What was the difference or division between Golden Harvest and Paragon Films?

[Omni Dragon]

Could someone clarify what the difference or division between Golden Harvest and Paragon Films was?

I know very little about Paragon Films outside the fact their credited on Golden Harvest movies, with such roles as the production company or filming company. I think my main reason for confusion is, I can't personally recall coming across  Paragon Films with out Golden Harvest being involved in someway? (usually production company and/or distributor).

So was Paragon Films a division of Golden Harvest? An independent company? Or something else?

 

[ShawAngela]

Could you mention a few titles released by Paragon films, please ?

I had never heard of this company...

Thanks.

[Omni Dragon]

31 minutes ago, ShawAngela said:

Could you mention a few titles released by Paragon films, please ? 

I'm sure you actually know a lot of them very, but just think of them as Golden Harvest titles which a lot if not all are.
Here's the HKMDB link to their credits: http://hkmdb.com/db/companies/view.mhtml?id=1620&display_set=eng

1st 20 according to HKMDB as

 'Production Company:
     H-BOMB (1971)
      The Man from Hong Kong (1975)
      The Hand of Death (1976)
      The Prodigal Son (1981)
      Hired Guns (1981)
      Super Fool! (1981)
      Tower of Death (1981)
      Dragon Lord (1982)
      The Miracle Fighters (1982)
      Postman Strikes Back (1982)
      To Hell with the Devil (1982)
      Zu: The Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983)
      Project A (1983)
      Duel to the Death (1983)
      The Body Is Willing (1983)
      The Champions (1983)
      Home at Hong Kong (1983)
      Winners and Sinners (1983)
      Wheels on Meals (1984)
      Long Arm of the Law (1984)'

And the 21 HKMDB listed as
'Filming Company
      A Man Called Tiger (1973)
      Immortal Story (1986)
      Nepal Affair (1986)
      To Err Is Humane (1987)
      Long Arm of the Law II (1987)
      Mr. Vampire Saga Four (1988)
      The Bachelor's Swan Song (1989)
      Reincarnation of Golden Lotus (1989)
      Forever Young (1989)
      Doctor Vampire (1990)
      Shanghai Shanghai (1990)
      Zodiac Killers (1991)
      The Cat (1992)
      Super Lady Cop (1992)
      Mary From Beijing (1992)
      Once Upon a Time in China II (1992)
      Changing Partner (1992)
      A Roof with a View (1993)
      Crime Story (1993)
      Red Zone (1995)
      The Day that Doesn't Exist (1995)'

[ShawAngela]

Thanks a lot, and yes, I know some of them for sure !

[Omni Dragon]

Could someone from the @Moderation Team perhaps, please move this thread/topic to the 'Questions & Answers' section of the forum?

[Jesse Smooth]

From what I understand, GH was based on the old United Artist model, where it was a group of serval small production companies and independent producers. Paragon may have been one of those companies under the GH banner. I could be wrong.

[Omni Dragon]

Below is the response I got when I asked the question over at https://industrialhistoryhk.org/golden-harvest-film-studio/:

Quote

Dear James

I don’t know the amswer to your question about Golden Harvest and Paragon. I asked Philip Edward Kenny who runs the HK Film blog
https://hongkongandmacaufilmstuff.blogspot.com/

He sent this reply: I’ve heard of Paragon but don’t know who was behind it. Their existence on the HK company register (incorporated 1972, dissolved 1989) conflicts with the various film sites I use that show it as operating well after its dissolution year…but this is HK so who knows what corporate shenanigans were going on.

From what I can gather it was just one of the many independent production companies in HK operating in the same way as other production companies. Golden Harvest provided funding, studio facilities and distribution (local and overseas) for a film but the individual production company (Paragon) would be the company involved in the actual movie making process.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes
Hugh Farmer

 

[Omni Dragon]

3 hours ago, Jesse Smooth said:

From what I understand, GH was based on the old United Artist model, where it was a group of serval small production companies and independent producers. Paragon may have been one of those companies under the GH banner. I could be wrong.

The response I got on https://industrialhistoryhk.org/golden-harvest-film-studio/ parallels what your saying as well what was said in the article on there: 

Quote

The studio was later used to make films by independent companies set up by artistes who then struck a deal with GH for funding, distribution etc. These included Golden Way, Bo Ho Films and Hui’s Film. In the late 1970s the studio was was occasionally rented out to other film companies.

