1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yan rubbed his head. This Jabeur is really impatient.

Since we have been waiting for such a long time, why bother to rush to Hong Kong in the next few days?

If Zhou Yan had known this earlier, he would not have made this call and would have waited until he arrived in Los Angeles to talk to Jabbar about this.

However, this also indirectly shows that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is indeed very concerned about this project. Zhou Yan feels more at ease to hand over "The Greatest Showman" to such a dedicated director.

Since Jabbar was coming early, Zhou Yan moved up the schedule so that he could help Jabbar produce the musical as soon as possible.

But later on, he had less work to do, mainly in the music field.

……

Jabbar was very fast. He told Zhou Yan on the 8th that he would come to Hong Kong to find Zhou Yan, and he arrived in Hong Kong on the 10th.

It should be that after saying that day, Jabbar left immediately, otherwise it would not have been so fast.

On the morning of the 10th, there was an event at the Writers Association, and literary workers from the mainland and Hong Kong held a small exchange meeting at the Hong Kong Cultural Center.

It is called an exchange meeting, but in fact it is more like a work appreciation meeting. The main content of the entire meeting is that everyone appreciates several works together, and these works are all from mainland writers.

With this kind of appreciation, of course everyone will say good things about it. Even if there are some critical voices, that is the method of first criticizing and then praising.

After the morning meeting, Zhou Yan returned to the hotel and met with Jabbar.

Jabbar was exhausted and had an anxious look on his face. He came from afar just to take a look at the script of "The Greatest Showman".

Zhou Yan knew that he was anxious, so he took out the script of "The Greatest Showman" and gave it to him without even saying hello.

Jabbar held the script tightly in his hand and stood there reading it.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "The script is very long. It will take a long time to finish reading it. Why don't you find a place to sit down and read it slowly."

"okay."

Jabbar agreed verbally but did not move. He was reluctant to take his eyes off the script even for a moment.

I have to say that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is really energetic.

Seeing him so crazy, Zhou Yan smiled, pulled a chair over and placed it next to Jabbar, and then without caring whether Jabbar sat down or not, he ran to make himself a pot of tea.

The activities at the Writers Association have ended, but he is not relaxed today because tonight is the first concert in the series of the Piano Youth Orchestra.

Normally, he would rehearse with the orchestra in the concert hall in the afternoon.

If he has time, he also hopes to take some time to visit an art museum and see Wu Guanzhong.

Two hours later, Zhou Yan looked at his watch and it was already half past one.

But looking at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's progress, he has only watched two-thirds of it. At this rate, it will probably take another hour for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to finish watching it.

And after he finishes reading, the two of them will have to communicate, which will also take quite a bit of time.

Zhou Yanke couldn't wait for Jabbar here anymore, so he stood up and said, "Jabbar, the Piano Youth Orchestra has a performance today, and I have to go to the concert hall. You can call me after you finish watching. Or, you can wait for me at the hotel first. You can take a rest first since you have come so far."

"Yeah, okay." Jabbar nodded.

Looking at his expression, Zhou Yan suspected that he didn't even hear what he said, so he nodded and said okay.

But Zhou Yan didn't have time to take care of him. He was such a grown-up and there was no way he would get lost.

……

In the afternoon, Zhou Yan originally wanted to take some time to go to the art gallery, but finally decided not to go.

Although the art museum is relatively close to the concert hall, it still takes some time to get there.

Time was already tight in the afternoon, and it was really irresponsible for him to leave the orchestra here and sneak out at this time.

Today's performance has attracted a lot of attention, and many music fans have gone to great lengths to buy tickets. Zhou Yan has the obligation to present a high-level performance for everyone.

He would feel bad if he ran away and affected the performance.

……

Although today is Thursday, the Hong Kong Cultural Center is already bustling with people at around four o'clock in the afternoon.

In fact, the concert didn't start until 7 o'clock, so everyone could wait until after get off work to come, but many people still took leave to come early.

The reason why so many people came early is because they heard in advance that many stars would come to the concert today, and they came to see the stars.

There was another group of people who came early because they didn’t buy tickets, hoping to get an outdoor seat.

People who often attend Zhou Yan’s concerts know that after each concert, Zhou Yan will perform an extra show outside the concert hall for fans who did not buy tickets.

