Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Chen Long will arrive in Hollywood in September.

In order to welcome Chen Long's arrival, Los Angeles also designated September 9 of this year as "Chen Long Day".

"XX Day" in the United States often becomes the capital of some celebrity fans in later generations to brag about their own cooking. In fact, this thing is not valuable at all, and no one really regards this day as a holiday.

There are Chen Longri everywhere in the United States, and dragon fans are too lazy to brag about it.

Before leaving, Chen Long was shocked by Yang Ye's bad idea.

"Start a singing group?"

Yang Ye nodded with a smile: "That's right, you, me, and A Biao, the three of us will form a singing group. The name is...Chinese Dragon Team."

"I said you tricked me into releasing an album last time, so you were waiting here."

"Do you know Japan's H agency? Yamaguchi Momoe's agency is one of the leading companies. They named you two to help you release an album, and they won't make any money at all?"

"Ah this..."

Of course you make money!For Chen Long, as long as he can make money and doesn't break the law, he will accept any job.

After a millennium, this man returned to the mainland from Hollywood to make movies, and the mainland film industry bosses were shocked.

Cut a ribbon next door and pay him to do it.He doesn’t have the personality of a big shot in the film industry at all!

In fact, this is quite good. Don’t pretend, just act, and you are an artist who pretends to be crazy.

Yang Ye continued: "Then I thought, it is too troublesome for one person to come out alone. It is easier for three people to come out together as a singing group. If they are famous together, the sales volume will be higher. The money earned will be divided equally, and I will sing the song It’s all written, do you want me to sing a few lines and you can listen to it.”

Chen Long covered his face and said, "Sing it."

"Wait until I find an accompanist!"

Yang Ye turned over a record and put it into the record player. The dynamic melody immediately poured out.

Chen Long and Yuan Biao were stunned. Is the record ready?
But that thing was only used as an accompaniment, and was filled in temporarily by Yang Ye.

Following the dynamic melody, Yang Ye sang and danced while singing. The dance moves were skillful and had obviously been planned long ago.

Chen Long and Yuan Biao looked at each other and thought that they were well prepared.

Yang Ye danced and sang: "Wanna hold you in my heart, Hold me hold me dynamic. Falling in the dark makes my heart excited, forgetting everything in the world and getting lost."

The song is pretty good, and the dance is also very dynamic. After singing the song, both Chen Long and Yuan Biao found it quite interesting, but... why is it in Cantonese?

“There’s also a Mandarin version, let’s do it again!”

Yang Ye jumped up again: "Don't wander around at midnight on weekends. Come to Apple Paradise. Wandering children are welcome. Don't stand aside in a daze. Shout loudly together and say BYE BYE to the lonely midnight..."

It's the same tune, just with different words.

"How about this song?"

Chen Long and Yuan Biao nodded fiercely: "That sounds good!"

"Enjoyed!"

"I'll give you the Japanese version again!"

Yang Ye played the record again and said a few more words in Japanese, singing three songs in a row.

"Let me tell you, I am a famous idol singer in Japan. This time I will take you two on your debut. I will sing three times on one album. I am guaranteed to become famous all over East Asia and make thousands of girls go crazy."

Yang Ye is a bit ruthless. If he continues with his coquettish operation, Japan's "Youth Team", Hong Kong's "Grasshoppers", and Taiwan's "Little Tigers" will all be eclipsed in the future.

Fortunately, Yang Ye just plans to release an album to gain popularity, so these three groups will not have no way out.

In 1985, Johnny & Associates launched a brand new group "Boys", which officially debuted with an album "Yimei Dankai". It topped the Japanese record sales "Dragon and Tiger Chart" in the first week, and has been at the top of the charts for seven consecutive years. It ranked first for a week and became popular throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

By 1988, Hong Kong's Grasshopper began to release albums, and Taiwan's Little Tigers were also announced. Both were three-person groups, and both became extremely popular by singing covers of "Youth Team" songs.

Yang Ye just sang Grasshopper's masterpiece "A Woman Covered in Fire", the Little Tigers' masterpiece "Green Apple Paradise", and both came from the Youth Team's masterpiece "What's your name".

Yang Ye thought to himself: I debuted as an idol singer in Japan anyway.And what about Chen Long and Yuan Biao?When these two released records in Japan, they also followed the idol singer route, so I might as well start an idol group.

Don't laugh... Chen Long really takes the route of an idol singer in Japan.

His first EP "Marianne" is a lyrical pop ballad.On the cover of the record, this guy is wearing a white shirt and a brown sweater, with hazy distant mountains in the background...

That's called a soulful character. People who are not familiar with him would never think that this guy is an action superstar.

