Tan's Film
| Private | |
| Industry | Film |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Successor | Tan & Wong Bros |
| Founded | Batavia, Dutch East Indies (1 September 1929) |
| Defunct | 1942 |
| Headquarters | Batavia, Dutch East Indies |
|
Area served
|
Dutch East Indies |
|
Key people
|
|
| Products | Motion pictures |
Tan's Film was a film production house in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). Established by the brothers Tan Khoen Yauw and Tan Khoen Hian on 1 September 1929, its films were mostly targeted at native ethnic groups. Starting with Njai Dasima in 1929, the company released fifteen films before ultimately being dissolved after the Japanese occupation. The Tans and the Wong brothers established Tan & Wong Bros in 1948 to continue this work.
Tan's Film Company was established by Tan Khoen Yauw and his brother Tan Khoen Hian on 1 September 1929. It was one of three studios established in the Dutch East Indies that year, together with Nansing Film Corporation and another Chinese-owned studio. Tan's established a large studio building on Defensielijn v.d. Bosch (now Bungur Besar Raya Street). It had several divisions, including costuming, filming, and decor.
The Tans, who had been raised in Kwitang, Batavia (modern day Jakarta) and grown up in close interaction with native ethnic groups, targeted the studio's at lower-class viewers, mostly native. This was accomplished through adapting Malay tonil (stage plays) which had been proven successful. Tan's was not the first studio with this target audience, as G. Kruger's Krugers Filmbedrijf had previously released Eulis Atjih (1927) with native audiences in mind.
Tan's Film released their first film, the silent Njai Dasima, in November 1929. The work was an adaptation of the 1896 novel Tjerita Njai Dasima (Story of Njai Dasima), written by G. Francis, which had previously been made into a tonil. It was a commercial success, to the point that the Indonesian film historian Misbach Yusa Biran writes that a cinema could make up several days losses with a single showing of the film.Njai Dasima was followed by two further adaptations of tonils, the action film Si Ronda and the romance Melati van Agam (Jasmine of Agam), as well as the second part to the story, also entitled Njai Dasima, and sequel Nancy Bikin Pembalesan, in 1930. The two Njai Dasima continuations and Melati van Java were commercial successes.
...
Wikipedia