Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Why is "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy" considered a Chinese film? Because it was shot based on the 007 formula.

Before Casino Royale, all 007 movies followed a fixed formula.

No matter how you change the screenwriter, director, Bond, or Bond girl, it's actually the same.

For example, the beginning must be a strong first move, one or two colleagues will die in the middle, after infiltrating the inside, they will encounter an identity crisis, the enemy always likes to show mercy, and the ending must be a big explosion to destroy the enemy's nest.

The overall plot structure, introduction, development, climax, character positioning, atmosphere and tone of "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy" are all constructed according to the 007 model.

This is also why a remake of a red classic that no one was optimistic about could earn nearly 900 million yuan at the box office.

Because this is the refreshing drama model that people all over the world love to watch.

In fact, "Lin Hai Xue Yuan" is not a red classic, it does not have so many ideologies.

It is written based on the model of classical novels such as "Water Margin" and is a very exciting legendary story.

If we make an analogy, it is the martial arts novel of that era.

That is why it is so popular among the people.

……

At the discussion meeting after the screening, Brother Kaizi raised his questions, and Yang Ye directly gave a positive answer!
"I did use the model of Western spy movies. Yang Zirong is the equivalent of the ace agent in those spy movies!"

As for why it was filmed like this?
Yang Ye explained: “The eight major Hollywood studios are expanding globally, and at a rapid pace.

Ten years ago, their overseas box office accounted for less than 40%, but now it has exceeded 50%.

I have been to the Soviet Union. People there love watching Hollywood movies and everyone admires America.

Why did Soviet people yearn for America and like American movies so much?

Because American movies are well made, people can learn about American culture from these good-looking American movies.

If Chinese-language films want to compete with Hollywood and stop their cultural invasion, they must achieve commercialization.

Hong Kong films are very popular in Asia now and also have a certain influence in Europe and the United States.

What did it bring? The popularity of our Chinese culture.

Nowadays, you can see many Cantonese-style dim sum shops on the streets of Tokyo and Seoul.

Young men and women from Japan and South Korea sat in the store, eating shrimp dumplings and talking about their love.

They fell in love with Hong Kong because of movies and began to understand Chinese culture.

If you want to achieve commercialization, you must learn from Hollywood's advanced experience.

This is consistent with our reform and opening up, learning from the advanced experience of the United States, and realizing the four modernizations.

In 1982, Hong Kong's Mai Jia disassembled "007: Top Secret" to create the "Best Partner" series which was popular in Asia and has remained popular for a long time.

My recent works, "Mojin: The Lost Legend" and "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy", were also shot to explore Western genre films.

So far, "Mojin: The Last Dragon" is relatively successful commercially.

It crushed Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" in Asia, grossing $3 million.

The global box office has now reached $200 million.

I know that there are two mainstream ideas about movies in the mainland.

For the government, movies are expressions of ideology that need to be controlled and guided.

For filmmakers, movies are art and cannot be tainted by commercialism.

But I think that whether it is to convey values ​​or to express art, first of all your movie must be seen by people.

If no one cares, how can we spread the message? Who can we show it to? "

……

Yang Ye's visit to the mainland this time is not just to promote "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy".

In fact, it is also because the film studios in the mainland are unable to survive and are on the verge of bankruptcy.

However, Hong Kong's film industry is thriving, especially Poplar Pictures, which is listed among the "Nine Major Film Companies in the World".

Everyone also wanted to ask Yang Ye to share some experiences.

So many film studios, so many people, they have to survive.

That's why Yang Ye talked about the commercialization of movies.

As for how to commercialize it, the first thing is of course to increase the ticket price.

In the past, when ordinary people only earned a few dozen yuan a month, you only had to pay a few cents for a ticket.

The per capita income has increased tenfold, but the ticket price is still a few cents.

Everything is rising, except movie ticket prices, so the film studios are naturally unable to make ends meet.

It's a very simple truth. Ten years ago, so many people filmed "The Mysterious Buddha" for half a year, and it only cost 200,000 yuan, which is not even enough for food expenses now.

So movie ticket prices must increase, but you can’t just increase ticket prices, the quality of your movies must keep up.

Historically, ticket prices in mainland China increased twenty times in the decade from 1990 to 1999.

However, the annual box office also dropped from 27 billion yuan to 8.7 million yuan, and a large number of state-owned film studios and cinemas went bankrupt.

Because you raised the price and there aren't any good movies or movies I want to watch, I'll choose not to watch it.

However, how the ticket prices should increase and how much is appropriate is not Yang Ye's business and is not something he can decide.

He simply mentioned an unwritten rule in the film markets of various countries that movie ticket prices cannot exceed 1% of the income of an ordinary worker.