 

[Omni Dragon]

The weird thing about Paragon is personally I've seen little that actually separates it from Golden Harvest. Just two things really the company name and specific roles on movies, movies that ultimately have Golden Harvest involvement.

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

On 5/24/2020 at 1:10 AM, Omni Dragon said:

The weird thing about Paragon is personally I've seen little that actually separates it from Golden Harvest. Just two things really the company name and specific roles on movies, movies that ultimately have Golden Harvest involvement.

Maybe some intricate business tax/ legal reason. Stuff mostly incomprehensible for me   

[Omni Dragon]

@Chu Liu Hsiang, I have wondered (through speculation) myself if it was some kind of tax avoidance, despite how public the credits are.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Omni Dragon

[Markgway]

This could be wrong, but I'm sure I read somewhere that Paragon Films was Leonard Ho's company. 

Don't quote me! 

[Omni Dragon]

I found text on a poster for the movie H-Bomb that reads:

'PRESENTED BY PARAGON FILMS LTD.

A GOLDEN HARVEST GROUP COMPANY'.

I assume this more or less confirms Golden Harvest owned and/or controlled Paragon?

The poster:

Text from the bottom right of the poster:

 

On a side note while trying to research about Paragon, I came across 'Artpic Company Limited' which may have a connection to Golden Harvest and Armour of God though it's probably not that important...

[Cognoscente]

About the first film listed as a 1971 entry, H-Bomb was made after Summertime Killer (1972). In the below interview, Olivia Hussey recalled that H-Bomb was the second time that she had collaborated with Christopher Mitchum.

http://www.themoviewaffler.com/2016/04/waffling-with-screen-legend-olivia.html

In the below interview with Mitchum, H-Bomb is referred to in one of the poster captions as a "a 1972 Golden Harvest Kung Fu flick."

https://jeremylr.medium.com/kung-fu-stunts-and-red-state-politics-with-chris-mitchum-670301358975

Back to Paragon, the official registration date is Friday, May 12, 1972. This was a week into the filming of The Way of the Dragon. The Chinese name of Paragon is Jiafeng whereas Golden Harvest's Chinese name is Jiahe.

https://www.hongkongdir.hk/paragon-films-limited-cqifi/

During a Chinese Google search, I learned that Wong Jing's My Name is Nobody (2000) was produced by a company called Jiafeng who are also known as Kingsford - this company has been credited on a few sites as being involved with what's known as Seasonal's All for the Winner (1990).

[Omni Dragon]

16 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

The Chinese name of Paragon is Jiafeng whereas Golden Harvest's Chinese name is Jiahe.

Putting the Chinese names for Paragon '嘉峰' (Jiā fēng) and Golden Harvest '嘉禾' (Jiāhé) into computer translators; '嘉' (Jiā) seems to mean excellent, '峰' (Fēng) seems to mean peak or summit and '禾' (hé) seems to be related to grain(s).

16 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

During a Chinese Google search, I learned that Wong Jing's My Name is Nobody (2000) was produced by a company called Jiafeng who are also known as Kingsford - this company has been credited on a few sites as being involved with what's known as Seasonal's All for the Winner (1990).

I think All for the Winner (1990) must have been a co-production. On HKMDB (https://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=7343&display_set=eng); Golden Harvest is listed under 'Production Companies' along with Seasonal.

I also found All for the Winner on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OerL2VbpJI) and 'Paragon' was in the end credits with the '©' copyright symbol.

A print screen from that YouTube video:

Typing up this post has made me realize, I've rarely actually seen Paragon in on screen credits without that symbol. Does that mean Paragon acted as a copyright holder of Golden Harvest movies? On HKMDB Paragon is often under 'Filming Company' which to me at least suggest they acted as more than just a copyright holder.

Edited January 15, 2022 by Omni Dragon

[Asmo]

Jiafeng (Gaa Fung in Cantonese)is/was Paragon, but as how for they were connected to GH I'm not sure. 

Unless, as @Omni Dragon suggests Paragon was GH's filming arm so to speak. Golden Harvest could have been behind the funding, studios, and distribution while Paragon was behind the filming of at least most of their productions. If we look at Golden Harvest's partnerships with the likes of Golden Way, Bo Ho etc, that might tell us that Golden Harvest always considered itself as acting like an independent distributor as opposed to Shaw Brothers' business model.

