Magnum Films

Background

Magnum Films (萬能影業) was one of the important independent Hong Kong production companies in the blooming 1980's. Established by former Shaw Brothers actor Danny Lee (李修賢) in 1987 (with the backing of Golden Princess), Magnum focused on realistic police-themed action dramas, including Final Justice (霹靂先鋒, 1988), Thank You Sir (壯志雄心, 1989) and Road Warriors (鐵血騎警, 1990). Magnum also co-produced John Woo's The Killer (喋血雙雄, 1989) with Golden Princess.

Logo (September 9, 1987-June 20, 1998)

Visuals: On a blue-black gradient starfield, various stars come out of the screen and zoom out into the distance. Then clusters of orange stars zoom out, while leaving light trails. A flash occurs at the center, bringing the zooming word "MAGNUM", which then zooms out a bit. White stripes wipe in from both sides and slice the word. "A" and "PRESENTATION" flash in above and below it. Four blue Chinese characters then flash below the logo letter-by-letter.

Variant: The starfield color could be a varying shades of blue depending on the film, or completely black, as seen on The Untold Story II.

Technique: Motion-controlled animation.

Audio:

An eerie, dark-sounding synthesized fanfare with a church bell-like noise when the orange stars zoom out, a whoosh, a reverse crash cymbal and gunshots and bullet ricochets when the Chinese characters flash.
An ascending synthesized brass fanfare with descending "doo-doo" noises when it reaches its highest note, which then culminates in an intense-sounding part of the fanfare with drum hits and a reverse crash. No sounds are heard when the Chinese characters flash.
A high-pitched descending synthesized arpeggio, followed by a triumphant-sounding brass fanfare with drum hits, which is also synthesized. Deep gunshots are heard when the Chinese characters flash.
A bombastic fanfare with choir and one synth drone at the end, a whoosh and a slam for the zooming word, zooming sound for the stripes and gunshots when the Chinese characters flash.

Availability: Found on late 80's and some 90's movies from Hong Kong, like The Killer, Just Heroes, Asian Connection and The Untold Story II.