Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Zhou Xingchi packed up his personal belongings and put them in a cardboard box.

Then he walked into Deborah's office and said politely, "Auntie, I'm leaving now."

Deborah laughed and said, "When will the new play be released?"

“The company is still writing the script!”

"Come on, I'll be there to support you when the time comes!"

"Thank you, Lagu!"

Zhou Xingchi left the ATV building carrying his things. Many people greeted him politely, even flatteringly, and he responded with a smile and a nod.

After walking out of the ATV building, Zhou Xingchi looked back, feeling filled with emotion. He was finally leaving this place.

He has been a host for six years since he started hosting ATV's children's program "Smart Time" in 1982.

In fact, he doesn't like being a host because he is very slow and can never keep up with other people's pace.

Moreover, he is very introverted and shy, and he is actually not very good at communicating with others.

What is the most important quality for a host?
He has quick adaptability, is outgoing and eloquent, but he is not good at any of these.

However, in order to stand out, he still forced himself to do things he didn't like.

Zhou Xingchi's name was given by his mother Ling Baoer.

It comes from the "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng" which says: "The majestic state is shrouded in mist, the outstanding talents are like stars, the tower is at the junction of the barbarians and the Chinese, and the guests and hosts enjoy the beauty of the southeast."

Very culturally rich, Ling Baoer was a normal school student in mainland China, and was a highly educated talent in that era.

When Zhou Xingchi was a child, Ling Baoer thought there was something wrong with his brain.

Because Zhou Xingchi is taciturn and doesn't like to talk, even when facing his mother, he can't say a word.

Ling Baoer was going to the street and said, "Xingzai, do you want to go with me?"

Zhou Xingchi mostly shook his head, then stood by the window and watched the street scene for two hours.

It is said that the various street scenes he saw also provided the inspiration for Zhou Xingchi's later comedy creations.

When he grew up, Zhou Xingchi was still very slow.

Star girl Zhang Yuqi said: "Master Xing speaks very quickly in the film, but very slowly outside the film. He speaks and makes decisions very slowly!"

In addition to being very slow, he is also very shy, or "afraid of shame" in the southern dialect.

Ling Baoer said: She used to take Zhou Xingchi out to eat. As long as there were outsiders around, Zhou Xingchi would cover his face with the menu as a child and finish the meal like that.

Liu Zhenwei said: "Zhou Xingchi is often misunderstood as being cool and pretentious, but he is actually very shy. When we were filming "A Chinese Odyssey", he wanted to talk to me about the film after work and even slipped a note under my hotel room door. Actually, Xingzai is afraid of meeting strangers and is not proactive enough, so he is easily misunderstood."

However, he can also become very proactive if given the opportunity to excel.

In his own words: "I learned to be very slick, making jokes and talking nonsense with others. For the role of a dead body, I spent a liter of saliva to fight for it."

"If you give me a script and let me act it once, I can get into it and act like the character in the play, but I can't do that normally. I think I like acting."

His personality and the play are completely separated!
This is why Zhou Xingchi has been in the industry for decades and has been scolded, boycotted, and exposed by others, but he never responds.

Some people say that not responding is because of guilty conscience!

This is really not because of guilt. Even when his mother scolded him, he would do the same, not to mention other people.

He is like this. Whether what others say is true or false, he will not respond.

But those people are not wrong, because everyone has their own perspective and position.

For example, when Liang Xiaolong was filming a scene with Stephen Chow, he shot one shot dozens of times, until Liang Xiaolong didn't know how to act anymore.

Then Zhou Xingchi suddenly said, "Mr. Liang, I think your expression at 1 minute and 58 seconds in the ninth take is wrong!"

Damn! Liang Xiaolong has a bad temper and almost killed Zhou Xingchi!
Mao Shunyun said: "Zhou Xingchi is a very strange person. In the past, we all thought that we should just do our duty as actors, but he was not like that. When I was acting with him, he kept asking to change the script.

Now I understand why he is like that, he only cares about how to make the movie look good. We often care about interpersonal relationships and so on, but he doesn't care about these. "

……

Some people say that Stephen Chow is ungrateful, so what is the relationship between him and Danny Lee?
Danny Lee is indeed Stephen Chow's benefactor. Because of Danny Lee's support, Stephen Chow was able to play an important role in the 1988 "Thunderbolt" and won the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor.

After winning the award, Zhou Xingchi had more opportunities and began to move step by step to the center of the stage.

Zhou Xingchi once said at the Academy Awards: "I am very grateful to Mr. Li, because he gave this opportunity to me instead of others. If it weren't for Mr. Li, I would probably be nothing."

So, how did they fall out?

Hong Kong TV personality Feng Meiji recalled: "In the film industry, Xing Zai's initial contract was signed with Danny Lee's Universal Film Company, and the price was of course very cheap. Later, Xing Zai became very popular, and all the major film companies in Hong Kong wanted to sign him, but Xing Zai refused to agree."

So what about Danny Lee?

Having finally caught a cash cow, he naturally wanted to squeeze it hard. He paid extremely low prices (70 yuan per film) and let Zhou Xingchi keep giving him movies to make money.

At that time, the film companies outside offered Zhou Xingchi a salary of several million per film, or even nearly ten million.

This is exactly the same situation as between Lo Wei and Chen Long back then. Chen Long could earn Lo Wei millions from a movie, but Lo Wei only paid him a few thousand yuan.

Zhou Xingchi started to avoid Danny Lee, which made Danny Lee unhappy and he started scolding Zhou Xingchi for being ungrateful.

Zhou Xingchi was too valuable at that time, and Danny Lee knew that he could no longer control him.