I did find out that the land on which Golden Studios once stood is now mostly a housing estate called... Kingsford Terrace. The Chinese name includes Gaa Fung. So it seems like the government/housing authority paid some kind of tribute to what once stood there. 

[Omni Dragon]

On HKMDB Golden Harvest (https://hkmdb.com/db/companies/view.mhtml?id=695&display_set=eng) is credited for/as production, filming and distributor. It's the same for Paragon (https://hkmdb.com/db/companies/view.mhtml?id=1620&display_set=eng) except nothing as distributor.

[Asmo]

The waters may be intentionally murky. 'Production' for Golden Harvest might have just meant funding.

[Omni Dragon]

On 4/22/2021 at 1:02 AM, Omni Dragon said:

On a side note while trying to research about Paragon, I came across 'Artpic Company Limited' which may have a connection to Golden Harvest and Armour of God though it's probably not that important...

The international/export version of The Armour of God gives copyright credit to 'Artpic Company Limited', as do the lobby cards for that version. I'm assuming this might have been a one off and just an unusual quirk for the international rights of The Armour of God? I've only ever seen Artpic referenced in connection to The Armour of God, most other Golden Harvest movie lobby cards seem to give copyright to 'Golden Harvest', 'Paragon Films' or 'Golden Communications'. I'm assuming 'Golden Communications Company Limited' might have been something like a marketing division for Golden Harvest?

 

Below a 'Paragon Films Limited' mention from the end credits for the Hong Kong version of Armour of God:

 

Below an 'Artpic Company Limited' mention from the end credits for the international version of The Armour of God:

 

Below an 'Artpic Company Limited' mention from an English language lobby card for The Armour of God:

 

 

 

 

On 5/23/2020 at 9:04 PM, Omni Dragon said:

Below is the response I got when I asked the question over at https://industrialhistoryhk.org/golden-harvest-film-studio/:

Quote

Dear James

I don’t know the amswer to your question about Golden Harvest and Paragon. I asked Philip Edward Kenny who runs the HK Film blog
https://hongkongandmacaufilmstuff.blogspot.com/

He sent this reply: I’ve heard of Paragon but don’t know who was behind it. Their existence on the HK company register (incorporated 1972, dissolved 1989) conflicts with the various film sites I use that show it as operating well after its dissolution year…but this is HK so who knows what corporate shenanigans were going on.

From what I can gather it was just one of the many independent production companies in HK operating in the same way as other production companies. Golden Harvest provided funding, studio facilities and distribution (local and overseas) for a film but the individual production company (Paragon) would be the company involved in the actual movie making process.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes
Hugh Farmer

 

 

I got another response over at https://industrialhistoryhk.org/golden-harvest-film-studio/ I thought I'd copy it as a quote into this thread:

Quote

Hi James.

Without knowing who was behind it, it’s hard to say. Creating a ltd company in HK is very straightforward and is a common way for people to do business. Profits made by a ltd company can be paid as non-taxable dividends which is why so many people use them. This is why everyone set up their own companies to do deals with GH, it was just more tax efficient.

Perhaps Paragon was a joint operation between Raymond (or one of the other GH execs) with a specific person/group of people? Or maybe it was set up to do business in a certain region? Or it may just have been one of the many production companies who had distribution/funding deals with GH that informally fell under the GH banner without there being any specific share holding by anyone in GH? Or maybe it was a GH subsidiary? Without seeing the corporate structure in detail it’s hard to know.

Finding out company information in HK right now is a minefield. Ltd companies are used to hide all manner of goings on and HK has always been the place where “certain people” can get money out of “certain countries” and funnel it into property. The govt has cracked down on access under the premise of “personal data protection” but actually the real reason is that lots of high profile people were getting outed with their shady dealings (thin panama papers etc).

Phil

 

[Cognoscente]

Paragon Films Limited is also credited at the end of a once-shelved Bo Ho film called Lover at Large.




Here is a Chinese post about the film: https://www.facebook.com/hkent168/posts/1392330484232201/

I remember many years ago that Mike Leeder posted on Rick Baker's Facebook page about how he had worked on an unreleased film starring David Wu, Sheila Chan and Cheung Man. This could be it.

When Fortune Star got round to releasing it on VCD last decade, I purchased it from YesAsia. It's a fun movie despite the violence against women. Sheila Chan is cute in it.