Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Yang Ye praised Choi Jin-sil for her excellence in front of the Korean media.

Cui Zhenzhen specifically mentioned that when they were filming the scene of redeeming each other in the cold storage, she accidentally fainted due to the low temperature, and it was Yang Ye who discovered her in time and rescued her.

During the conversation, he was full of gratitude towards Yang Ye.

Of course, Yang Ye used acupoint massage to treat her, which is not something that outsiders should know.

By the way, Yang Ye’s method of saving Cui Zhenshi still makes sense.

At that time, Cui Zhenli was already frozen. Yang Ye used a heat conducting rod to warm up Cui Zhenli's body, and she woke up naturally.

Very scientific!
Yang Ye wants to be the godfather of Asian entertainment, so he attaches great importance to the Japanese and Korean markets.

He used to go to Japan frequently, but seldom came to Korea, because Korea was too poor at that time and not many gold coins could be found.

Now, after 20 years of rapid development, especially after the Seoul Olympics, South Korea's economy has taken off and has become a globally watched emerging economy. Together with Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, it is known as the "Four Asian Tigers". That's different.

When designing the costumes for "The Myth", Emi Wada went to Xi'an specifically for investigation. The ancient Chinese in the movie all wore Qin armor, and when the Qin army battle formation appeared, the momentum was very imposing.

But when designing clothes for the North Koreans, they were not designed according to the styles of the time.

On the one hand, no one knows what the people on the Korean Peninsula looked like during the Qin Dynasty. We can only guess that they were similar to those of the Yan State.

Or it could simply be a retro style from the end of the Shang Dynasty, because the vassal state on the peninsula at that time was Gojoseon.

Jizi was a member of the royal family of the Shang Dynasty. After the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang Dynasty, he and his people left the Central Plains and traveled a long distance to a peninsula, named it Korea, and re-established the kingdom of Shang people there.

King Wu of Zhou recognized Jizi's rule over Korea, making Korea a vassal state of the Zhou Dynasty.

When Wada Emi asked Yang Ye for his opinion, Yang Ye asked her to design clothes in the style of Joseon Dynasty.

Firstly, it was to show the difference between them and the Qin army, and secondly, it was to take care of the feelings of the Koreans.

Because they couldn't accept it if the Koreans in the movie wore clothes from the Yan or Shang dynasties.

Yang Ye is here to make money, not to diss them.

At the premiere, Yang Ye also specially invited Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee, a very famous couple in the Korean film industry, to exchange ideas on the film.

As early as the 1960s, Shin Sang-ok had visited Hong Kong and co-produced films with Shaw Brothers.

It is very meaningful to invite them to the scene and recall the times when they cooperated with Hong Kong companies to make movies.

At the premiere, both sides talked about the history of film exchanges and the atmosphere was harmonious.

Finally, the host asked, "I heard that Director Yang's movie premieres have a fixed program, which is to sing the theme song of the movie himself, is that right?"

Yang Ye smiled and said, “Not every movie has a theme song. Sometimes, even if there is one, it’s not suitable for me to sing.”

“So does this Myth have a theme song?”

"some!"

“Is it suitable for you to sing?”

"I will sing with Zhenzhen, a song "Endless Love" for everyone!"

Yang Ye and Cui Zhenzhen stood up, and the audience immediately burst into warm cheers.

"Untie me, the most mysterious wait, the stars are falling and the wind is blowing, finally I hold you in my arms again, two hearts trembling.

Believe me, my sincerity will never change. I have promised you that you will wait for a thousand years. No matter how many cold winters pass, I will never let you go..."

Yang Ye sang a part, and Choi Jin-sil put her small hand into Yang Ye's big hand and sang in Korean: "Now please hold my hand tightly and close your eyes. Try to recall the days when we loved each other. We cried because we loved each other too much, and we couldn't even say the words "I love you" to each other."

Then, the two of them sang alternately, sentence by sentence, and spoke to each other in a gentle and affectionate manner.

“Let love be the flower that blooms forever in your heart and mine, a dream that never bows and never gives up, across time and space… Only true love follows you and me, across endless time and space, and love is the only unchanging myth in our hearts…”

The lyrics of this song are tailor-made for Meng Yi and Yu Shu in the movie. When sung by the two protagonists, the sense of substitution is very strong and it is very touching to listen to.

So, even though Chen Long felt that his singing was not good and that it was a bit of a waste of the song, he asked Sun Nan and Han Hong, who have good singing skills, to sing a version, but everyone still prefers to listen to Chen Long and Kim Hee Sun's version.

