Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

When the audience heard Yang Ye say that he wanted to create a "Ghost Blows Out the Light Universe", they couldn't help but whisper.

Huang Zhan asked: "Aye, your idea sounds very shocking, but what exactly does Ghost Blows Out the Light mean? Is it taken from Du Fu's poem?"

Yang Ye asked, "Are you talking about the poem 'The mountain ghost blows out the lights, the cook talks late into the night'?"

The literal meaning of this poem is that the mountain ghost blew out the lights, and no one spoke in every household, describing the late night.

Huang Zhan said: "Yes!"

Yang Ye replied, "Maybe there is some connection, but this sentence was told to me by Blind Chen, not made up by me. According to the rules of tomb raiders, after entering an ancient tomb, one cannot open the coffin and take the treasure immediately, but must light a candle in the southeast corner of the tomb. If the candle goes out, one must exit the tomb; if it does not go out, one must take the tomb artifact. The tomb artifact is also their term for the treasure in the tomb."

Huang Zhan said, "What this means is that the ghost blew out the lamp, which means that he doesn't agree with you taking his things, and he wants to start killing people?"

Yang Ye shook his head: "It's just a description, indicating that danger is coming, not that there are real ghosts."

"If there are no real ghosts, then why did the candle go out? Why must it be placed in the southeast direction?"

"Because in our ancient Chinese traditional culture, we pay attention to the five elements and eight gates. The five elements are gold, wood, water, fire and earth. The eight gates are rest, injury, birth, stop, scenery, death, shock and opening.

The southeast is the door of death, and the northwest is the door of life. The southeast of the tomb designed by the ancients is a dead corner, where the air is least ventilated.

If the candle lit in the southeast corner goes out or changes color, it means that the tomb chamber is lacking in oxygen and is filled with poisonous gases.

This is a dangerous signal, and you must evacuate from the northwest corner of the escape route, because the northwest door usually has a ventilation hole. "

"So that's what happened. This is so interesting. I'm looking forward to it. Please tell me the story of Blind Chen!"

Everyone was confused. Who is Blind Chen?
Yang Ye quickly explained, saying that the information about tomb robbery was all heard from a blind man named Chen in Kowloon Walled City.

Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to learn so many details.

As for Blind Chen? He's dead, there's no evidence!

Kowloon Walled City is a mixed crowd, so it is not uncommon for a tomb robber who escaped from the mainland to live there.

Although what Yang Ye said could not be verified, it was reasonable and everyone believed it.

Because believing this is better than believing that Yang Ye really robbed a tomb.

Yang Ye is a celebrity, and the places he has been to over the years can be verified. There is no chance and it is impossible for him to have done this.

All in all, the premiere of "Ghost Blows Out the Light: Mojin: The Lost Tomb" was a complete success.

The next day, all major media outlets praised the work.

"Mojin: The Lost Legend" has a stunning premiere, Hu Bayi is more professional than Indiana Jones!"

"Creating an oriental fantasy adventure, Yang Ye declares war on Spielberg."

"The Ghost Blows Out the Light universe is opened, and the Lost Tomb is just the introduction to the story."

The media used all kinds of sensational headlines to hype the film, and the film critics naturally also praised it to great lengths.

Baiyang Pictures even advertised heavily on ATV.

All of a sudden, the ticket booking phones of all the major cinema chains in Hong Kong were flooded with calls.

On the release day, citizens flocked to the cinema to see it.
The theater owners were grinning from ear to ear and counting money until their hands cramped.

Some film companies are in a state of distress and can only choose to avoid the release schedule and stay out of the spotlight.

Throughout the first ten days of July, only a few low-budget art films such as "Single Nobleman" and "The Man Who Never Takes Off His Socks", as well as "Night Passion" by the famous third-level director He Pan were released.

He Pan is a famous photographer who also makes films. He specializes in making third-level films and is known for his beautiful images.

Famous ones include "The Romance of the Condor Heroes", "The Three Degrees of Temptation", "Crazy for You", etc., all of which are worth watching.

Since the establishment of Hong Kong's film rating system, there have not been many Category III films produced.

The real boom in Category III films came after 93, when the market was in recession and people started to make money through unconventional means.

Even a popular girl idol like Li Lizhen started taking off her clothes, so what else can others say?

Take it off, take it all off for me!
This can be considered as a benefit for movie fans after the demise of Hong Kong movies!

……

Chen Long is preparing for his new film "Project Eagle".

After watching "Mojin: The Lost Tomb", he felt that his "Dragon Brothers" was too crudely shot.

The script of "Project Eagle" is also very rough.

So he couldn't sit still any longer and came to Yang Ye to discuss how to play the treasure hunt adventure.

Chen Long is a person with a strong learning ability, or we can also say that he is good at imitating.

In Chen Long's films, we can see that he has borrowed a lot of ideas from the comedy masters of the silent film era.

Including Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Chaplin and others.

Chen Long realized early on from the films of these comedy masters the essential nature of "action" as a visual language that is understood by the whole world.

From then on, Chen Long began to follow the path of his Hollywood silent film comedy predecessors.