……

As for how movies should be commercialized, Yang Ye could not teach them how to make movies, but he could talk about other aspects.

So he brought out Xiang Huasheng's "Eight Great Victory Strategies".

Xiang Huasheng has not yet summed up his winning formula, so it is natural that Yang Ye will summarize it.

At the meeting, Yang Ye spoke eloquently: "The reason why Baiyang Pictures has been able to be successful over the years is that we have our own set of rules when making movies. For example, we have eight tips on how to make a movie a hit."

After hearing this, some directors at the scene couldn't help but cheer up. Yang Ye was going to get the real thing, so they picked up their pens and started to take notes.

In fact, making more money and living a better life is the primary driving force of human beings.

Domestic directors may not necessarily want to make movies that are popular with the public, win higher box office and make more money.

But that's the way the world is. They only have this meager salary, so they might as well pursue the art in their hearts.

Kaizi has been an artist for so many years. When he saw that Zhang Yimou made a fortune with "Hero", didn't he immediately become a commercial artist?

Moreover, it has reached commercial extreme, which can be seen from the investment scale and actor configuration of "The Promise".

The investment of 3.5 million is 5000 million more than "Hero".

The leading male actor is South Korea's top star Jang Dong-gun. The other main actors are Japan's Hiroyuki Sanada, Hong Kong's Nicholas Tse and Zhang Baizhi, and mainland China's Liu Ye and Chen Hong.

Jang Dong-gun is responsible for the Korean market, Hiroyuki Sanada is responsible for the Japanese market, Nicholas Tse and Zhang Baizhi are responsible for the Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland markets.

Liu Ye was just a filler, because the mainland market is small, Xie Zhang can take charge of it. You know, "Hero" made 4 billion yen in Japan and more than 10 million US dollars in South Korea.

Brother Kaizi thinks, can I be worse than Zhang Yimou? When I was a director, Zhang Yimou was still carrying the camera for me.

It’s just that ideals are full, but reality is skinny.

They hired Japanese and Korean stars in the hope of making a big splash in Japan and Korea, but ended up failing miserably.

On the contrary, the mainland market, which he cared the least about, contributed 1.6 million yuan in box office revenue to him, although it was criticized by the audience as being crude.

"The eight key points are: attractive title, subject selection, cast matching, contemporary rivals, theater analysis, publicity, schedule advantage, and film quality."

Jiang Wen asked curiously, "The quality of the film ranks last?"

Yang Ye said: "This requires specific analysis. There is a proverb in the West that there are a hundred Hamlets in the hearts of a hundred people. What you think is a good movie may not be good in the eyes of others. It also involves the subject matter. For example, if it is an unpopular subject, no matter how well it is filmed, few people will watch it."

Jiang Wen nodded and stopped talking.

Yang Ye continued, "Let's start with the title. If a movie wants to attract audiences, the title must be impressive.

Hong Kong director Wang Jing cast a comedian in a movie called "The Gambler," which did not do well at the box office after its release.

A bad gambler and a hero, the audience lost interest in watching the show as soon as they heard about it.

After I saw it, I made a movie called "God of Gamblers" using the same theme.

The Hong Kong box office has increased tenfold. Different styles of interpretation of the same subject matter will inevitably lead to different reception.

You can get a glimpse of whether the leading actor is capable of playing the role just by looking at the title of the film.

Some people may think that it is wrong for me to use myself as an example, because everything I shoot sells well.

But the reason why my movies sold well is because I followed these eight tips.

Later, we created a movie called "God of Gamblers" for a newcomer in the cinema, Stephen Chow, which also became a big hit.

By building up the audience's curiosity with a distinctive title, you can make the audience look forward to it. What will "The Saint of Gamblers" be like after "God of Gamblers"?

Of course, this is not to promote gambling, but to use this example to make a specific analysis. "

Everyone nodded, thinking that what Yang Ye said made sense.

Yang Ye continued, "Subject selection. When we make movies, we are competing with the masses. We need to find ways to attract them to the cinema, so we must understand what they need.

Many types of films in Hong Kong are produced because of the needs of the audience. In recent years, there has been a wave of immigration, and many Chinese have immigrated to Europe and the United States. So how are they doing in Europe and the United States? This arouses curiosity.

Thus, immigration movies were born. "Autumn Fairy Tale" produced by Baiyang Films is an excellent immigrant movie, which has been sold to Japan and South Korea and has been watched.

I think everyone can explore this topic further. There are many people immigrating from our mainland now.

Of course, we should not only pursue popular topics and social phenomena, but also create hot spots and lead trends.

As for how to lead, we need to pay attention to the subtle changes in the entire society.