As Zhou Yan holds more and more concerts, the shows outside are becoming more and more popular, and it is not easy to grab a seat outside.

The last time Zhou Yan held a concert at the Hong Kong Cultural Center, the venue was always packed with people. Today, there will be even more people than before.

In fact, when deciding on the concert venue, the Hong Kong government suggested that the Youth Piano Orchestra go to the Hung Hom Stadium.

The Hung Hom Stadium can accommodate more than 10,000 people, which can satisfy the wishes of more music fans to listen to the performance of the Piano Youth Orchestra live, and can also bring about a higher economic effect.

When Zhou Yan heard the proposal, he was somewhat tempted, but he finally decided on the Hong Kong Cultural Center.

This time we had relatively little time for preparation, and there is no way to guarantee the results if we go to a venue like the Hong Kong Coliseum.

Zhou Yan and his team have performed several times at the cultural center before and are very familiar with it, so there will be basically no mistakes.

Knowing that there would be a lot of people today, the police officers were in place early and had put up isolation tape at around three o'clock. On one side were people queuing for ticket inspection, and on the other side were people queuing for occupying positions outside.

There was almost no one at the ticket checking counter, because there was no need to rush. There were only so many tickets in total, and they could be checked anyway. As long as you had a ticket, you would have no problem getting in.

On the outside field side, the isolation belt had just been set up and hundreds of people were already lining up.

The concert starts at seven o'clock, so if we count the two hours, it will end at nine o'clock. The performance outside will not start until at least nine o'clock.

This means that if you queue up outside at three o'clock, you will have to wait for at least six hours, and the key is that there will be no place to sit during these six hours.

In fact, many of those who line up so early are not normal music fans, but scalpers who are trying to take up seats.

That's right, because the seats outside the stadium are so in short supply and free of charge, a business has arisen where scalpers will line up at the scene in advance, take up the front row seats outside the stadium, and then sell them at a high price to people who want to watch the performance outside the stadium.

Of course, after all, it is outside the venue, there are no seats, and you can only listen to a few songs. The biggest advantage is that you can be very close to Zhou Yan, so even if the price is high, it is not that high.

Usually, the front row seats can sell for several hundred yuan, and the back row seats can only sell for more than 100 yuan. Although the yield is not very high, there are still many people willing to line up, after all, this is a business with no capital and only requires a few hours of time.

Therefore, in addition to some professional scalpers, there are also some people with relatively free time who come here to earn some pocket money, including some retired old men and women.

From a certain perspective, Zhou Yan's concert also creates re-employment opportunities for these elderly people.

……

At six o'clock, cheers suddenly broke out on the roadside.

"Maggie!"

The people at the back looked towards the cheering sound and saw Zhang Manyu getting out of the car and walking towards the entrance of the center.

Because it was not a formal red carpet and there was no order of appearance, Zhang Manyu was the first to appear.

But precisely because of this, no one dares to slack off, because who knows what big star may appear in the near future.

Zhang Manyu came alone. After getting off the car, she kept waving to the audience. It looked no different from walking on the red carpet of the Academy Awards.

The spotlights at the scene almost never stopped, and the number of reporters was no less than that of the Academy Awards.

However, compared to walking the red carpet formally, Zhang Manyu walked faster. She was thinking about going in early to say hello to Zhou Yan.

Not long after Zhang Manyu went in, Carina Lau also came. She was not alone, with Tony Leung Chiu-wai.

The first three people, one Best Actor and one Best Actress, make for a very strong lineup.

The best actor is naturally Tony Leung Chiu Wai.

As for the half-movie queen, one of them is Zhang Manyu and the other half is Carina Lau.

That’s right, to date, Carina Lau has not won the Best Actress award.

The reason why she is said to be half a Best Actress is because everyone assumes that she can win the Best Actress award, but she just lacks a bit of luck so far.

If Carina Lau had been luckier, she would have won two Best Actress awards by now.

In 1990, Carina Lau was nominated for the Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance in the movie "The Liar", but ultimately missed the award.

The person who defeated Carina Lau to win the Best Actress award that year was Zhang Manyu, who just walked into the cultural center.

