Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

PS: I wrote it several times, deleted it again and again, but I still have to include some...personal opinions.

There's no way to explain the treatment this film will receive without making things clear.

……

There is no doubt that Enemy at the Gates is a first-rate war film.

Especially after removing those ideological black spots, the entire film is impeccable in terms of plot, photography, music, editing, sound effects, costumes, art, etc.

After the screening, there was prolonged applause in the cinema.

Yang Ye and other main creators came on stage to express their gratitude, but the audiences below had different feelings.

Today's event was attended mostly by colleagues from the film industry and some news media, with no ordinary audiences.

For Chinese and Japanese filmmakers, their feeling is... it’s really fucking awesome!
It was incredible that Yang Ye would play the leading role in a European war movie.

They're even... a little proud!
As for Hollywood filmmakers, they admire them very much!

It’s not that I admire how well this movie was made, but I admire that... a movie like this actually dared to use a yellow man as the male lead.

This may seem incredible to many Chinese people in later generations.

Shouldn't they be angry? Why admire him?
Admittedly, if this movie were released in North America, many white supremacist racists would certainly not accept it.

They will denigrate or even boycott the film.

But that’s not the case in Hollywood. Hollywood’s values ​​can be summed up in four words: political correctness.

The more than 100-year history of Hollywood is a history of Baizo's struggle.

We will find that everyone in Hollywood is a white-collar worker and this place is full of political correctness.

Political correctness involves many topics, such as racial discrimination, minorities, sexual orientation, climate change, animal rights, feminism, religious beliefs, etc.

They not only talk, but also take practical actions to do it, for example, they recently created a black mermaid princess.

Chinese netizens in later generations often ridiculed this matter with great disdain, thinking that these people in Hollywood were all idiots.

In fact, there is a reason for this. There is no saint in this world. There is only... interests!
Political correctness is a means for Hollywood to protect itself and gain interests.

It's not just Hollywood, we'll find the same thing in the entertainment industry all over the world.

Why is this so?
……

For society, being an actor is a very divisive profession.

On the one hand, he is admired by countless people; on the other hand, he is despised by countless people.

In the old society, people called these people actors and actresses, and they were considered the lowest class of people. Working in this profession would bring shame to one's ancestors.

Even if he becomes a star, he cannot be performed in a prestigious place and can only use his stage name.

This is not a phenomenon unique to China; it is also true in the United States.

In Los Angeles in the early 20s, Puritans who valued family traditions would hang a sign in front of their door that read: This house is not rented to actors and dogs.

Since they have no social status, it is easy for capitalists to control these actors.

They can make anyone they want famous, and force anyone they want to submit.

China has "unwritten rules" and Hollywood also has "red sofas".

Joan Crawford, one of the founders of United Artists, was a Hollywood superstar, but anyone at MGM could sleep with her.

In the film development history of almost any country or region, the social status of stars has gone through three stages of evolution.

The first stage: being insulted and harmed. While people appreciate their wonderful acting skills and outstanding performances, they regard them as desperate social drifters and people with tainted morals.

The second stage: being spied on. Movie stars are sought after but lose their privacy and freedom, and their private lives are scrutinized under a magnifying glass.

The third stage: being forced to follow moral standards that are higher than the social average, and being criticized and condemned at every turn.

People die at every stage.

The United States reached the third stage in the 1950s, when McCarthyism was prevalent and people were calling for war and killing at every turn.

For example, the comedy master Charlie Chaplin was violently boycotted just because he held a red flag in his movie.

The Americans shouted angrily: We will never allow Chaplin to make money from the United States and betray the country. If you hurt the United States like this, get out of the United States!

This sounds familiar. Half a century later, the Chinese people's attitude towards actors has developed to the third stage.

Hollywood in that era was very weak. Their films could be censored, cut, or banned at will.

In order to pass the review, Hollywood is trying to castrate itself every day.

But self-castration is not a solution. If you want creative freedom, you have no choice but to fight.

Hollywood’s weapon of war can be summed up in four words…political correctness!
They use their powerful influence to continuously unite vulnerable groups, help them speak out and gain their support.

In this way, they can change society's view of them and fight against the capitalists who oppress them.

At that time, there was a Hays Code in the United States, which had all kinds of weird regulations on the film industry.

For example, you can’t film scenes of black people and white people having sex, you can’t film kissing scenes (except for a kiss on the cheek), you can’t drink alcohol (there was a prohibition in the United States at the time)...

What Hollywood does is to deliberately shoot illegal scenes with the support of a certain group, and then seek the support of these groups to get the film approved.

