Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Chapter 364: Separating accounts is the kingly way

"Mr. Wu! Welcome, welcome!"

Wu Lengxi smiled and said: "I only come with my eyes today to learn from your advanced experience."

Yang Ye gave up his director's chair and said, "Then just sit here and watch!"

"Okay, get busy!"

"Actually, I don't have to be busy!" Yang Ye asked someone to get a maza, sat down next to Wu Lengxi, clapped his hands and said, "Everyone bury their seats and start working!"

Yang Ye gave the order and all departments immediately began to operate, without him needing to say anything.

What we are going to shoot today is the scene where Obasa controls Japan's Crime Council. Someone is dissatisfied, so he cuts off his head in protest!
Oren Ishii is an American with Chinese ancestry. When she comes to be the leader of the Japanese underworld, naturally some people are dissatisfied.

The boss of the Crime Council, Tanaka, stood up and expressed his opposition!
After the recorder called the start, a group of people started acting on their own, without Yang Ye needing to say anything.

Wu Lengxi asked curiously: "How come you, the director, don't have to take care of things?"

Yang Ye smiled and said: "A crew is equivalent to a company, a movie is equivalent to a project, and the director is the project manager. If the manager has to do everything, what else do other people need to do?
Trying to do things on your behalf and pointing fingers will cause more troubles. My team has been working together for many years and has a good understanding. I only need to point out their problems and make the final decision. "

"I see, you are really professional!"

While the two were talking, the actor who played Tanaka's boss suddenly punched the ashtray, completely ruining the atmosphere in the parliament.

Someone asked: "Boss Tanaka, why are you so angry? Now is the time to celebrate!"

Boss Tanaka wiped his hands with a handkerchief and said with a straight face: "What on earth are we celebrating, celebrating our fallen glorious parliament?"

Another boss slapped the table and said, "Tanaka, are you crazy? I will never allow you to do this. Apologize to the elder sister immediately!"

……

Wu Lengxi asked: "Are these Japanese?"

Yang Ye explained: "The ones who speak the lines are all Japanese, and Tanaka is a professional actor. The others are temporarily recruited from the capital and given a little training, because they are not key roles.

Those who don't speak are all acted by our crew, this is to save money.

Because Hong Kong film companies are all private, we must make profits, otherwise the company will not be able to continue. "

……

Tanaka vents his dissatisfaction in the council, and Obasus must deal with him.

Olian said calmly: "Tanaka seems to have something to say in his heart. No matter what, please let him say it first."

Tanaka sneered and said: "What I want to say is about the depravity of this parliament. I love it...more than my own children."

Tanaka roared angrily: "But it was ruined by a Chinese-Japanese American bitch!"

Yang Ye looked at the monitor, nodded and said, "Okay, this is over, get ready for the next one."

The prop master brought up a fake Tanaka and sat in Tanaka's original position.

This time Yang Ye came on stage in person. She took the knife from Michiko Nisigata and said, "The movements must be cool and the knife must be fast. I will demonstrate it again and watch it!"

As he spoke, he jumped up on the table, walked forward with small steps, drew his sword and slashed with lightning speed, then struck a cool pose and froze in place.

"That's it, do you understand?"

"OK!"

"Okay, shooting officially begins!"

……

Michiko Nisigata wore a kimono and walked quickly on the long table of the parliament with bare feet, making a very ceremonial slash with her sword...

Tanaka's head rolled down on the conference table, and blood spurted out from his neck like a fountain.

At this time, Zhang Yimou's lens shines through the blood mist on Michiko Nisigyo's indifferent face, giving it a coquettish beauty.

……

The other bosses in the council were all scared to death, with various expressions of fear.

"To show you how serious I am, I'm going to say this in English!"

Ou Lian put away the knife, stood up, and flicked it casually. The blood stains on the knife were thrown into the face of a boss. The man was extremely frightened and let out a scream.

Oulen sheathed his sword and said slowly: "As your leader, I always use a respectful attitude to encourage you to question my leadership methods.

If you have any doubts about what I think is the wisest decision, please tell me and allow me to convince you.

I assure you, there is no issue that is off the table. Except of course the one just discussed. "

Oulian smiled and suddenly changed his face: "If anyone has a negative attitude towards my Chinese and American ancestry, you will have to pay the price. I will chop off your head, just like this bastard!"

