Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Some people may question, Wang Zuxian died, Zhang Guorong also killed his eldest brother Cheng and was imprisoned, what about the second part?
The answer is... there is no second part!

The second part of "A Better Tomorrow" is simply a sequel.

If you watch the first part, you will feel emotional.

Watch the second part and you will feel very uncomfortable. What is this horse riding thing?

Although commercially, the second part sold 2200 million at the box office, which is still considered a success.

However, the box office of the second part dropped by 1100 million compared to the first part, which shows that the impression given to the audience at that time was not good.

Generally speaking, the box office of a sequel to a popular movie will be higher, and the box office will only drop after the third episode.

What's wrong with "A Better Tomorrow 2"?

First of all, the plot is very blunt. Long Si goes crazy for no reason. Although it is explained later, there is no foreshadowing in the front and it is very abrupt and uncomfortable to watch.

Then, in order to let Zhou Runfa show his face, a twin brother Ajian was inexplicably created.

But the role of Jian didn't stand up at all. In terms of the audience's perception, this was still Brother Ma, and they didn't see any difference between Jian and Xiao Ma.

Jian is basically a copy of Pony Ma. This character was created just for the sake of box office and to satisfy the audience's desire to see Pony Ma.

The touching brotherhood in the first part is also gone in the second part, and the action scenes are exaggerated to the point of madness.

All kinds of slow motion, just one sweep, hundreds of people were wiped out in an instant, more powerful than Superman.

The most shameless thing is that he also frantically added drama to Shi Tian's Long Si. Who wants to watch him?
Long Si killed Gao Yingpei, and was dying from dozens of bullets. His whole body was stained with blood. Ti Long came over and said: "Uncle Si, are you okay?"

You're fine, silly, you have eyes so long you need to breathe!

There are still many points to complain about, for example, in order to gain Gao Yingpei's trust, Song Zihao deliberately shot Song Zijie and almost sent Ajie away, but in the end the other party didn't trust him... Forget it, I'm too lazy to say more.

In fact, John Woo refused to make the movie "A Better Tomorrow 2" at the time. He felt that the first movie was already complete.

Throughout John Woo's career, you will find that every one of his movies, no matter whether it is good or not, is complete and never leaves any backdoors.

"A Better Tomorrow 2" is the only sequel he filmed.

"Red Cliff" and "Peace Wheel" don't count. They were originally one movie, but they were cut into two parts.

"Mission: Impossible 2" doesn't count, that was originally a sequel.

However, Shi Tian, ​​one of the bosses of Xinyi City, wanted to show off, wanted to show off, and it was profitable, so Xu Ke came up with a story and forced John Woo to film it.

He even added drama to Shi Tian crazily, who would let him be the boss?
Because of this incident, John Woo also had a disagreement with Tsui Hark.

The two had a falling out, and John Woo left Xu Ke's film studio not long after.

From then on, although the two remained friends, there was no discussion of cooperation.

For Yang Ye, he doesn't think the second part is necessary.

As for the third part, it’s basically selling the dog over someone else’s head. Wouldn’t it be enough to just call it “Song of the Sunset”? Adding a hero's true nature is purely to cheat money.

Yang Ye has a lot of good things in his hands, so there is no need to mess up the sign with something like this.

John Woo is a talented person, forcing him to join will only force him away, and the gain will not be worth the loss!
……

After the screening of "A Better Tomorrow", there was a burst of warm applause in the screening hall. Everyone thought the movie was well made.

Especially the little girls from "Girls' Generation". When Leslie Cheung finally killed his eldest brother with one shot, they all applauded and exclaimed that his brother was so handsome.

But... everyone has no idea whether this movie will be a hit or not.

In recent years, there have been only two top-grossing films in Hong Kong, one is the comedy film produced by New Arts City, and the other is the kung fu film produced by Poplar Pictures.

In addition, there are romance films produced by various companies, and some of them are selling reasonably well.

"A Better Tomorrow" is a gunfight movie in which the characters are all playing with guns. It is neither very funny nor fancy.

People looked at Yang Ye and wanted to hear what he had to say.

Especially John Woo, he really wants to hear Yang Ye's evaluation of this "A Better Tomorrow".