This is very dangerous because many times it will not be successful and will still be cut or even banned, resulting in heavy losses.

In more serious cases, they may be imprisoned, purged, or, like Chaplin, deported from the country.

For more than a decade, Hollywood declined to the extreme, and many people could no longer work there and chose to retire or change careers.

But countless people followed one after another and finally saw the dawn of hope.

With the establishment of the film rating system, Hollywood no longer had to accept any prior review of its films and ushered in another golden age.

It then took Hollywood about another twenty years to overcome white supremacy.

During this era, Hollywood began to see movies with all-black and all-Chinese casts.

For example, in the 1993 film "The Joy Luck Club", everyone from the director to the leading actors were Chinese.

Before this, Fu Manchu, the "model opera of racial discrimination" played by a white person, has always been a shadow in the hearts of Chinese Americans.

Once this kind of political correctness is formed, it begins to exert its power.

At the turn of the century, the classic film "The Birth of a Nation", which whitewashed the Ku Klux Klan (a white supremacist group), was removed from several lists of "the greatest films of the 3th century."

Various film unions in Hollywood have played a role time and time again, shutting down the entire industry and bargaining with investors for the compensation they deserve.

It was also from this period that wages in Hollywood began to rise, ushering in an era of high salaries.

The most recent one happened in 2023, when Hollywood screenwriters and actors joined forces to paralyze the entire industry for half a year, and finally won a great victory!
This is Bai Zuo’s struggle history!
For more than a hundred years, Hollywood's actors, screenwriters, and directors have been constantly fighting, bargaining with capitalists, and compromising with each other.

Every compromise results in a struggle of more than ten years or even dozens of years. Some people are ruined and some even sacrifice their lives!
Some people think that Bai Zuo is childish, hypocritical, sanctimonious, and has princess syndrome, and that their so-called love is very cheap.

But this... is their weapon of battle and the source of their power!
There are not so many saints in this world, what there is is just interests!

……

In the 1980s, as the United States gained the upper hand in the struggle for supremacy with the Soviet Union, "hippies" gradually declined and white supremacy began to rise.

Hollywood would not dare to make a movie like Yang Ye's version of "Enemy at the Gates." Not only did Yang Ye make it, but he also openly dated a white man in the movie, so they thought Yang Ye was a bit awesome.

Of course, Hollywood would not make such a movie, because Chinese people in North America are too corrupt and not worth uniting with.

However, in this time and space, Yang Ye once beat up the American boxing champion in a ring match, and then made a harsh statement, offering a reward of five million US dollars for anyone to defeat him.

In the following ten years, there were several challengers who qualified, but without exception, they were all easily defeated by him.

Due to Yang Ye's great success, many Chinese in North America were inspired, regarded him as their idol, and became more aggressive.

This has given the Chinese people some values ​​worthy of unity.

Besides, Yang Ye is a shareholder of the eight major companies, and opportunities can be obtained from him.

Therefore, these Hollywood filmmakers are still willing to cheer for Yang Ye, as there is no loss.

Moreover, the film was very well made, so their praises were justified!
All of a sudden, everyone stood up to express their thoughts after watching the film and praised it highly.

After the filmmakers expressed their opinions, it was the media's turn to ask questions.

The reporter from the Berlin Morning Post asked the question directly: Why did Yang Ye play the leading role in a European war movie?

Yang Ye replied: "First of all, Xie Miao is real and a true Soviet hero. I was very moved after reading his story. He made outstanding contributions to the anti-fascist struggle of people all over the world, so I am willing to introduce him to the world. Secondly, I hope to shoot a series of movies with outstanding snipers from all over the world as the theme to tell their legendary stories. This movie is just the beginning!"

"So there will be other snipers?"

"Yes!" Yang Ye answered affirmatively.

Whether it is or not, let’s just paint a pie in the sky first.

At this time, a media person stood up and asked an irrelevant question: "The movie with the highest popularity for the Golden Bear Award this time is Rain Man directed by Mark Johnson, and the leading actor Dustin Hoffman is also highly favored to win the Silver Bear. What do you think?"

Yang Ye said: "Your question is very strange. Every movie has the possibility of winning an award. In the end, it all depends on the judges' decision."

“But many people think that Rain Man plagiarized your 1987 work God of Gamblers.

The scene in "Rain Man" where Charlie takes the autistic Raymond to the casino to win money is very similar to the plot in "God of Gamblers" where Xiaodao takes the amnesiac Gao to the casino to win money.

The way Tom Cruise touches his ring when he's gambling is exactly the same as the way you touch your ring, and Dustin Hoffman's performance also looks like magic to you."