Obasu lifted Tanaka's head and roared: "If you sons of bitches have anything to say, now is the time."

No one dared to speak out.

Wei Lian said calmly: "It seems there is no more!"

"Bang!" Tanaka's head was thrown onto the table.

……

Wu Lengxi held Tian Zhong's head and looked left and right, exclaiming: "It's so lifelike!"

Yang Ye explained: "This head prop is a real-life cast, made in a one-to-one ratio, and then used makeup technology to replicate Tanaka's appearance. During filming, it can be as fake as real."

As for the body that spurts blood, that's because there's a mechanism inside, it's very simple! "

"To be able to achieve this level is indeed very ingenious. It seems that your pursuit of art is very extreme. It's no wonder that your movies are world-renowned."

"Excellent! The audience spends money to buy tickets. They are my food and clothing parents. I have to be responsible for the audience and I can't fool them at all."

Wu Lengxi nodded and said, "Xiao Yang, your attitude towards art is admirable. Have you ever thought about showing your movie in China?"

Yang Ye shook his head and said, "Not interested!"

Wu Lengxi was stunned at this moment. He thought that even if Yang Ye was not grateful, he would at least be very happy. However, Yang Ye was... not interested!

However, he soon understood that currently, Chinese films use the Soviet model, with unified purchasing and marketing, and all are distributed by China Film.

70% of the movie box office goes to China Film Company and 30% goes to provincial film companies.

In other words, if Yang Ye's movie is released in China, the most he can receive is money from China Film Corporation for purchasing the movie.

This little money is just a drop of money to Yang Ye, he really doesn't like it.

Yang Ye said: "Mr. Wu, I think the film model in the mainland is too rigid. Although major film studios have begun to reform in the past two years.

But the plan is that China Film Company will no longer provide filming funds to the film studio, nor will it cover the poor films they make.

Although such measures allow China Film Company to avoid losses on the surface, those film studios are going crazy and are losing talent.

As far as I know, at least one-fifth of the technical staff at the American Film Studio have been lost in the past two years, and they have all been poached by Japan and Hollywood.

Now that those film studios have no money and can't make movies, China Film Company has no film sources and suffers even greater losses. "Yang Ye told the truth, Wu Lengxi sighed and said: "Then you can introduce the advanced experience of foreign countries. "

Yang Ye said: "Movies need to be divided. If the movie is a hit, the movie theater should be given the share. Most of the money should be given back to the film company, so that the film company can make more good movies and the film industry will be better." Only then can we prosper.”

Wu Lengxi said: "Oh, I understand. Let's hold a meeting and call all the major domestic film studios. Your Baiyang Pictures and Yindu institutions in Hong Kong will also send representatives to participate. Let's come together. Discuss this matter.”

Yang Ye smiled; "That's great!"

Wu Lengxi said: "Xiao Yang, you have made many excellent movies over the years, promoting our Chinese culture overseas, which has greatly helped improve the image of us Chinese overseas. I personally admire you very much!
It is remarkable that you, an overseas Chinese, can do this. Our compatriots in the mainland do not want to fall behind, and we also hope to be able to do something. "

……

Generally speaking, China's first credited movie was "The Fugitive" starring Hollywood tough guy Harrison Ford in 1994, which grossed 2500 million at the box office and shocked the country.

But...this is only the apparent box office, because during the domestic release of "The Fugitive", those movie theaters were also trying their best to steal the box office, and Hollywood was helpless.

So only the devil knows what the actual box office of "The End of the World" is!

In fact, some domestic movies have already implemented the credit-sharing system much earlier.

"New Dragon Inn" and "Once Upon a Time in the Lion King", co-productions between the Mainland and Hong Kong, are all split.

However, these movies are not distributed nationwide. They are only shown in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

It is precisely because of these pilots of Hong Kong films that "The Fugitive" was released nationwide.

Later, Hollywood blockbusters and Hong Kong movies began to officially enter China.

In 1995, Chen Long's "The Red Zone" grossed 9500 million at the box office in the mainland, and Cameron's "True Lies" grossed 1 million at the box office, officially establishing the format of split blockbusters.

The person who promoted this historical process was Wu Siyuan.

Wu Siyuan was the first Hong Kong filmmaker to enter the mainland to make movies in the original time and space. He made a great contribution to the prosperity of Chinese movies later.

