The sky becomes a white background and we zoom back into a golden rounded square tunnel. The tunnel turns green and we zoom out to reveal a green marble surface with filmstrip holes in a shadow, that the one of the holes we're emerged from the tunnel. The holes disappear and a golden curve falls on top of the marble. The curve gets drawn into an golden Vivaldi-like M which is the same one from the first logo and the logo zooms out to reveal the marble as either a rectangular slate with sprocket holes on their sides to form a filmstrip or just a square slate on a black background. The background fades to white and the following text,(earlier films), "MANDARIN FILMS LTD.", (later films) "MANDARIN FILMS DISTRIBUTION CO. LTD.", and (films developed by the Singapore division) "MANDARIN FILMS (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD., appear with their Chinese translations." The lighting and color contrast of each version is also different.

FX/SFX : The sunrise, the zoomings, and the M getting drawn, pretty good CGI effects for 1992.

Music/Sounds : A synthesized fanfare. There exists low and high pitched versions of it.

Availability : Rare. Seen on Hong Kong films of the time.

Editor's Note : None.

3rd Logo (2000s-)
Logo : On a black background, many flames fly around and when we get to a zooming out shot, the flames form the M from before. The M flashes and then turns green with a golden, glowing slate with filmstrip holes. Below is "MANDARIN FILMS DISTRIBUTION CO. LTD." and the Chinese translation on top of it. The logo shines and flames make the logo disappear.

FX/SFX : The flames. Decent animation for it's time.

Music/Sounds : A shining synth pad with burning noises all throughout.

Availability : Uncommon. Probablyappears on newer movies made by the company.

Editor's Note : None.