So, Danny Lee sold Stephen Chow's contract directly to Yongsheng.

In other words, Zhou Xingchi still received a salary of 70 yuan for filming for Yongsheng.

And Danny Lee made a huge fortune from this deal!
...However, it may also be because of all that he had experienced, Zhou Xingchi later started his own company and signed many actors. Almost everyone fell out with him and sued him, making things very unpleasant.

From this point of view, Zhou Xingchi is not as good as Chen Long.

Zhou Xingchi and Chen Long's experiences are almost the same, and Luo Wei and Danny Lee's approaches are also very similar.

Of course, Lo Wei is even more fucking evil than Danny Lee!

The problem with Zhou Xingchi is that he wants others to get wet in the same rain as he has been wet before.

In the 1980s, Chen Long and his agent Chen Ziqiang opened a management company together. At that time, they signed more than 40 artists, including Maggie Cheung, Cherie Chung, Carol Cheng, Zhang Xueyou... Many big names were signed to him.

These artists all share the same agent with Chen Long, Chen Ziqiang.

Jackie Chan and Chen Ziqiang help them get acting jobs, bring them to other jobs, take them to events in various places to increase their exposure and popularity, and even help them get international projects.

Everyone followed Chen Long to make money and the cooperation was very pleasant.

By 1992, gangster involvement in the entertainment industry had become increasingly serious, and Chen Long was forced to close his company.

But those artists were reluctant to leave and took the initiative to ask Chen Ziqiang to continue to manage their agency business in their personal capacity.

This is why everyone in the Hong Kong entertainment industry calls Chen Long "Big Brother", because he takes good care of everyone and is really like a big brother.

……

But these are all stories from another time and space.

For Yang Ye, Chen Long and Zhou Xingchi are actually very grateful people, and that is enough.

Of course, the premise is that you don’t treat them as slaves and exploit them to death!

In fact, there have been people who have been eyeing Yang Ye’s artists over the years.

However, we failed to reach an agreement through direct discussion.

Yang Ye is a kind person, although Yangji's artists are unable to receive film contracts from other companies.

However, he makes a lot of money by filming movies for the company, releasing records, accepting various notices, endorsements, and performing in Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, and the mainland.

And those companies out there are more evil than each other, they are all willing to cheat people to death without compensation, and they are not blind.

If you can't persuade them directly, you can only use underhanded tactics.

When it comes to playing tricks, Yang Ye is no pushover.

Yang Ye had plenty of money, and he kept a lot of people in Kowloon Walled City, including provincial and Hong Kong flag soldiers.

To cause trouble to him is to seek death.

This is also the reason why Yang Ye requested the country to preserve Kowloon Walled City before Hong Kong's return.

Some people say that you can open a security company, but security companies are useless because they are all in the open and they are not even allowed to carry guns.

To deal with a dark person, you have to be darker than him!
Soldiers with the provincial and Hong Kong flags wearing the "black star" suddenly jumped out of the Kowloon Walled City. Are you afraid?
……

The celebration party was held even before the film "God of Gamblers" was released.

Zhou Xingchi drove his newly bought BMW and brought his mother Ling Baoer to the event in high spirits.

He is a filial son, and he hopes that his mother will witness such a glorious moment with him.

How filial is Zhou Xingchi?

Once in an interview with Phoenix TV, Ling Baoer talked about Zhou Xingchi’s bad deeds when he was a child.

She said that Zhou Xingchi didn't eat well and deliberately threw the chicken leg on the ground. She was very angry and beat Zhou Xingchi up.

And Zhou Xingchi finally explained why he did that:
He found that his mother seldom ate meat but ordered him to finish it, so he deliberately soiled the meat so that his mother would eat it herself.

But Zhou Xingchi later asked Phoenix TV to cut out this detail, as he felt he had been too out of line.

……

At the celebration banquet, Yang Ye, as the boss, and Zhou Xingchi cut the big cake with 30 million written on it.

Yang Ye said: "This year, Xingzai has made a good start for us. The movie has not been released yet. 3000 million is not the end, and "God of Gamblers" is just a starting point for Xingzai.

This year, the company will also carefully produce three movies for Xing Zai, carrying forward this nonsensical style and continuing this good show for the whole year!"

"Wow!"

Everyone applauded and was extremely envious!
But there’s nothing we can do about it, they won the Spring Festival champion right from the start, just tell me, isn’t that amazing?
Zhou Xingchi said shyly: "Thank you boss for giving me the opportunity, and thank you to my seniors in the company for their help. The success of "God of Gamblers" is inseparable from everyone. I will definitely work harder in the future!"

Yang Ye continued, "I have another good news to announce. The film Red Sorghum, which was invested and produced by our company, won the Golden Bear Award for Best Film and the Silver Bear Award for Best Actress at the just-concluded West Berlin International Film Festival."

"Wow!"

Everyone was amazed, and then burst into warm applause.

Winning two awards in one battle is so amazing that even Yang Ye didn't expect it.

Because "Red Sorghum" only won the Golden Bear Award in its original time and space, Gong Li's current Best Actress award appeared out of thin air.

This is the first Best Actress title won by a Chinese at one of the three major European film festivals!

This is so valuable!

Shit, this is really a lucrative deal!
Yang Ye said with high spirits: "In 1987, we created a box office miracle in the global market and achieved brilliant achievements. In 1988, I hope everyone will make persistent efforts to continue this glory. We will not only dominate Hong Kong, but also go global. Everyone, drink this cup to the full!"

Yang Ye raised his glass and drank it all with everyone else! (End of this chapter)