Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Yang Ye hugged Irina and said affectionately, "I think there is something I should tell you. I saw you on the train coming here!"

Irina was very surprised: "No way?"

"You were reading at that time, and then you fell asleep. I didn't dare to look at you directly because you were so beautiful. Since then, I began to think about you constantly. Whenever I thought about you, I would smile unconsciously. Then I thought, who would be the man who could hug you? Who would be the man who could make you laugh? How lucky he would be! And now, the man lying next to you... is me!"

Irina smiled, her eyes sparkling, and she began to kiss Yang Ye.

They kissed each other, and just when Irina felt extremely happy, she opened her eyes and accidentally glanced out the window.

Her pupils instantly dilated, her expression turned horrified, she let go of Yang Ye, climbed up, picked up the rifle, and rushed out frantically...

"OK, great, our movie is done!" Jean-Jacques announced.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and then began to applaud enthusiastically and hugged each other to celebrate.

Yang Ye hugged the Russian goddess and said with a smile: "You acted very well. When you rushed out just now, your explosive power was very strong!"

"Your performance was great too. When you confessed to me, I felt my heart pounding!"

The two of them praised each other and laughed heartily.

They were the most famous actors in China and the Soviet Union, and they had some mutual admiration for each other.

The staff began to clean up the scene, and Yang Ye said, "Let's go out for a walk!"

"Okay!"

……

"careful!"

Yang Ye climbed to the top of a ruin and reached out to pull Irina up.

The two sat side by side, looking at the devastated battlefield.

The sun was setting and the smoke had not yet dissipated. Yang Ye felt a little sad when he thought that this once great country was about to collapse!

What Yang Ye regretted was not this corrupt country, it deserved to die.

What he regretted was that all the achievements for which countless people had sacrificed their lives would be wasted.

He recalled the words that were later circulated on the Internet:

"Hey! Comrade, do you know where Leningrad and Stalingrad are? I can't find it on the map."

"No more, no more, we have failed. The White Bandits and the capitalists have once again ridden on our heads. If you want to follow the red star, go to the East. Cross the Dnieper River, over the Ural Mountains, at the end of the Siberian Plain, there is still a spark of fire burning there."

The East!
Is the East okay?
Yang Ye thought of a line from the movie Enemy at the Gates, in which the political commissar said, "We are trying so hard to create an equal society, where you don't have to envy others.

But there is always something to envy, a smile, a friendship, something you don't have but want to get. In this world, even if we all unite into one country, there will always be a distinction between the rich and the poor..."

Seeing Yang Ye staring into the distance in silence, Irina asked curiously, "What are you thinking about?"

Yang Ye didn't want to talk about these things. He couldn't tell Irina: Your motherland will soon cease to exist.

In fact, whether he was there or not had nothing to do with Yang Ye, he was just sighing.

Even though she was sighing, the girl still had to work. Yang Ye said, "Let me sing a song for you!"

Irina happily said, "Okay, what song?"

"I wrote this song for this movie, wait for me!"

Yang Ye jumped down nimbly, and after a while, he came back with an accordion.

……

The ending of Yang Ye's version of "Enemy at the Gates" is different from the original version.

The heroine in the original version did not die. She was shot and then resurrected.

After the hero defeated his opponent, he found his lover in the field hospital.

This is an American happy ending.

If the film had been shot the Soviet way, the heroine would have died.

Because the characteristics of Russian literature and art are heaviness, melancholy and sadness!
So the ending of Yang Ye's version is that after the protagonist kills the enemy, he comes to the bank of the Volga River alone, to the place where his lover died, and commemorates him endlessly!

At this time, a sad song will be played... "The One I Love"!
……

In the smoky twilight and against the backdrop of the setting sun, the two people sitting on the ruins became a silhouette.

The melodious accordion sounded, carrying the unique sadness of Russian music!

Irina leaned against Yang Ye and listened to him singing with deep affection:

On the flower-filled riverbank, the soldiers followed her gaze that carried the scent of flowers.

The mountains and rivers are broken, and love grows solemnly in the smoke of gunpowder. Come on, girl, hug the one you love most.

A promise, a river, an endless fragrance.