Yang Ye was silent for a while and said: "The movie is very good. I think it will have a good box office."

Yang Ye said that the box office was good, which made the creators of "A Better Tomorrow" here breathe a sigh of relief. They still believed in Yang Ye's vision.

Yang Ye added: "I think Brother Hao had two motives for wanting to kill Big Brother Cheng. One was to avenge Xiao Ma, and the other was that Big Brother Cheng had hurt his relatives and touched his reverse scale.

But in this ending, Ajie shot and killed his eldest brother, wouldn't all Brother Hao's hard work be in vain? Has this touching brotherhood weakened as a result?

I think this shot should be fired by my brother, because he wants to protect his younger brother and preserve his future, so he is willing to bear everything on his own body! "

Yang Ye's words made everyone present fall into deep thought.

After a while, Xu Ke and John Woo looked at each other, and Xu Ke took the initiative to explain:
"Actually, we have thought about this ending many times. Should Ahao or Ajie fire this shot? Or maybe Xiaoqi doesn't have to die, and the eldest brother will be brought to justice, and there will be a happy ending."

Yang Ye shook his head: "A happy ending is definitely not possible. That would be too weak and lack a sense of power."

Xu Ke said: "Yes, so someone must die. We thought about it and decided to let Xiaoqi die."

Yang Ye nodded. In fact, this kind of treatment is the usual method of Zhang Che's martial arts movies. The ending usually ends with the heroine dying, and then the two good friends go to the end of the world.

Zhang Guorong said: "I suggested that Ajie fire this shot, because the person who died was Xiaoqi, so Ajie must fire this shot, otherwise, he would not be a man!"

Xu Ke said: "Young Master Yang, you think that my brother has the heart to protect his younger brother and should take the initiative to memorize everything. We think it makes sense.

But in turn, the younger brother also has a desire to protect his older brother. He fired this shot not only to avenge his girlfriend, but also to save his older brother and alleviate his crime. "

John Woo said: "After careful consideration, the ending we finally chose is... the two brothers will carry it together!"

Yang Ye asked the little Girls' Generation girls sitting in the back: "What do you think?"

Wang Zuxian was the first to express his opinion: "I think my brother should have fired this shot, because he is my boyfriend and wants to avenge me? This is what I call a man!"

Yang Ye: "Huh?"

Wang Zuxian stuck out his tongue and said, "The brother I'm talking about is Young Master Rong... I mean, Ajie should have fired this shot!"

Yang Ye complained: "You can call me brother very smoothly."

Wang Zuxian took it for granted: "Because my brother takes good care of me!" Yang Ye said: "Okay, what do you think?"

Xiao Qiang said: "I also think Ajie should have fired this shot, otherwise, he would not be a man."

As a result, the women present, not only Girls' Generation, but also Xia Meng, Shi Nansheng, and Xu Feng, all agreed that Ajie should have fired the shot.

Yang Ye said: "Okay, it seems that female audiences tend to accept this ending, so let's do it. If you are angry for a beauty, what kind of man is he if you don't avenge your wife? Go ahead and ride the horse!"

Yang Ye agreed with this ending, which made the female audience present very happy.

Yang Ye asked: "Manager Jiang, is it still too late to arrange the Spring Festival stalls?"

Jiang Zhiqiang shook his head: "There are only less than twenty days left. If we do publicity now, it will be too hasty and will not be effective.

Moreover, we have Ajie's "Fang Shiyu 2" to be released during the Spring Festival, so there is no need to squeeze it together! "

Yang Ye thought about it for a while and said: "Then postpone it and release it during Easter. You can do the promotional activities in advance and make the battle bigger. There will be a premiere then and I will attend it in person!"

John Woo breathed a sigh of relief, and doing it in such a grand manner showed that Yang Ye valued this movie very much.

In fact, Yang Ye never thought about putting "A Better Tomorrow" on the Spring Festival schedule at all, he was just talking about it.

Yang Ye thinks that the box office of this movie will not be too bad, but he is not sure about the specifics.

Therefore, it is better to avoid the Spring Festival and summer movies, which are full of blockbusters.

