繁體中文
但杜宇1897年9月19日在江西南昌出生，原名但祖齡，字杜宇，號繩武，祖籍貴州廣順。他畢業於上海美術專科學校，靠繪畫仕女月份牌及報刊封面插圖維生，並自學電影攝影。1920年6月，他同朱瘦菊、管際安、周國驥等在上海創辦上海影戲公司，一人身兼編劇、導演、攝影、洗印及美工，處女作《海誓》1921年春拍成、1922年1月23日在上海夏令配克影戲園首映，由殷明珠主演，故事寫窮畫家與富家女盟誓相愛、幾經波折，是中國最早的三部長故事片之一，也是第一部愛情故事長片。1923年他再拍《古井重波記》，被視為中國早期的哀情片。1926年，他與殷明珠結婚，兩人的公司也被稱為中國電影史上最早的「夫妻店」，以家族班底運作，姪兒但二春亦是旗下演員。1927年，他執導改編《西遊記》的神怪片《盤絲洞》，由殷明珠飾演蜘蛛精，部分場景在蘇州虎丘劍池取景，他在道具、服裝及佈景上都落足心思，成為一時話題，影片在上海公映時連場滿座，創下當時國片在上海開映的票房紀錄；這部片是中國早期神怪片的代表作，拷貝一度失傳，2011年才在挪威的檔案館被發現。他其他作品還有《棄兒》、《傳家寶》、《重返故鄉》、《豆腐西施》、《楊貴妃》等，以奇幻、神話題材及精緻佈景見稱。1931年後上海影戲公司相繼併入聯華、藝華，他仍拍過《南海美人》、《國色天香》等片，1934年殷明珠又幫他成立上海有聲電影公司。1937年上海淪陷後，他舉家移居香港，晚年以繪畫維生。1972年5月6日，他在香港逝世。
English
Dan Duyu was born Dan Zuling in Nanchang, Jiangxi on 19 September 1897, with ancestral roots in Guangshun, Guizhou. He graduated from the Shanghai College of Fine Arts, made a living painting calendar portraits and magazine covers, and taught himself cinematography. In June 1920, with Zhu Shouju, Guan Ji'an and Zhou Guoyi, he founded the Shanghai Film Company, personally combining the roles of screenwriter, director, cinematographer, processing technician and art designer; his debut The Vow, filmed in the spring of 1921 and premiered at Shanghai's Olympic Theatre on 23 January 1922 with Yin Mingzhu in the lead, told of a poor painter and a rich girl who pledged their love and met with many turns, and was one of China's earliest three feature-length films and its first feature-length love story. In 1923 he made Gu Jing Chong Bo Ji, regarded as an early Chinese tearjerker. In 1926 he married Yin Mingzhu, and their company, run as a family operation with his nephew Dan Erchun among its players, was later called the earliest 'mom-and-pop' studio in Chinese film history. In 1927 he directed the fantasy film The Spider's Web, adapted from Journey to the West with Yin Mingzhu as the spider spirit and partly shot at the Sword Pool on Tiger Hill in Suzhou, noted for the care lavished on its props, costumes and sets; it played to packed houses in Shanghai and set a box-office record for a Chinese film in the city, and, a landmark of early Chinese fantasy cinema, it was long thought lost until a print was found in a Norwegian archive in 2011. Other works include Qi Er, Chuan Jia Bao, Returning Home, Tofu Xi Shi and Yang Gui Fei, marked by fantasy, mythology and elaborate sets. After 1931 the company was merged into Lianhua and then Yihua, though he made Nanhai Meiren and Guose Tianxiang, and in 1934 Yin Mingzhu helped him set up the Shanghai Talkie Company. Following the fall of Shanghai in 1937 the family moved to Hong Kong, where he later supported himself by drawing, and he died there on 6 May 1972.
