Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Chapter 116: Specially playing devil’s advocate

Although Yang Ye decided to increase the number of concerts in Europe only when he resisted the United States, due to the huge power of a global company like PolyGram, the London concert was prepared in just two months.

Moreover, after Yang Ye sang the song "We Will Rock You" at the Hollywood Open Air Concert, PolyGram released the mini-disc as quickly as possible.

In this way, by the time Yang Ye arrived in London in early May, he was already a well-known rock singer in the UK.

Speaking of which, since Hong Kong is British and Yang Ye holds a Hong Kong passport, he is still a British man, so this can be considered a return to China.

It has to be said that the market in Europe and the United States is still huge. Less than a month after the release of "We Will Rock You", sales exceeded 130 million copies.

It has successfully appeared on the national billboard and has stayed there for three consecutive weeks. For a newcomer and a yellow person, this is a miracle.

Such achievements can only be attributed to the fact that the four songs on this small disc are very classic and the overwhelming publicity of PolyGram.

Yang Ye's title as a kung fu star has also brought him a lot of popularity. Three consecutive movies were box office hits in North America and he won the Oscar for Best Director. His achievements have transcended his skin color.

When Yang Ye and his party arrived in London, the song had already spread throughout the streets.

Before the London concert, local media interviewed Yang Ye: "Why did you write the song "We Will Rock You"?"

Yang Ye said lightly: "Oh, I just want to stir up the atmosphere at the concert."

Speaking of which, Yang Ye is relatively good at picking wool. Each person can pick up a little bit, and the rain and dew will be absorbed by it.

This is the benefit of traveling through time early. There are classics everywhere. Just pick up a few and you will be full.

However, because it is a collection of wool, the songs released by Yang Ye do not have any style.

Because of this, if you release a large number of songs, it will look very messy and strange.Therefore, Yang Ye will not release songs if it is not necessary, and try his best to maintain a mysterious and playful mentality.

Besides, he doesn’t have that much energy. He has 24 hours a day, two hours of practicing and two hours of writing, so that’s four hours.

When I'm filming a movie, I'm so busy that I can't even touch the ground.

Want to be a singer, release albums, hold concerts, and perform everywhere?

Count the ball!
It’s not easy to travel through time, so why bother?

There is a career to be done and life to be enjoyed, so Yang Ye can only have one main business, and the others are incidental.

……

The success of Yang Ye's concert with 2 people at the Hollywood Bowl gave PolyGram confidence. They held a concert with [-] people in London and planned to invite local British singers to be the guests of the concert.

PolyGram asked Yang Ye who he wanted to invite?Yang Ye thought for a while and asked if he could invite the Queen band?PolyGram met Yang Ye’s requirements.

Yang Ye actually didn't mean anything else, he just wanted to meet Mustache.

However, later generations of media have had many interpretations of this encounter. The most common theory is that Yang Ye and Mustache are both Asians, not authentic British, and then involve a series of racial remarks...

But that’s all for another day, all in all, the London concert was once again a success.

After the concert, when Yang Ye rushed to Cannes, there were only two days before the awards ceremony.

Since Yang Ye was not very versatile, Hu Jinquan was in charge of the exhibition in Cannes.

Jiang Zhiqiang, who must come to Cannes every year to buy movies, was naturally made a young man, responsible for negotiating the purchase of movies with film producers from all over the world.

The exhibition hall of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was the same as that of "Shaolin Temple" two years ago, with a large number of viewers and a long queue.

Wang Zuxian said excitedly: "Wow, there are so many people!"

Xiao Yingying said matter-of-factly: "Of course, Brother Ye's movies are the best."

Wu Jingyi looked at the people lining up and asked, "Can we go see it?"

Zhou Huimin shook her head and said, "No, children can't watch it."

Wu Jingyi asked: "Why?"

Wang Zuxian said with a smile: "I know, because there are many scenes of Brother Ye and Sister Qingxia kissing in the movie."