The version sung by Sun Nan and Han Hong gave people the feeling that they only knew how to show off their skills and sing high notes, without any emotion at all, and the audience had no way to put Han Hong into the shoes of Princess Yu Shu.

At this moment, this song was sung by Yang Ye and Cui Zhenzhen at the premiere. Although the audience had not seen the movie, they could still hear the deep meaning of the song.

Yang Ye's male voice was making a promise to the determined other party, while Cui Zhen's female voice was expressing her love in a crying voice.

The melody of this song is very beautiful, and the two people sang it very affectionately, and everyone was quickly moved.

……

At that time, Korean films were still very weak. Last year, there was only one Korean film in the top ten box office in the Korean market, "The General's Son".

This is still considered good, as some years there is not even one.

"The General's Son" is a gangster action film that was deliberately created by Korean filmmakers as a benchmark against Hong Kong gangster action films.

In recent years, Hong Kong-produced gangster action films have swept Korean theaters. Baiyang, Yongsheng, and Golden Harvest have all rushed to the market, defeating Korean films.

The Korean film industry was indignant, and some people stepped forward to raise funds and invited the famous director Im Kwon-taek to make this film.

The whole movie is a poor imitation of Hong Kong movies, but Hong Kong action movies are not easy to imitate.

Without Hong Kong's martial arts directors, even Hollywood can't do it, let alone Korea.

In this day and age, even in mainland China and Taiwan, which share the same language and culture, the action scenes will be very ugly if the Hong Kong team is not invited.

At this moment, Yang Ye brought a top Hong Kong film to Seoul for the premiere. When the magnificent Chinese mountains and rivers and the solemn Qin army appeared in the movie, the Korean filmmakers at the scene gasped.

They can imitate those Hong Kong gangster movies, but they can't even cry when watching a grand war blockbuster like "The Myth".

Ordinary audiences don’t think as much as these filmmakers do, as long as the movie is good, it’s enough.

In the movie "Myth", the image of North Koreans is relatively positive.

The North Korean general in the bride-kidnapping team was played by Korean actor Choi Min-sik. He and Yang Ye had a very intense fight in the movie, which was enough for him to brag about for years.

In the end, he died to save the princess, which was a show of loyalty and righteousness.

The audience was not only amazed by the grand war scenes in the movie, but also moved by the touching love story between the general and the princess.

"I will dance this dance only for you!"

On the top of the mountains, the princess danced gracefully in the mountain breeze, her dress fluttering in the air. The scene and the mood blend together in a breathtakingly beautiful way.

People finally understood why Yang Ye said before the movie started: "I believe that those who watch this "Myth" will always remember her appearance!"

As the plot of the film progresses, modern man Yi Chuan experiences various adventures, his memories of his past life are gradually completed, and the tomb of the First Emperor finally unveils its mysterious veil. The palace and the Qin army formation floating in the air are magnificent, shocking the audience and making the Korean filmmakers at the scene feel desperate.

This is exactly the effect Yang Ye wants. Unless a yellow person has some special skills, it is difficult for him to make it in Hollywood, but it is very easy to absorb these talents into the Chinese entertainment industry.

Later, China and South Korea signed a "China-South Korea Film Co-production Agreement" in 2014, which stipulates that as long as the film is a co-production between the two countries, it can be regarded as a domestic film to each other and enjoy the same treatment as domestic films.

During that period, cooperation and exchanges between filmmakers from the two countries were very frequent, and many Korean filmmakers went to China to seek opportunities.

This is a good thing because China can use its strong size to siphon away South Korea's film talent.

Just like the service trade agreement signed between mainland China and Hong Kong in 2004, which siphoned off Hong Kong's film talents.

……

Yichuan and Yushu fly freely and dance romantically in the "Heavenly Palace".

At that moment, he seemed to have traveled through time and space and turned into Meng Yi.

Unfortunately, happy gatherings are always short-lived, as the villains soon showed up.

After a fierce battle, all the bad guys were killed, and the "Heavenly Palace" was about to collapse.

Yi Chuan wanted to take Yu Shu away, but Yu Shu already understood that he was not Meng Yi.

Yu Shu looked at Yi Chuan and asked with a sad face: "Are you really not Meng Yi?"

Yi Chuan thought about it. He didn't want to lie to Yu Shu. He shook his head and said, "I'm not... It doesn't matter whether I am Meng Yi or not. The most important thing is that we are leaving here soon."

Yu Shu shook her head and said tearfully, "I...I won't leave. I want to wait for Meng Yi to come back."