Later, this EP sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and the record company was crazy about it. They kept working hard and released a bunch of Japanese albums for Chen Long.

In those years, Chen Long often went to Japan to hold concerts, but his Japanese fans at KTV did not like Chen Long's Japanese songs. Instead, they liked singing Cantonese songs such as "Drunken Master".

……

Yang Ye himself felt a little ashamed of being a great Kung Fu superstar, singing and dancing, but he didn't seriously want to start a singing group, he was just playing for fun.

Yang Ye gritted his teeth and said: "Look, if we sing this song and dance this dance, once the album is released in Japan, I guarantee that countless Japanese girls will crawl into your bed crying."

Chen Long had a lot of fun with the Japanese girl, and he knew the taste of the food. He couldn't help but be a little eager to try it, and asked Yuan Biao: "A Biao, what do you say?"

Yuan Biao said: "I listen to the two big guys."

Yang Ye is only 26 years old now, Chen Long is 25 years old, and Yuan Biao is 22 years old. In terms of age, the three of them are still young, so this combination is not too inconsistent.

It's just a bit embarrassing for their status as kung fu stars.

"Whether it's successful or not, I'll release an EP in Hong Kong first to test the waters!" Yang Ye said.

……

"Where's the promised martial arts album?"

Yang Ye took Chen Long and Yuan Biao to Baiyang Records. Zheng Donghan thought that Yang Ye was going to fulfill the record he promised last year, and he was very happy.

In the end, Yang Ye came to record an EP, and the three of them recorded it together. Did they agree to trick Chen Long Yuanbiao into making an album?
I’ve been making this cake for so long, and I’ve been looking forward to it for more than half a year, and this is it?
Liar!
Yang Ye originally promised that when "Swordsman" came out, he would record a martial arts-style album, but now he has forgotten about it.He said with some embarrassment:

"Well, the album is still being created, I'm busy. However, some time ago, Jin Yong showed me the revised draft of his novel and asked me to make some comments. I read these novels and generated a lot of inspiration. I believe this The album will be released soon, just wait for my good news!"

Zheng Donghan turned into a manuscript rusher and asked reluctantly: "When will it come out?"

"At the end of the year, can we record the EP first? My fans are very thirsty, so let's quench their thirst first!"

This EP did not choose the song "What's your name", but chose another masterpiece of "Youth Team" "ABC", which was also covered by Grasshopper.

Yang Ye pulled Jackie Chan and Yuan Biao into the "Chinese Dragon Team" group, which has the same dance music style as "Youth Team", "Grasshopper" and "Little Tiger Team".

Nonsense, the songs are all from the youth team, so what other style can they follow?
It will take another four or five years for idol singers to become popular.

Because MVs had not yet become widely popular at this time, the series of MVs that Yang Ye shot for Teresa Teng's album "A Touch of Love" are considered the most famous.

If the MV is not popular, it will be difficult for fans to see the beautiful appearance of the singer, and they will focus on listening to the singing.If the singing sucks, how about releasing a Hammer record?So today’s singers are all talented.

In a few years, when MVs become popular, we will be able to see idol singers who do not rely on their singing skills, but purely on their appearance.

The most typical one is the Little Tigers, whose singing skills are terrible, but they are still the most popular group in the Chinese-speaking world and have been popular for decades.

Therefore, this EP is not only released on Bakelite records, but also on video tapes.

The content of the MV is quite simple, just dance music, just dance in front of the camera.

Of course, the dance was demonstrated by Yang Ye himself, and Chen Long and Yuan Biao followed suit. It was very dynamic.

In addition, in order to reflect the characteristics of the three kung fu boys, some difficult moves were also added.

As the music ended, the three people did a cool backflip at the same time, and the scene was frozen.

After spending a week to get everything done, Chen Long left.

……

At this time, "The Swordsman" entered its final stage, with a box office of 2018 million, becoming the first movie to have a local box office of over 2000 million.

The number of viewers of "The Swordsman" reached 251 million, setting a new record simultaneously.

"The Swordsman" has already been screened at Golden Harvest Cinema, and Baiyang Cinema has moved it to VIP halls for sporadic screenings, exclusively for fans.

Releases have begun in Taiwan and Nanyang, where Golden Harvest makes most of its money.

Previously, Jiahe was tricked by Yang Ye and vomited all the box office receipts from the Shaolin Temple re-release, costing Yang Ye more than 800 million. After waiting for several years, he finally saw the money back.

"The Girl Who Killed" took over from "The Swordsman" and began to be released in Hong Kong. Momoe Yamaguchi also went to Hong Kong to promote it.

The box office of "Hundred Killers" in Japan reached 13 billion yen, the highest in Yamaguchi Momoe's career.

