page_title: Wong brothers
section_title: Tan's Film
hierarchical_section_title: Wong brothers / Tan's Film
caption_attribution_description: English: One of the Wong Brothers, Chinese Indonesian filmmakers from the early 20th century
context_page_description: The Wong brothers were three ethnic Chinese film directors and cameramen active in the cinema of the Dutch East Indies. The sons of an Adventist preacher, the brothers – Nelson, Joshua, and Othniel – received much of their education in the United States before going to Shanghai and establishing The Great Wall Productions.
  By 1927, Nelson had arrived in the Dutch East Indies and was working with Miss Riboet's Orion, a theatrical troupe. When its owner Tio Tek Djien suggested he make a film with the troupe's star, Nelson insisted that his family be brought to the Indies. Although this initial film was not realised, the brothers made numerous feature films with different studios under the banner Halimoen Film, starting with Lily van Java. After a two-year hiatus, during which Nelson fell ill, Joshua and Othniel worked with Albert Balink and Mannus Franken to produce Pareh, a commercial failure which bankrupted its producers.
  The Wongs collaborated again with Balink on Terang Boelan in 1937, a commercial success which left the brothers rich. They began working with Tan's Film afterwards, making another five films with the company.
context_section_description: The Wongs were not the only persons from Terang Boelan to join Tan's. Much of the film's main cast returned for Tan's 1938 film Fatima, which featured the Wongs as directors and Saeroen as screenwriter; the film followed a woman who is wooed by a gangster whilst she is in love with another man. The following year the brothers directed another work for Tan's, the Zorro-inspired Gagak Item (The Black Crow).
  The brothers remained with Tan's through early 1940, directing the dramas Sorga Ka Toedjoe (Seventh Heaven) Siti Akbari, and Roekihati. However, in late 1940 Joshua, upset over what he perceived as an unfair division of the profits, left Tan's and worked on Kris Mataram (Kris of Mataram) for the rival studio Oriental Film. The film, a love story between a noblewoman and commoner, proved to be the Wongs' last production for eight years, in part owing to the Japanese invasion which led to almost all studios being closed.
caption: One of the Wong brothers, c. 1947
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