At that time, it was Wu Siyuan who took the initiative to call Tian Chongming from the Radio, Film and Television Department and told him that China Film’s monopolized purchasing and marketing system was not suitable for film development.

Tian Chongming said: "Old Wu, please introduce your foreign experience."

Wu Siyuan said: "Movies have to be divided. If the movie is a hit, the movie theater should share most of the money back to the hands of the producer, so that the producer can make more good movies. Only then can the film industry prosper.”

Well, what Yang Ye said to Wu Lengxi. In fact, it was what Wu Siyuan said to Tian Chongming.

Yang Ye advanced this historical process.

At that time, Wu Siyuan negotiated with the mainland on behalf of Hong Kong. After several months of negotiations, the two parties finally reached a consensus and the film account sharing system was established.

The accounting ratio at that time was 35:17:38 for production, distribution, and screening.

Wu Siyuan single-handedly facilitated the introduction of 20 Hollywood branch movies every year.

Wu Siyuan told Tian Chongming: "With these introductions to introduce movies and let others make money, they will be willing to come in and play with you, and then they will be willing to invest."

Since 1995, ten Hollywood movies have been introduced every year, and the share ratio is 13%.

This is really too little, not the same as riding a horse.

Later, in order to join the WTO, it was changed to 20, valid for ten years. It also promised to further expand the account sharing ratio after the agreement expires.

Moreover, as the Chinese film market expands, the film market will be further opened up and the number of imported films will increase.

Later, the domestic market really expanded.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MMPA) came to negotiate with China, demanding that the import quantity and share ratio be expanded, but the mainland ignored it.

fraud!

In anger, the MMPA filed a lawsuit against the Mainland at the World Trade Center.

This is a matter of internal deficiencies, and the words are like farts, so the lawsuit will naturally be lost.

Who would have known that after losing the lawsuit, the mainland refused to enforce the law and acted rogue.

So what if I lose, I just won’t let go, what can you do?

In anger, the MMPA used a series of measures to increase trade barriers to force the mainland to submit.

After more than two years of back and forth, the mainland was finally disgraced and had to relax restrictions.

In 2012, on the basis of the original 20 split-account movies, the quota for 14 special (3D, IMAX) split-account movies was increased, for a total of 34 movies.

The account sharing ratio has also been increased to 25% after deducting the special film fund.

The charging standard for the China Film Special Fund is 3% of the total box office of the movie, which means that imported movies can get 97% of the 25% of the box office of a movie.

It's a bit of a mouthful, but that's what it means anyway.

After the agreement was reached, many people were frightened to death. They felt that Chinese cinema was doomed and the people who signed the agreement must be traitors and traitors.

The result is that after expanding the number of imported Hollywood movies, not only did Chinese movies not die, but Chinese movies became more active.

On the movie box office rankings, there are various types of movies. Looking at the North American box office rankings, Marvel is the only one.

Moreover, after the mainland tasted the sweetness, it even secretly increased its share of the profits.

Although it is not stated clearly, it is indeed not stuck. For example, in 2016, 39 partial-book blockbusters were released, exceeding 5.

This matter... everyone pretends not to know.

Facts have proved that... only with competition can progress be achieved, and it is not advisable to work behind closed doors.

……

After Wu Lengxi left the set, Wang Yang, the director of Beijing Film Studio, quickly got the news and came to the set happily and asked Yang Ye to go drink.

So happy!
These film studios are so poor that they can't even open the pot.

Earlier Chinese films used the Soviet model.

If a film studio wants to make a movie, it must apply for funding from China Film Corporation. China Film Corporation will give you a sum of money, and when the movie is finished, it will spend money to collect it back.

The film studio used this money to eat and drink.

After the reform four years ago, China Film Group no longer provided funds to film studios. Film studios raised their own funds in the form of bank loans, made movies, and then sold them to China Film Group Corporation.

If the film doesn't turn out well and China Film Group doesn't accept it, then it's over.

I owe money to the bank. In order to repay the debt, I can only sell the assets of the film studio.

Some people say, can you just make the movie?

Damn it, except for Yang Ye, who is hanging on the wall, no matter how awesome the director is, he can't guarantee that he won't make bad movies.

Don’t you know how to divide accounts? He's not stupid, of course he knows, but no one dares to mention it.

Yang Ye is an outsider, he can just mention it, and no one can do anything to him.

(End of this chapter)