Yi Chuan turned back nervously, looking at the tomb door that was closing, and shouted anxiously: "Yu Shu, hurry up, it's too late!"

Yu Shu stepped back step by step: "No, he is not dead, I want to wait for him to come back..."

"Yu Shu!" Yi Chuan wanted to catch her.

But Yu Shu stepped back, her body flew into the air, and flew back into the mausoleum.

As Yi Chuan jumped out of the tomb passage and the tomb door closed, the love that had been waiting for two thousand two hundred years did not have a perfect ending after all.

……

Subtitles began to appear on the big screen and the theme song started playing.

“Let love be the flower that blooms forever in your heart and mine, the dream that never bows and never gives up…”

"Only true love follows you and me, through endless time and space. Love is the only unchanging thing in our hearts, a beautiful myth..."

The audience finally understood the meaning of the song, and they couldn't help but shed tears...

……

"The Myth" is a film with a relatively large investment scale made by Chen Long after the millennium.

The box office of "The Myth" is not particularly good compared to the scale of its investment.

The mainland market's box office is 9700 million yuan, far less than the 1.7 million yuan of "The Promise".

The box office in Hong Kong was 2200 million Hong Kong dollars, the box office in South Korea was 300 million US dollars, and the global box office was approximately million RMB.

But "The Myth" is one of the most profitable films in Chen Long's career.

This is because Chen Long was in luck. He made more than 100 million yuan from selling ringtones with the hit song "Beautiful Myth".

Because it was so profitable, it was adapted into a TV series, which turned out to be a big hit and reaped another huge profit.

……

Yang Ye and Choi Jin-sil brought "Myth" to South Korea, which immediately caused a sensation and countless audiences rushed to the cinema to see it.

The theme song "Endless Love" became an overnight hit and was sung by everyone in the streets.

Afterwards, Yang Ye and Choi Jin-sil went to a Korean TV station to promote the movie and they would inevitably sing this song, which further boosted the box office performance of "Myth".

At the same time, box office in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and other places have also been booming.

Lee Mi-kyung's CJ Entertainment invested 30% in this co-production with Baiyang Pictures, which is basically easy money, so she is naturally very happy.

Yang Ye was also willing to give her some advice, after all, Yang Ye was now a shareholder of CJ Group.

Under Yang Ye's guidance, Li Mijing signed two young actors, Choi Min-sik and Song Kang-ho, and also signed several young directors who Yang Ye believed had potential.

In addition, artists who became popular in South Korea, such as Liu Hua, Leon Lai, and Girls' Generation, have also signed management contracts in South Korea with CJ Entertainment, which is responsible for their business development in South Korea.

In 1996, Kim Dae-jung proposed a "Declaration of Support for the Development of Korean Cinema" in his policy platform when running for the presidency of South Korea. Since then, Korean films have abolished the "film editing system" and replaced it with a film rating system.

A screen quota system was also implemented to protect domestic films, requiring every theater in Korean cinemas to show local films for 148 days each year.

A Film Revitalization Committee was also set up, which provides hundreds of millions of dollars in funding each year to support the development of the film industry.

After a series of combined punches, Korean films began to take off, and what Yang Ye did was to stake out territory in advance and gain control of as many resources as possible in his own hands.

……

Yang Ye stayed in South Korea for a week, and then rushed back to Hong Kong with Choi Jin-sil to attend ATV's annual New Year's Eve concert.

At the concert, the two sang the theme song of "Myth" "Endless Love" together.

The evening party was also broadcast to various parts of Asia via Star TV.

In recent years, through cooperation with antenna manufacturers in various places, Star TV has provided subsidies to users who install satellite antennas, thereby continuously expanding the audience.

It has covered the Southeast Asian countries and the Pearl River Delta region in China, with nearly 100 million viewers, becoming Asia's leading large-scale television station.

Especially in relatively wealthy places like Taiwan, satellite antennas have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

The TV dramas and variety shows of Star TV are much better than the three old channels in Taiwan. The people of Taiwan are proud to watch Star TV and they despise the three old channels.

Taiwan’s three major TV stations are powerless to do anything about this situation and can only watch their ratings decline.

Naturally, the three old TV stations also thought of ways to restrict Star TV through some means.

But you want to restrict Star TV? No way. It's just an antenna. You can't restrict it at all.

Under such circumstances, Yang Ye decided to send Hu Yinmeng back to Taiwan to lobby the Taiwanese authorities to relax restrictions on television stations so that Star TV could obtain a television license and land in Taiwan.

Although Hu Gengnian has passed away, Hu Yinmeng has been managing the connections that her father had acquired in the past few years. (End of this chapter)