Some old themes will decline, some new themes will be born, some popular themes will decline, and some unpopular themes will rise. There are certain rules to follow.”

"Cast matching. Cast is the transliteration of CAST, which is used in Hong Kong and Taiwan to refer to the cast.

The Hong Kong film market is relatively small, so if we want to sell well overseas, we have to rely on movie stars.

When a rising star joins the cast, the audience's attention to the film will immediately increase significantly. Whether a film can recruit a strong cast is the key to its success.

When I was filming "Fist of Fury", I spent a lot of money and used many methods to invite Japanese superstars Toshiro Mifune and Momoe Yamaguchi.

"Fist of Fury" sold 51 billion yen in Japan, ranking as the highest-grossing film in Japan that year.

But later I stopped using Japanese actors and instead used Hong Kong actors to film "Swordsman", and the Japanese box office immediately shrank by half. This is the impact of the cast.

Therefore, a strong superstar cast and an exquisite lineup are also important factors in creating box office myths.

However, as a film company, the best solution is to make good use of the resources at hand to cultivate and create superstars of its own.

When we find a good talent, we should give him a chance and create conditions for him to grow and become our own superstar."

"Cinema selection. This is different in China and overseas. When we release our films overseas, we have to choose different distributors and different cinema chains based on the actual situation. However, cinemas in mainland China are all state-owned, so we can skip this point."

"Schedule advantage. Nowadays, movies in mainland China are scheduled to be screened as soon as they are finished.

But in Hong Kong, we have four golden periods, namely the Lunar New Year period, the Easter period, the summer period and the Christmas period.

There will be holidays during these periods, and audiences have a demand to watch movies. Film companies should seize these golden periods and immediately invest in and release movies that cater to the mainstream market and feature superstar performances.

For example, half of my films will be released during the summer vacation, while Chen Long's films are more cheerful and suitable for the New Year vacation. Chen Long's films are also called one of the three treasures of the New Year by Hong Kong citizens.

In addition to the major schedules, there are also smaller schedules, such as the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, which also require corresponding film release arrangements.

If mainland films want to be commercialized, they also need to follow the concept of release dates. This is not unique to Hong Kong, but a popular rule around the world.

In addition, I noticed that mainland film companies currently do not have their own production plans.

They have no idea how many movies should be made in a year, how much each movie should cost to produce, or when they will be released.

In our company, directors will submit their plans at the end of the year and tell the company what they want to shoot, and then the company will make a production plan and budget.

How much money should be invested in a year, which are the blockbusters and which are the small films, and when should they be released?

We need to have a clear idea of ​​which movies are for profit and which are for training.

If it is used for profit, it must be protected to the death. If it is used for training, it doesn’t matter if it is lost at all.”

"My competitors at the same time are mainly super blockbusters and superstars. For example, when a movie starring me is released, the flagship movies of Hong Kong film companies will choose to temporarily avoid the spotlight to avoid a collision."

Although this statement sounded a bit crazy, it was the truth. Everyone laughed and agreed with it.

"Publicity is of utmost importance before a movie is released. We need to formulate a corresponding publicity plan based on the specific situation of the movie to attract audiences to the cinema to watch it.

For example, holding a premiere is a very good method. This time I introduced the premiere to the mainland for this purpose. "

“Finally, it’s the quality of the film. Although I put it last, it is actually very important and is the basic guarantee for a film to be a big hit.

If you want a movie to be good, it is not enough to rely on the box office appeal of the stars. The behind-the-scenes team needs to be more diverse.

A film’s director, screenwriter, art, lighting…all affect the success or failure of the film.

How to select and train these professional talents is a top priority for film companies.

We need to understand, analyze and study other films in the world.

For example, if we want to shoot a certain type of movie, the first thing we need to do is to find other movies of the same type, fifty or a hundred, and study them together.

Find out how its box office is and what the shooting techniques are, and study them thoroughly before you start producing it, instead of blindly following the trend and launching it recklessly.

The most important thing is the improvement of film technology. In 1975, Hollywood director Lucas founded Industrial Light & Magic, and then produced the "Star Wars" that shocked the film industry.

I immediately set up my own special effects company, Purple Qi Dong Lai. After years of hard work and continuous investment, "Terminator 2" won the global box office championship of the year.

It is because Ziqi provides technical support for our films that we are not inferior to Hollywood in special effects. Some Hollywood films even ask us to produce special effects.”

After Yang Ye finished talking about the "Eight Keys to Victory", there was a warm applause from the audience.

In fact, the two sides have different ideas. These state-owned film studios do not blindly pursue box office.

But for those who knew nothing about the film market, Yang Ye's speech today was a wake-up call for them. (End of this chapter)