Beautiful birch forest, please sing your wind sounds.

No matter how far away the wind and clouds are, they can stop the one you love from being on the road.

Time flows silently, and the years are beautiful because of love. My pain, your eyes, your heart...

……

"Enemy at the Gates" will complete post-production in Hong Kong, so it will not be released in time for the summer season and is not very suitable for the Christmas season.

Yang Ye discussed it with the publishing company and decided to wait until next year when they would have more time.

Shi Nansheng said: "If we postpone it to next year, why don't we apply for the Berlin Film Festival?"

Yang Ye was stunned: "We're going to take German movies to the Berlin Film Festival?"

Shi Nansheng said: "Is there nothing wrong with this? This movie is about the Nazis. Germany has clearly drawn a line between itself and the Nazis, right?"

Yang Ye said: "That's right, Mr. Arnold, what do you mean?"

Jean-Jacques said: "I respect the opinion of the publishing company."

This movie was just a task for Jean-Jacques, although he completed it very seriously and excellently.

But what he was thinking about most was Yang Ye's agreement to invest in the movie he wanted to shoot.

Yang Ye said: "That's it!"

Shi Nansheng suddenly thought of something, and she asked Yang Ye: "Will you have no movies released this year?"

Yang Ye thought to himself, wow, it’s true!
"Enemy at the Gates" has been postponed to next year, and "Mojin: The Lost Tomb" will not be finished for a while, so won't this year be idle? Yang Ye thought about it and said, "I'll shoot a temporary one during the summer vacation!"

Shi Nansheng was overjoyed. With Yang Ye in the summer schedule, the schedule was as stable as a rock.

……

As the seal was lifted, Hong Kong film companies went crazy and rushed to Baiyang Agency to poach people.

Faced with the film contracts that are pouring in like snowflakes, Baiyang Agency is still quite cautious.

They will carefully help artists choose film companies, select film scripts, negotiate remuneration and cooperation conditions, and strive to maximize benefits.

In short, I am more cautious and I won’t just accept the money if you give it to me.

Because Yangji's artists now have a certain overseas market. For example, after Liu Hua's "A Moment of Romance", the selling price of her films in South Korea has reached 800,000 US dollars.

However, he is a foreigner after all. If he wants to maintain his influence, he must be cautious when accepting roles. If he takes on all kinds of bad movies, his influence will soon disappear.

Regarding this point, Baiyang Agency will explain it clearly to the artists in advance. If you don’t care about your reputation and just want to make quick money, that’s up to you!

In fact, not all Hong Kong artists of this era are willing to take on so many roles, but... many times it is not up to them to decide.

The forces behind the film companies are very powerful, and many of them have community backgrounds.

Having finally caught a money tree, of course you have to shake it hard, and the artists don’t really dare to resist!

It is different with Yangji. Due to the ban in recent years, it is difficult for its artists to get movies outside and they can only make a living by taking on the company's dramas, thus developing the habit of producing high-quality works.

During the three years of the ban, in order to maintain the artists' income, Baiyang Company worked at full capacity and helped the artists take on a large number of jobs outside of movies.

The first thing, of course, is to release records and hold concerts.

Under the operation of Baiyang Records, singers such as Zhang Xueyou, Leslie Cheung, Andy Lau and Leon Lai have maintained the pace of releasing two albums every year.

The Red Artists Company helps singers hold concerts across Asia.

Due to Yang Ye's relationship with MGM, the company's artists are often invited to perform in Las Vegas.

In addition, endorsing advertisements and participating in various business activities are also essential.

For example, Yuen Biao goes to Japan to make movies every year because of the Japanese market.

All in all, despite being banned in Taiwan and having difficulty getting movie roles, the income of Baiyang Company's artists has not been greatly affected.

Otherwise, they would have run away long ago.

No one can resist money!
As for female artists, due to their lack of box office appeal, they have relatively fewer opportunities to get various jobs.

But... they are supported by Yang Ye, so whether they work or not, it's just a matter of fact.

Influenced by the work and life habits of the past three years, although the lockdown has been lifted and they can take on any film job, Yangji’s artists are still very cautious when choosing scripts.

Because they are used to making money in other ways when they are not filming.