Yang Ye did not expect such a mistake to happen. "Rain Man" was originally the winner of this year's Golden Bear Award!

It just so happened that Yang Ye had already filmed a movie called "God of Gamblers" in advance, which would have been fine, but he just so happened to come to West Berlin.

In this situation, it would be strange if people didn't ask him.

What could Yang Ye do? It would be fine if he just criticized Tian Gang, but why did he slander him and accuse him of plagiarizing him?

Given Yang Ye's status in the film industry, if he jumped out and insisted on making trouble, Dustin Hoffman would definitely lose his reputation.

Because Hoffman is no longer a young man, but a successful Hollywood actor.

Yang Ye thought about it and decided to forget it because it was unnecessary.

He replied: "I think this should be a coincidence, "Rain Man" and "God of Gamblers" are actually completely different stories.

When I was writing the script, I included a story about amnesia in order to create a dramatic plot.

Since both protagonists possess extraordinary abilities, being taken to the casino is a natural extension and doesn’t mean anything.

As for the ring-touching action, Tom has been learning Kung Fu from me. He observed my little habits and found them interesting, so he learned them. It's no big deal."

Yang Ye exonerated "Rain Man" with just a few words.

The crew of "Rain Man" is under a lot of pressure now. They feel wronged and aggrieved because they really did not copy "God of Gamblers".

This is a case of “any similarity is purely coincidental”.

Therefore, Yang Ye's generous remarks made the crew of "Rain Man" very grateful.

Especially Tom Cruise, he knew that Yang Ye didn't wear a ring at all, and he had no habit of touching the ring.

It was obvious that Yang Ye said this just to excuse them.

This kind of thing can be big or small, the key lies in Yang Ye's attitude.

If Yang Ye didn't pursue it, it would be just a small matter, no big deal.

If Yang Ye insists on pursuing the matter, or even suing, it will be a big deal and very troublesome, and Rain Man might end up in big trouble.

In fact, Yang Ye just felt that since they had already turned against Tian Gang, it was a bit of a shame for them to keep nagging for a similar plot.

After the media screening, "Enemy at the Gates" will be released to the audience immediately.

Such a well-made movie is still very popular, and there is a constant stream of audiences coming to watch it first.

Because the audience who can come to the three major film and television exhibitions have some level of appreciation.

Although they felt it was a bit strange that Yang Ye, a yellow man, played the leading role in a white movie.

But... the movie is really good.

……

In the following days, Yang Ye was busy communicating with people everywhere, and Shi Nansheng also came to Berlin in person.

She also brought a lot of movies with her and discussed cooperation intentions with film producers in preparation for selling films.

On the Spring Festival, Yang Ye announced a holiday and called Shi Nansheng and some staff members to celebrate the New Year together.

Yang Ye also invited Brother Kaizi, Wu Ziniu and others to join him. They are all Chinese and are far away from home, so they wanted to join in the fun.

There were more than thirty people coming, but the presidential suite where Yang Ye lived was very spacious, with its own kitchen and dining room, which was more than enough to accommodate so many people.

The dishes were prepared by the hotel's chef and his team. Yang Ye and his friends just kneaded the dough and made a few dumplings to create a good atmosphere.

Little Yang Xi was very excited and kept pestering Yang Ye to teach her how to make dumplings. Yang Ye naturally did not get tired of it and taught her step by step.

Brother Kaizi was making dumplings skillfully and asked curiously, "Mr. Yang is from the south, I didn't expect he is also good at making dumplings."

Yang Ye said: "My daughter heard from others that the most delicious food in China is dumplings, so I had to learn how to make them for her."

Brother Kaizi is also a girl killer. He understands women very well and is very good at flirting with girls.

But he didn't expect that Yang Ye actually got the most beautiful woman in France and had a daughter with her.

This is really awesome, and Brother Kaizi admires him very much!

After chatting for a while, Brother Kaizi asked, "Mr. Yang, what do you think of this year's Golden Bear Award?"

Yang Ye smiled and said, “Although you are a judge, I am inviting you to dinner today only because we are all Chinese living in a foreign country. I have no other intentions. It is not a bribe to you!”

Brother Kaizi said: "Of course not."

Yang Ye said: "If you ask me, I think the best movie of this year is Rain Man."

Brother Kaizi said: "Rain Man is good, but it is suspected of plagiarism. Anyway, I will not vote for it."

Although Brother Kaizi doesn't have many votes, it may affect the final result.

And there is no guarantee that other judges will not have the same idea.

It seems that the Golden Bear for Rain Man is gone. (End of this chapter)