The resurrection period is the smallest of the four major periods of the year, and there will also be some relatively strong films in this period.

But... if Yang Ye shows his own signature, those films will probably be scared away.

Because everyone knows that running into a movie starring Yang Ye is courting death.

Yang Ye's "Lover" didn't even show his signature skills, but beat the crap out of other movies, so only Chen Long could withstand it.

I can't say anything about this.

Christmas, Spring Festival, and summer are must-visits and cannot be avoided.

If you're in the resurrection stage, you'd better avoid it if you can.

After all, Yang Ye only stars in one movie a year. For other film companies, it is a great joy for him to be revived.

Because that means they will have much less pressure during the summer.

Yang Ye's trick is to pull away from his own skin and scare away all the films that are going to be released on the revival schedule, and then "A Better Tomorrow" will dominate the schedule.

"No matter what, let's use my name to defraud the box office first!"

When the publicity becomes more lively, a large number of people will definitely buy tickets for him and go to the cinema.

……

After watching "A Better Tomorrow", Yang Ye was busy arranging for Bertolucci to audition.

For Yang Ye, he hopes that Zhang Guorong can be selected because Zhang Guorong has good character and loyalty, so he hopes that Zhang Guorong's acting career will go further.

But Zun Long is a person that Yang Ye also wants very much. Zun Long is handsome and handsome. He was born in the Spring and Autumn Drama School and has a very good figure. He has no problem filming action movies.

It's a waste of talent for him to stay in Hollywood. He should shine in the Hong Kong film industry.

Zun Lung is very suitable to play a big villain. For example, if Yang Ye wants to film "Slaying the Wolf 2", then Zun Lung will be perfect for the extremely cool "suited thug" in it.

As for the best actor Liang Jiahui, he is also very good, and Yang Ye also hopes to recruit him.

It's not enough for Liang Jia to act as the main actor in the movie. He can act in commercial blockbusters and exist as a supporting actor.

In many later movies, Liang Jiahui’s role was always as the supporting actor next to the main actor, that is, the second male lead.

In the end, Yang Ye sent out audition invitations to both Zunlong and Liang Jiahui.

Yang Ye's idea is to find them all, and who will win depends on their luck.

Zunlong has already collaborated with Yang Ye in Hollywood. When Yang Ye first joined United Artists Pictures, he decided to remake Griffith's masterpiece "Withered Flowers" as a tribute to the master.

That movie starred John Lone and Brooke Shields, but it didn't do well at the box office, which was considered a minor failure in Yang Ye's career.

But in that movie, Yang Ye just made some suggestions and didn't care about the rest, so no one put the blame on him.

After Zunlong got the news of the invitation to audition, he immediately bought a plane ticket and flew to Hong Kong.

As for Liang Jiahui, he is still banned.

How did Liang Jiahui unblock him later?

It was after the release of "A Better Tomorrow" that it became a huge hit in Taiwan.

Taking advantage of this momentum, Zhou Runfa and Ti Long took Liang Jiahui to a dinner hosted by the Taiwan Provincial Cultural Bureau.

During the dinner, Zhou Runfa told the person in charge that Liang Jiahui was now from Xinyi City, and then Liang Jiahui was unblocked

In other words, at present, Liang Jiahui is still blocked.

Yang Ye did not directly extend the audition invitation to the Liang family, but called Li Hanxiang.

Li Hanxiang immediately found Liang Jiahui and asked him to audition.

Li Hanxiang said: "Ah Hui, this is your opportunity, you must seize it!"

Liang Jiahua said: "Master, I heard that you wanted to ask Yang Ye to steal Puyi's copyright before?"

Li Hanxiang said: "I don't care about trivial matters. What are you struggling with?"

In fact, when Baiyang Pictures was banned, Liang Jiahui should have taken refuge with Yang Ye. He was a movie king and was good at helping people when they needed it. Yang Ye would definitely accept him.

However, Liang Jiahui couldn't bear to go because Li Hanxiang had encountered a wall with Yang Ye.

Judging from this incident, it can be seen how much Liang Jiahui valued Li Hanxiang's kindness.

Yang Ye likes this kind of person with good character the most, the more the merrier. (End of chapter)