Emerald Jungle
Mya Ga Naing
Tin Maung
Myanmar – 1934
Cinematography: U Myat Kyaw, U Ba Thaung
Production: A1 Film Company
Language: Silent with Burmese intertitles, music added in 1954 and dialogue in 1970
Duration: 97 min
Color: Black and White
Synopsis: Deep in the jungle, where tigers, snakes and elephants are at home, U Pho Thwa, owner of a sawmill, lives in idyllic tranquility with his delightful granddaughter Myint Myint. Out riding one day, Myint Myint is thrown from her horse into the river and saved from drowning by Chit Shwe, a handsome youth from Rangoon. Alas, the young couple must part all too soon, as Chit Shwe is bound back to the city to try and save his father from his cheating stepmother and from squandering the family’s fortune. Chit Shwe needs money, and decides to pretend to be a wanted criminal so that he may turn himself in for the reward. The police however give zealous chase, and Chit Shwe has to escape merely to stay alive, which he does using every available mode of transportation including hot air balloon. The winds of fate blow him in the direction of the sawmill. Happily reunited, Myint Myint and Chit Shwe fight off an attack from a group of thieves during which grandfather loses his life, but Chit Shwe receives the welcome news that his stepmother has finally eloped with her lover, father has regained his poise, and the young couple are anxiously awaited for tea and marriage blessings in Rangoon.
Notes:
Maung Tin Maung was born in 1908 in Pyay, a small town in Lower Burma. He came from a well-known film family, his brother Nyi Pu (1900-1996) being among the first Burmese film actors. Tin Maung began his film career humbly, appearing in the 1923 film Taw Myaing Zon Ga Lwan Aung Phan. In 1934, while enrolled in Rangoon University, Tin Maung started working at A1-Film, the largest film studio in Burma at the time, where he became known as ‘A1 Tin Maung’ (as was the custom for stars and technicians who worked there, in show of pride). The very same year he directed his first film, Mya Ga Naing (The Emerald Jungle) and in 1937, Aung Thabyay (The Triumph of Thapyay), a historical drama about the final days of King Thibaw, Burma’s last monarch, who died an embittered man in exile in India. It was shown only to a small Burmese audience, as the colonial government did not allow the movie to play in theaters nation-wide.
In 1942, during World War II, Maung Tin Maung enlisted in the Burma Independence Army to fight against the British. After the war he returned to A1, increasingly focused on directing. In the following years he visited several Asian countries (Indonesia in 1950, India in 1954 and Japan in 1955) to learn more about directing and film production techniques. He won the Burmese Academy Award for best actor with the 1953 film Yadanarpone, and another one for best director with Ko Ye, Toe Ye, Soe Soe Ye in 1967. Tin Maung was also chairman of the Film Council (known today as the Myanmar Motion Picture Organization, MMPO) from 1964 to 1966. Maung Tin Maung died in Yangon on 4 October 2000, having appeared in a number of films as singer and actor, and having directed more than forty titles over the course of his career.