In Chen Long's own documentary "The Legend of Jackie Chan", he personally gave an example: the classic clock tower scene in "Project A" was a collage of Lloyd's "Safety First" and Keaton's "Three Ages".

Chen Long believes that the best stuntmen are still Hollywood filmmakers, and the real action comedy superstar is still Buster Keaton.

In this time and space where Yang Ye is, Chen Long also learned a lot from Yang Ye.

Although many things were actually figured out by him, Yang Ye just told him in advance.

As for how to shoot a treasure hunt adventure, Yang Ye told Chen Long: "You copied it too roughly and didn't deeply dismantle the structure of this type of film."

Yang Ye was not only talking about "Dragon Brothers" starring Chen Long, but also "The Legend of Wesley" starring Xu Guanjie.

"Mai Kar was very enterprising back then. He dismantled the 007 series and then recreated the localized "Best Partner" based on Hong Kong's characteristics. It turned out to be a huge success.

When it came to filming Wesley, this guy was addicted to stock trading and was just fooling around, so naturally the box office was not ideal. As for your "Dragon Brothers", it is already very good, at least much better than Wesley.

But you were too obsessed with your own action characteristics and destroyed the original structure of the treasure hunting adventure movie. As a result, the whole movie became scattered, with nice sentences but no good chapters!

In fact, according to my analysis, there are six major elements in filming a treasure hunt. As long as you understand them thoroughly, no matter how you film it, it will not be bad. "

Chen Long couldn't help but laugh when he heard this.

More than ten years ago, Yang Ye taught him the nine keys to success in kung fu movies, which are: superb skills, grassroots heroes, social justice, kindness, humorous kung fu, props and venues, high-risk actions, never give up, and fists against guns.

This benefited him a lot, and he is still using many of the key tips.

Later, Yang Ye taught him the eight keys to making a movie a hit, which are: attractive title, subject selection, cast pairing, contemporary rivals, theater analysis, publicity, schedule advantage, and film quality.

Through actual operation, Yang Ye made him understand that if you want a movie to be a hit, it is not enough to just make a good film, there are so many tricks involved.

And now, Yang Ye has transformed into the theme of treasure hunting and adventure, and he has actually figured out six key tips. This is really amazing.

This little expert is good at summarizing the main idea.

Chen Long couldn't help but offer Yang Ye a cup of tea, then took out his small notebook and listened attentively.

Yang Ye took a sip of tea and said, "First, the character introduction. Usually in the first paragraph of the movie, a brief adventure event is told to introduce the protagonist.

In this regard, your "Dragon Brothers" and Xu Guanjie's "The Legend of Wesley" are both well done, and basically restored "Indiana Jones". You both go to steal a treasure first, add some twists and turns in the middle, and after successfully stealing the treasure, you flee on a plane, and the natives kneel down in front of the plane.

But this part should not only be good-looking, it should also reflect the protagonist's values ​​and let the audience understand what kind of person the protagonist is.

The first scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark is about Dr. Jones going through an adventure, and you can see what his values ​​are, but you have overlooked this point.

Chen Long thought about it carefully and found that it was indeed the case.

When he was filming "Dragon Brothers", he added an inexplicable beer drinking plot purely for comedy.

The opening paragraph of "Mojin: The Lost Tomb", though brief, shows the different personalities of the three members of the tomb-robbing team, demonstrates their friendship, and also makes it clear that they are not pure tomb robbers.

After Chen Long figured it out, he wrote this one down and asked, "That makes sense. What about the second one?"

Yang Ye said: "The second one is the appearance of a mission. In short, a treasure appears and the protagonist needs to find it, whether the mission is provided by the villain, given by the country, or the personal needs of the protagonist.

We need to provide direct evidence of the appearance of the treasure in the movie, such as from a book, a certain kind of physical evidence, or someone said something.

In short, the audience needs to understand the cause of the incident. For example, in Raiders of the Lost Ark, two officials went to find Dr. Jones, which led to the mystery of the Ark of the Covenant. This is a task given by the state. "

Chen Long nodded and verified Yang Ye’s words with “The Lost Tomb”.

Sure enough, after the first adventure of the movie, the scene came to the United States. Then someone asked the tomb raider to take action, which led to the mystery of the goddess's tomb twenty years ago. This was the task given by the villain.

Thinking of this, Chen Long suddenly understood and wrote this down.

Yang Ye continued, "The third one is the treasure map. Only the good guys know where the treasure is hidden. The villains want to get the map, but the good guys happen to have the map, so a conflict is formed.

We should let the good and evil sides have a wonderful duel in this part, and in the end, of course, the good side wins and goes to the treasure house. The villains will not fail either, and they will follow.

For example, in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", Jones first went to Nepal to ask Marian for something, and the villain followed him, and the two sides had a big fight in the bar.

This is your strong suit. The staging of this scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark is rubbish, and you can do it ten times better.”

Chen Long verified this with "The Ghouls". Under the coercion of the villain group, Wang Kaixuan finally remembered that he had been to this place twenty years ago. He thus found the correct location of the ancient tomb and led everyone into the map.