The box office of "The Swordsman" in Japan was 28 billion yen.

Yang Ye's popularity in Japan has been suppressed for two years, but the box office has declined instead of increasing. To be honest, it's a bit of a stretch.

However, this year is a small year for the Japanese market, and 28 billion has basically locked up the annual crown.

The reason... He collided head-on with "Superman".

The two movies were in a close fight, and in the end "The Swordsman" won by a narrow margin.

They are all about flying into the sky and escaping from the earth, but Japanese audiences still prefer martial arts movies with similar cultures.

Yang Ye was very happy to kill "Superman". "Superman" is the only superhero movie to win the year in the Japanese market.

Now that the annual crown has been taken away by Yang Ye, if nothing else happens, the title of "Superhero Cemetery" in the Japanese market is completely confirmed.

……

"I'm sorry, Yang Ye is a liar."

On the promotional poster for "The Girl Who Killed", the heads of Yang Ye and Yamaguchi Momoe are the same size, and the two are still gazing affectionately on the poster.

Due to the good reputation of this couple, many viewers bought tickets to support them.

At the beginning of the movie, it still looked like that.

Yang Ye and Yamaguchi Momoe were training together in the mountains. Some scenes showed the affection between them, which looked very sweet.

Unexpectedly, a few minutes later, the plot suddenly took a turn for the worse, and Yamaguchi Momoe killed Yang Ye with a knife.

Ah, this... the audience was confused.

It turns out that Yang Ye is not a leading actor at all, he is just a sidekick!

Despite this, the film still sold more than 500 million at the box office.

Xu Ke's "Butterfly Transformation" next door was miserable. It didn't even make 100 million at the local box office.

There are hundreds of thousands less than the original time and space.

The movie "Butterfly Change", as Xu Ke's debut film, was quite good.

This is a suspenseful martial arts film, very ancient, giving people the feeling... I watched the episode of Kindaichi.

Generally speaking, it is a story about a man of letters who chooses to stay out of the world. "Worldly affairs have nothing to do with me."After the protagonist patted his butt and walked away, he felt a bit of apocalyptic destruction.

The action scenes are a little rough but OK, the lines are a little wordy but the switching between different persons feels quite smooth.

The editing is also very bold. Tsui Hark's first movie was shot like this. It's really a genius!

It's a pity that compared to "The Swordsman", the rough action scenes in the movie are based on the defense, which is not an exaggeration.

After the audience watched "The Swordsman" and then watched "Butterfly", it was simply boring, and it would have been a ghost if it had a good box office.

Although the box office was not good, Zou Wenhuai was not blind. He believed that Xu Ke still had talent, so he decided to continue to support him in making films.

However, Zou Wenhuai was a little confused when he saw the script handed over by Xu Ke.

Two farmers took a raft to an isolated island to sell chickens and ducks. The atmosphere on the island was strange. The two were frightened and suddenly attacked by a group of masked men. One farmer died and the other was killed. They were dismantled by the island's butcher and distributed as food to the hungry islanders. .It turns out that this island is under the jurisdiction of the Big Hometown. I don’t know when the islanders began to eat human flesh. The security team is responsible for maintaining law and order and food rationing...

It is actually a movie about cannibalism. It has a very strong taste. This is a typical cult movie.

And it’s not just about cannibalism, it’s full of various political metaphors. It uses an unknown village as a metaphor for the entire Hong Kong social environment, and the indifference, contempt and even killing of each other between people are very different from those in reality. Brutal struggle is no different.

Zou Wenhuai asked: "Why don't you continue to make martial arts movies? The martial arts dramas you shot on Jiashi before, I think they are quite innovative."

Xu Ke said somewhat depressedly: "Yang Ye has already made martial arts movies like that, and I can't think of how to make them later. I might as well find another way."

After Xu Ke watched "The Swordsman", he didn't eat for a whole day. He felt that this movie... was the martial arts movie of his dreams.

But this movie... was made by someone else, which gave him an inexplicable feeling of despair.

Yang Ye has already set up a huge mountain for martial arts movies. If he goes forward, he will only live in Yang Ye's shadow.

Just like Milk Cha Lun said: "I feel like I have been living in Charlotte's shadow."

Or, just like Wu Jing's mood when watching "Fist of Heroes", Wu Jing felt: Jet Li has already made kung fu movies like this, how can I make them in the future?

It can't be surpassed, and there's nothing we can do about it.

In the end, Wu Jing found a new way and made a military action movie. Following the rise of the country, he reaped a wave of dividends.

And now, what is the result of Xu Ke taking a different approach?

He didn't know, but Yang Ye knew.

Still bloody! (End of chapter)