This is actually much more relaxing than being on the set all the time!
For example, Zhang Xueyou holds so many concerts every year that he really doesn’t have enough time to make movies.

Taking advantage of the lifting of the lockdown, I plan to go to Taiwan to hold a concert!
Despite this, Yangji's popular artists still have several film contracts.

During the Easter season that just ended, "God of Gamblers" co-starring Stephen Chow and Liu Hua was released, earning 3400 million Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong, setting off another box office frenzy.

Yongsheng Company took the initiative and signed a new film contract with each of them, and Golden Harvest was not to be outdone and quickly got the film contracts for both of them.

However, it is more difficult for them to get film contracts from Jet Li and Zhen Zidan.

Yang Ji has high requirements for action actors to take roles outside, and one of the conditions is that Yang Ji’s martial arts team must also be invited.

Now Cheng Xiaodong has joined Xu Ke's studio, Hong Jingbao has officially returned to Yang Ji, and the best martial arts instructors have been hired by Yang Ji.

They simply look down upon the martial arts teams outside and think they are not qualified to guide these action superstars!

Another thing is that shooting action movies is time-consuming. In order to avoid injuries to action actors as much as possible, sufficient safety measures are taken and it will not be as harsh as in the original time and space!

Currently, the only one who has obtained Jet Li's film contract is Wu Siyuan. Because he has a good relationship with Yang Ye and is a good brother with Yuan Kui, he has an advantage over those big companies.

Debao got a film contract from Zhen Zidan and also invited Yuan Heping as director and martial arts instructor.

……

The artists of Baiyang Company were working at full capacity, filming until their legs were tired, and Yang Ye was not idle either.

After returning to Hong Kong and attending meetings for a few days, Yang Ye asked Wang Jing out for tea.

"Ah Xiang, I'm going to start filming "God of Gamblers 2" and I want you to be the director. Are you interested?"

Fatty Wang was flattered. He didn't expect Yang Ye to actually look for him to work with him, but he was still a little confused as to why Yang Ye chose him to be the director.

Fatty Wang said, "It's rare that Young Master Yang thinks highly of me. This is my honor. But don't you always direct your own movies?"

Yang Ye said: "Not necessarily. For example, the movie "The Lover" two years ago was directed by a Frenchman, and the movie "Diary of a Real Man" last year was directed by Chu Yuan.

"God of Gamblers 2" has a lot of funny elements and can be considered a comedy. I think your style is quite suitable for it.

Besides, I'm quite busy as I will soon leave Hong Kong to shoot the exterior scenes of "Mojin: The Lost Tomb".

I need you to do the preliminary preparations, and when I return to Hong Kong, you can join the crew directly.

Besides, this movie will be released in the summer, so you have to finish it all within a month!"

Completing the task in one month was not a problem for Fatty Wang. He said, "Of course I would love to do it, but the Xiang family..."

Yang Ye said: "Don't worry about this, I will take care of it."

When Fatty Wang heard this, he immediately felt relieved and said, "Then I'll take it!"

This problem is easy to solve. Yang Ye just needs to give Yongsheng a movie contract with a popular artist in exchange.

Yang Ye said: "Well, this is the outline of the script, you can fill in the details yourself. This is the list of actors, you can coordinate the schedule yourself. You have one month to prepare, and the film will officially start in one month."

Fatty Wang took a look at the list and was shocked. The lineup was so explosive.

Liang Jiahui, who just became famous all over the world with "The Last Emperor", plays the second male lead Xiao Fangfang.

Gong Li, who just won the Berlin Film Festival Award, plays the leading female role, Xiao Yaoyao.

They are brother and sister in the movie!
Qiu Shuzhen from Girlhood and Wu Jing, the male lead of "Terminator 2", play a pair of siblings, Haitang and Haiyuan, who are the second female and fourth male.

The third male character, Long Wu, is Yang Ye’s apprentice Zhen Zidan, and the villain Qiu Xiaochi is T2 in "Terminator 1000", Zun Long!
Fatty Wang felt a surge of blood in his head. This time... he was going to become a god!

……

PS: I owe you two chapters, sorry. I will make up for it in the next two days! (End of this chapter)