Xiao Yingying sighed and said helplessly: "Brother Ye is so carefree. He kissed Sister Qingxia and then kissed Sister Lijun."

But in my heart, I was looking forward to growing up quickly and kissing Brother Ye.

……

Yang Ye found Hu Jinquan and Jiang Zhiqiang and inquired about the film sales. Jiang Zhiqiang said happily: "We compared the price of "Shaolin Temple" with a 10% increase, and the result was even better. For film dealers in the same area, I originally wanted them to bid, but Mr. Yang, you said that the main focus in the early stage is to consolidate channels, so we still cooperate with the original film producers and do not raise the price. The premise is that they must buy our other films."

Yang Ye nodded and praised: "This strategy is good!"

For Yang Ye, just one or two movies selling well does not mean much.

His goal is to form a matrix, cultivate the habit of watching Hong Kong action movies in various markets, and create a brand effect.

The kung fu movies of Chen Long and Hung Jingbao are both very exciting, but they just lack distribution channels.

For example, Chen Long's "Drunken Master" sold 28 billion yen in Japan, but it has not been released in the United States.

This is the huge loss caused by the lack of overseas distribution channels for early Hong Kong films.

The most successful Hong Kong film was in 1982, when "Shaolin Temple" sold more than 100 markets in Cannes and made a profit of US$1000 million.

It is a pity that Zhongyuan Film Company at that time did not follow up with successful works. Not only did it miss an excellent opportunity to open up the global market, but it also delayed Jet Li.

The best time in Li Lianjie's life was wasted for ten years. It was not until 1991, when he was nearly thirty, that he re-emerged with the "Once Upon a Time" series.

However... that time was already the last glory of Hong Kong films.

Yang Ye is different. He opened the global market with "Shaolin Temple" eight years in advance, and then continued to follow up with "Fist of Heroes" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", thus gaining the trust of overseas publishers and taking advantage of this opportunity. , and continuously exported his company's movies overseas to form a matrix.

The ultimate goal is to make Baiyang Pictures’ tree-shaped title sequence as familiar to global audiences as Disney Castle and Warner Shield.In order to achieve this goal, Yang Ye put a lot of thought into the choice of movies.

In the original time and space, the box office performance of these three movies in Hong Kong was not very good. Except for "Shaolin Temple" which ranked fourth in the year, the next two movies were only so-so.

But it has performed well overseas. "Shaolin Temple" sold like crazy, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" had a double hit at the box office, and "Fist of Fury" also sold [-] million Hong Kong dollars at the overseas box office, and was rated as one of the best by Time Magazine. The greatest kung fu movie.

In other words, Yang Ye's choice of these three movies was aimed at overseas markets from the beginning.

As for the local soup and water, Yang Ye actually doesn't like it very much.

For this reason, when negotiating with Jiahe, he was even willing to give up his local box office share.

Now Yang Ye has connected with New Line Cinema in advance and released "Drunken Master" in North America. As a result, it sold more than 800 million US dollars at the box office, making a huge profit.

"Drunken Master" also did well at the box office in Europe. When I came to Cannes this time, Poplar Pictures brought Chen Long's new film, and everyone was rushing to get it. In fact, it didn't need to be tied to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" at all.

What is tied up is Sammo Hung's new film. He is not famous now, so he can only sell it as a tie-in.

But Yang Ye doesn't matter, as long as it can be sold.

Speaking of which, Hollywood's global market has also been cultivated step by step.

In the 80s, Hollywood was not even a big deal in Hong Kong, but in the late 90s, Hong Kong movies were under a hammer.

Of course, there are many reasons why Hollywood is awesome, and cultivating the audience's movie-watching habits is only a small factor among many.

What Yang Ye has to do is to take advantage of the fact that Hollywood has not yet swept the world and Hong Kong movies are in full swing, and try to expand his advantage as much as possible.