That year, Zhang Manyu won the Best Actress award for her role in "The Man Who Doesn't Take Off His Socks", beating out actresses including Sylvia Chang, Carrie Ng, Baobao Feng and Carina Lau.

The following year, Carina Lau made a comeback with "Days of Being Wild".

This year, "Days of Being Wild" was the big winner at the Academy Awards, taking home Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.

Among the most important awards, she only did not win Best Actress and Best Screenplay.

That year, Cheng Yuling won the Best Actress award for her outstanding performance in My Cousin, My Good Girl, beating out Carina Lau, Gong Li, Sylvia Chang and Manyu Cheung.

In fact, in those two years, no matter which year it was, there would be no problem in giving the Best Actress award to Carina Lau.

It’s not that the winning actress’ performance was not as good as Carina Lau’s, it’s just that there was no obvious difference in the roles they played back then, it’s a matter of everyone having different preferences.

Giving the Best Actress award to anyone is justifiable, but it will also cause controversy no matter who it is given.

Maybe in another year, Carina Lau would have a bigger advantage.

Carina Lau and Tony Leung slowed down their pace a little to give the reporters enough time to take pictures.

Before they had finished walking, Michael Hui and his brother Sam Hui appeared behind them.

The reporters were more excited to see brothers Sam Hui and Sam Hui than to see Tony Leung and Carina Lau.

Although Sam Hui and Sam Hui are brothers, there are actually not many opportunities for them to appear in the same frame, especially in recent years. It is not easy to take a photo of both of them at the same time.

The main reason is that Sam Hui is now in retirement and rarely appears in the public eye.

In 1992, Sam Hui suddenly announced his retirement from the music industry.

When fans heard the news that year, they were very surprised. After all, the year before, Sam Hui won the Best Film Song Award at the Academy Awards for "A Laugh in the Ocean".

Moreover, at that time, Sam Hui was only 44 years old, which is the prime of life for a male artist, and there was no reason for him to retire.

But many people think that this is a joke played by Sam Hui on everyone. Maybe Sam Hui has created many humorous characters, so everyone thinks that amusing movie and music fans is also something Sam Hui can do.

But after that, Sam Hui started holding farewell concerts, which lasted for forty or fifty times, and he really didn't release any works in the next few years.

Not only does he have no musical works to release, he also has no film or television works. It is extremely rare for Sam Hui to appear this time.

No one was surprised at the appearance of Michael Hui, after all, he starred in "Time Traveler".

Strictly speaking, in the movie "Time Traveler", the only main character is Xu Guanwen, a serious Hong Kong actor.

Although Hong Kong movie fans think that Joey Wong is a Hong Kong actress, she is a Taiwanese after all, so it is not quite accurate to say that she is a Hong Kong actress.

Xu Guanwen's status in Hong Kong naturally did not need "A Time Traveler" to help him improve, even though "A Time Traveler" became the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong film history.

However, because of "Time Traveler", Xu Guanwen has opened up some status in the overseas market. Some time ago, he was approached by Japanese scripts just because he starred in "Time Traveler".

Walking behind the Xu Guanwen brothers was Zhang Xueyou, who came with his wife Luo Meiwei.

After the two got married last year, Luo Meiwei began to fade out of the entertainment industry. When reporters wanted to take pictures of her, they basically took them when taking pictures of Zhang Xueyou.

After Zhang Xueyou and his wife, there came Zhang Guorong and Anita Mui.

……

The number of stars present today is definitely not as many as those at the Academy Awards, but in terms of quality they are not inferior at all, and may even surpass them.

After all, it is not always possible to gather so many big names for the Academy Awards every year. Especially in the past two years, the popularity of the Academy Awards has been getting lower and lower, and people's enthusiasm for attending the Academy Awards ceremony has also been getting lower and lower.

The reason why the popularity of the Academy Awards has declined is that the market performance of Hong Kong films has been getting worse and worse.

If the film itself receives little attention, the significance of the award will be reduced.

If, one day, the top ten movies in Hong Kong box office are not local movies, will it still be popular to win the Hong Kong Film Awards? Because the winning works are all selected from movies with low box office.

Today, not only movie stars but also many music industry bigwigs came to the scene. (End of this chapter)