Yang Ye continued, "The fourth one is the passcode. At this time, both the protagonist and the villain have entered the map, and the movie has entered the most exciting passcode segment.

We should set up many very sophisticated and very dangerous levels here, and only the protagonist has the ability to lead everyone out.

How the protagonist solves the puzzle is the biggest highlight of the movie."

Chen Long once again used "Mojin: The Lost Tomb" to illustrate this. In the first level of entering the ancient tomb in the movie, several people were poisoned and turned into zombies. The situation was very dangerous.

At this time, Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang appeared as gods, and Hu Bayi used the Dragon-Seeking Tactics to successfully lead everyone out of the predicament.

It is indeed so, the puzzle-solving part is not only exciting, but also contains gossip, which is so mysterious that it makes people feel awe-inspiring.

Awesome! Chen Long was taking notes quickly.

Yang Ye said: "The fifth one is the test of humanity. At the end of the movie, both the good guys and the bad guys saw the treasure.

This is the most critical link, the climax of the movie, and the link that expresses the theme of the movie.

When the villains actually get the treasure, they often make the wrong choice, bringing disaster upon themselves and bringing about their own destruction.

The decent choices often echo the beginning of the movie. His values ​​determine the choices he makes.

We also need to use this paragraph to reveal the theme of the movie and express our definition of the story.

For example, in the latest movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Airbender", regarding the choice of the Holy Grail, the villain chose a gorgeous Holy Grail, but it turned out that the gorgeous Holy Grail actually brought death.

Jones chose a very simple Holy Grail, which is truly powerful and can bring eternal life, and he won the final victory. "

Chen Long once again used "The Ghouls" to verify and found that Hu Bayi also faced such a choice. He finally smashed the red spider lily and broke his obsession of more than 20 years.

This plot indeed echoes the dream at the beginning of the movie. The villain Sister Hong pursues the red spider lily with all her strength, thus bringing about her own destruction.

It was amazing! He hadn't expected that Yang Ye could analyze this subject so thoroughly and apply it flexibly, turning it into a Chinese subject without any sense of disobedience.

Yang Ye said: "The last one is to escape. After killing the villain and obtaining the treasure, the underground palace must collapse.

The protagonist is in danger of destruction, barely escapes, and then you can shoot a sequel."

After Yang Ye finished speaking the six points, he made a summary speech.

“These six points can be said to be the necessary links to complete in a treasure hunting adventure movie. As long as you follow them well, the story will be very complete and will pass the test.

Of course, you can make some personalized processing based on the characteristics of your movie and your own actual needs.

For example, the "treasure map" segment of "Mojin: The Lost Tomb" relied on an accident. It was through Fatty Wang's memories that the location of the goddess' tomb was accidentally found.

For example, in the part where human nature is tested, Hu Bayi overcame his inner dilemma and made the right choice. "

Yang Ye's final conclusion coincided with Chen Long's own inner confirmation.

Chen Long wrote down these six points one by one, put down his notebook, and clapped his hands.

He was truly convinced, because Yang Ye really understood this type of person thoroughly.

"Boss, no wonder you can make this movie so wonderful and complete. I really admire you. I think it's even better than Raiders of the Lost Ark."

Yang Ye smiled and said, “You think it’s good because this oriental story can make you feel emotionally connected. In fact, I have also made an extra effort based on this genre.”

"Oh? I'd like to hear the details!"

“When we tell a treasure-hunting adventure story, we can’t just have the protagonist simply complete some actions, defeat some monsters, overcome some levels, and finally defeat the bad guys.

Instead, you should make some changes in his heart, so that the audience can integrate into his emotional world. With emotional resonance, the audience will never forget your work.

From what I understand, generally speaking, in this type of movie, we should set up triple resistance for the protagonist.”

Triple resistance? Chen Long was very interested and wrote down his thoughts, while Yang Ye talked freely.

"The first level is external resistance. For example, dangerous nature, dangerous underground palaces, traps, etc."

"The second level is the resistance from the villains. The villains are often more powerful than the good guys, with more advanced tools and manpower, and they keep threatening the good guys."

"The third level is inner resistance. Because the thing that is truly difficult to overcome is human nature."

Yang Ye used "The Lost Tomb" as an example.

"The biggest highlight of 'Mojin: The Lost Legend' is actually the knot in Hu Bayi and Wang Kaixuan's heart about Ding Sitian dying to save them.

In order to fulfill their promise to help Ding Sitian find the red spider lily, they once again came to the goddess' tomb and started their adventure.

The crisis they ultimately overcame did not come from the threat of the tomb or the underground palace, nor from the threat of the villain, but from their own victory over their own hearts.

Only by doing this can a character's growth be completed and the entire story be sublimated.

For me, the three settings are sufficient to make a complete movie."

Chen Long sighed: "Listening to your words is worth ten years of reading. I think my "Flying Eagle Project" will definitely be more exciting than "Dragon Brothers"."

But Yang Ye knew that "Project Eagle" was a huge pitfall.

However, after listening to Yang Ye's words, Chen Long changed his mind and perhaps he could get over it.

Who knows? (End of this chapter)