……

As soon as Yang Ye appeared on the red carpet, he was immediately treated like a superstar, and various cameras were pointed at him to take pictures.

Someone in the crowd shouted his name from time to time.

Yang Ye said to Lin Qingxia who was holding his arm: "Calm down, smile, and look at the camera!"

As he spoke, he smiled and waved to the crowd!
Lin Qingxia felt happy when she saw her boyfriend was so popular.Yang Ye taught her how to smile at the Oscars before.Now, there is no need to squeeze at all, your face is full of brilliance, it is all written on your face.

After entering, the crew of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" found the seats arranged by the organizing committee and sat down. Soon, the awards ceremony began.

Lin Qingxia asked nervously: "Brother Ye, do you think we will win the prize?"

Yang Ye said calmly: "The chance is not great."

"Why? Our movies are very popular. When we are exhibiting, our exhibition hall is the busiest."

The question Lin Qingxia asked was exactly the same as Zhao Yazhi two years ago.

Yang Ye had no choice but to explain: "So many ordinary audiences love to watch our movies, and if the judges give us awards, it seems that they have no taste."

"Ah, why is this? But we won many awards at the Oscars."

"Cannes is very aloof and thinks that movies are real art, while the Oscars are too business-oriented and have a very bad reputation, so they often go against the Oscars. Last year, Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" failed to win an Oscar, and as a result, Cannes I gave Lao Ma a Palme d'Or."

Yang Ye spoke eloquently, and Lin Qingxia felt chilled after hearing this.

Hu Jinquan, who was next door, laughed and said, "Young Master Yang, you said you wouldn't win the award the year before last, but didn't you win the award later?"

"Uh..." Yang Ye felt a little embarrassed and said awkwardly: "That was an accident. Who knew that the jury would suddenly come up with a technology award that I had never heard of before."

After hearing this, Lin Qingxia said brightly: "Maybe we will win the technology award this time."

When Yang Ye heard this, it made sense, because although the technology award was not a permanent award, it had appeared several times in later generations. Once, Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang won it for a recording technology.

Cannes does not announce the shortlist for each award like other awards. It uses a general nomination to tell you that your film has been shortlisted.

It doesn't say exactly what is shortlisted, so before the lottery is drawn, everyone is unsure.

Awards were being handed out on stage, and Yang Ye and others were chatting quietly in the audience. Everyone was very relaxed, because they had already earned enough at the Oscars, and even winning the award in Cannes was just the icing on the cake, so they were not nervous.

In the middle of the show, Yang Ye even went on stage as a presenter and presented an award to the best actress.

The Actor Awards at Cannes are Best Actor and Best Actress. Anyone can win the award regardless of the leading role or supporting role.

The winner is an American actress named Shelly Duvall. She is not beautiful, but she is very distinctive. Inexplicably, she looks a bit like... Anita Mui.

Yang Ye handed the award into her hands and said with a smile: "Congratulations, Xie Li, for having the opportunity to work together."

Shelly said strangely: "Mr. Yang, are you inviting me to cooperate?"

Yang Ye smiled and said: "Of course, you can give me your contact information later."

Xie Li readily agreed. After all, Yang Ye was an Academy Award-winning director.

Yang Ye went down after handing out the prizes, and then chatted with Hu Jinquan.

The Cannes awards these days are very monotonous and not as flashy as later generations.

There are only a few mainstream awards, and it didn’t take long to reach the Palme d’Or.

When the title of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was called out on the stage, Yang Ye's expression was one of confusion.

Others were already standing excitedly celebrating.

"It shouldn't be!" Amidst the warm applause, Yang Ye also stood up and said with a smile.

Lin Qingxia said happily: "What shouldn't be done? Didn't you say that Cannes just loves to contradict the Oscar? The Oscar refused to give the best film, so Cannes gave it!"

"You're right! Hahaha. I'm going up."

Yang Ye thought as he walked: Brother Kaizi, the best you can do is be the second child!
(End of this chapter)